Our Anniversary Campaign – One Year In, the Journey Continues

Dear friends,

We have now entered June 2026, marking one year since we became Journey Center Great Lakes!

When we made that transition, we carried with us these words from Dag Hammarskjöld:

“For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.”

One year later, those words still feel like the right prayer for this moment. We are still learning what it means to stay anchored in the depths, to build together, and to trust the Spirit’s movement across both calm and stormy waters.

After a season of deep listening and prayerful discernment, we sensed a clear invitation to move forward. We stepped into a new beginning, rooted in the Journey Center Way and committed to extending the heart of our mission across a wider region while staying true to the spirit that has guided us from the beginning.

Earlier this week, our Executive Director, Jennifer Andersson, shared a reflection and poem for our first anniversary. She described this first year as “a year of gathering, offering, participating, listening, learning, and growing together.” It has been our first trip around the sun as Journey Center Great Lakes, and we are filled with gratitude.

Our name widened, but the heart of our work remains the same: creating spaces of welcome, deep listening, prayer, healing, discernment, and renewal. Through spiritual direction, retreats, workshops, groups, and contemplative spaces, we continue to invite people to come as they are, encounter the Holy, and be renewed.

In her poem, Jennifer writes of this first year as “a seed taking hold,” rooted in quiet grace, open hands, sacred listening, and love. Though our numbers are small, the mission is vast.

And as we look toward the path yet to walk and the work yet to do, we are asking for your support.

Will you make an anniversary gift this June to help launch year two of Journey Center Great Lakes?

Choose a gift that marks this first year:

$1,200: A sustaining gift for year two
$600: Fifty dollars for each month of our first year
$365: One dollar for each day of our first trip around the sun
$120: Ten dollars for each month of listening, learning, and growing
$36: Three dollars for each month of our first year
$12: One dollar for each month of our first year

Every gift helps sustain spaces of welcome, listening, healing, and renewal.

Click here to make an Anniversary Gift

Thank you for being part of this unfolding story. As we celebrate this first turning, we give thanks for everyone who has journeyed with us, prayed with us, participated in our offerings, and helped shape this growing community.

Inhale: Our first trip around the sun
Exhale: Thanks be to God

For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.

May it be so.

With gratitude,

The Board of Directors
Journey Center Great Lakes