Marriage Retreat

Back by popular demand….we have Matt and Belinda back for a third year with all new material. 

Matt and Belinda run life and relationship workshops in Australasia in a variety of contexts. They have been married for eighteen years and have two children, Jasper and Scarlett. Every time they speak there is an overwhelming response from attendees as to how personable, insightful, fun and captivating they both are. Matt and Belinda offer a wealth of knowledge and very practical tools for building a healthy marriage. They have a very unique and needed ministry in Aotearoa and are leaving a legacy of countless strengthened, rebuilt and renewed marriages in their wake. It is a deep privilege to have them with us again.

More on Matt

Over 300,000 teenagers and young adults throughout New Zealand and Australia have been encouraged and equipped by Matt’s inspirational speaking. His style is entertaining, educational and personable.

Once part of the Attitude team and The Parenting Place, he now works alongside Belinda running life and relationship workshops all over the country and Australia.

More on Belinda 

With more than a decade of experience as a counsellor, Belinda brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in working with couples.

As a counsellor, novelist and public speaker she has helped couples work through a wide range of areas effecting their relationship, including: trust and forgiveness issues; struggles around rejection, jealousy, infidelity and shame; depression, anxiety and addictions; past trauma; sexual struggles and more.

Neville and Kerran have been married for thirty years. Both trained teachers, they youth pastored for most of their married life and are currently spiritual mentors, ministry supervisors and Neville also works for Scripture Union. 

Neville and Kerran have always lived by two very simple rules…The first is that God brought them together so they need to honour the specialness of that and work hard at making their marriage work. The second is that effective communication is the key to a successful marriage and they decided they would always talk, always ask  questions and never ever go to sleep if an issue was not resolved.

They discovered that communication, like marriage, is a continual journey and it is a three-way conversation which includes God.  They are here to share some    stunning gems with us. They have three adult children, one son-in-law and a daughter-in-law, who are all followers of Christ.

Matt and Angela have been married for thirteen years. Matt has been in ministry for over twenty years (BA Biblical Studies

MA MSFL – Spiritual Formation and Leadership, and

Workplace Supervision Trained) and Angela has been a  counsellor for over fifteen years (MA Counselling, registered professional NZAC). They have two children and one giant great dane, Rapha, who thinks he is a lap dog. Matt and Ang have both been trained as ‘Prepare and Enrich’ facilitators and enjoy encouraging others wherever they might be on this life journey. They run their own business, Life Inc, that provides Consultancy, Counselling and Supervision services. .

One of their great passions is studying the Life of Christ, and disciple making. Their life verse is 1 John 2:6 "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did". They believe this applies to all aspects of life even in their marriage. They truly believe marriage is a gift from God, and that God can bring healing to any marriage even those that feel discouraged.
 

Damon and Rachel have been  married for eighteen years and they still like being married to each other!

Much of their married life has been dedicated to their three children and to youth pastoring. For them, one of the biggest privileges in ministry has been counselling and marrying couples that were once their young people.

They think marriage is an essential building block to family and society. They are passionate about seeing love bind and last so they are Prepare and   Enrich trained and are at this Retreat to help you invest in  your marriage. Both Rachel and Damon are very good listeners, offer thoughtful insights and offer a safe, gentle and effective approach to helping others.
 

Phil and Margaret have been together for thirty seven years and married for twenty three. They lived a colourful, drug-centred life in the far north before radically coming to faith in 2003.  Since then, Margaret and Phil have been very active in sharing their healing journey with others. Earlier this year they started the first of three missions to take the gospel back to their marae in Ngatiwai territory, Te Wairahi, Whananaki. They also founded and run Property Mini-Makeovers in Porirua and both volunteer their time to Prison Fellowship and El Rancho camps. They have a wealth of experience in mental health; Phil works for Pathways Health Limited. They have six children and eight grandchildren.

Margaret and Phil have a powerful testimony about how God has transformed their lives and their marriage. They come with a depth of both practical and spiritual tools for marriages.

Hope and Eugene are a married   couple that are passionate about  leading worship in a meaningful, uplifted and Christ-centred way.

They have been leading worship at various conferences and churches for the last six years and love creating space for God to speak. They do their utmost to be attentive to God and go where he leads.

Outside of ministry they're both professional musicians having recently completed their BappA in commercial music.