Welcome Oasis Online!
We are very excited about our new way of connecting with you and showing you what Oasis is all about. Oasis is a retreat for women ages 16+ and is focused on giving these ladies an opportunity to rest, relax and refresh in fellowship with other ladies from across BC. During this 3 day retreat at the Firs Conference Center in Bellingham, Washington, women get to worship with one another and study God's Word. They also enjoy each other through games and crafts. This is a very speacial retreat that all women should have the opportunity to experience.
2010 Guest Speaker: Patience Gifford
This year our guest speaker is Patience Gifford! She will be speaking about “A Transformed Heart.â€
Ezekiel 36:25-27 says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your hear of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
The book, Hind’s Feet in High Places, will be incorporated in her message and she will talk about trials/pain/difficulty in our lives and how God uses them to change our hearts.
Speaker Biography
Patience Gifford was raised with her 9 siblings in a Christian home in Oregon. In 1980 armed with her elementary teaching degreee she left for Mexico where she ministered for 14 years. She actively participated in the leadership team of her church there, had a school for missionaries’ children, and was a member of an intercessory team involved in spiritual warfare over the coutnry.
Since 1986 she has been teaching for Youth With A Mission (YWAM) on such subjects as Developing Intimacy with Jesus, Spiritual Warfare, and how to Hear God’s Voice. Ministering in counrie like Monogolia, China, Cuba, and Guatemala has kept her busy as well.
Her ability to hear God’s voice herself culminated in her marriage to lifetime friend Ray Gifford at the age of 51! To say that their romance has been earthmoving would be true, especially since Ray operates large earth moving equipment for a living. They live in Portland, Oregon, and from homebase there they branch out in the various areas that God has given them grace to move and minister in. Patience and her husband work with Prison Fellowship once a week at the Oregon state women’s prison. She teaches at ladies retreats and Bible studies, and just for fun, goes on amazingly grueling cycling trips on the back of a tandem bike. She and Ray have gone on a 780 km 7 day ride to raise funds for the Canadian Bible Society for the last 6 summers. One of her greatest joys was inheriting Ray’s two daughters and 8 grandchildren, who fondly call her Grammy Paish.