EASTON, CT (December 23, 2001) – A group of Covenant men from a local congregation began making annual golf trips to the southern states as a way to get to know each other better.
The idea has blossomed into something far bigger – next spring 80 people are expected to play in what is now called “Golf and Grow: MB 2002.” The men’s sixth annual golf event and spiritual retreat will be held at the Sea Trail Plantation and Golf Resort in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, from March 6-10.
Donn Engebretson, executive vice president of the Evangelical Covenant Church, will be a guest speaker for the event. He previously served as pastor of The Covenant Church of Easton. Rob Mitchell, a businessman from Greensboro, North Carolina, and a child who grew up at Covenant Children’s Home in Princeton, Illinois, will also share his testimony.
The cost for the retreat is $490 and players will receive carts and three rounds of golf (at three different courses), along with villa accommodations and a buffet breakfast for four days. Devotional times will be available for participants, according to Paul Veerman, event founder and coordinator.
Veerman, a member of The Covenant Church of Easton, started the event in 1997 with 15 men making the trip. The number doubled a year later and has grown by at least 10 each year – 60 people participated in last year’s event.
“The thing about golf is that it allows you to play and to build relationships,” said Veerman, director of development for The Children’s Home in Cromwell, Connecticut, a ministry sponsored by the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. “We had wonderful times in the evenings and now we have an outside speaker come in and we do devotionals in the mornings. It’s a wonderful mix of people. You have people in construction with people working in the financial district in New York City. It’s been a neat ministry.”
Veerman tells the story of a Connecticut ophthalmologist who experienced a spiritual renewal at the golf event three years ago. He began to attend The Covenant Church of Easton and eventually made connections with a Covenant missionary in Ecuador. Within six months, the ophthalmologist was taking a three-month sabbatical from his practice and had moved his family to Quito, Ecuador, to help a medical mission work in that city. The Easton congregation later sent a mission team to help them build a free medical clinic there.
For more information on “Golf and Grow,” contact Veerman by telephone at 860-632-3517 or By email at pveerman@childrenshome-ct.org.
A group of women from The Covenant Church of Easton have coordinated a counterpart to “Golf and Grow.” The inaugural Women’s Rest and Renew Spa Retreat will be held at the Hawk Inn and Mountain Resort in Plymouth, Vermont, April 12-14.
Kendra Smiley, a professional Christian speaker and author and a past Illinois Mother of the Year honoree, will lead five sessions during the retreat. The retreat leader, Crista Forstrom, can be reached by telephone at 203-268-0555 or by email at ccfor@aol.com. Information on the speaker can be found at www.kendrasmiley.com.
Copyright © 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.