‘Quiet and peaceful’
Carefree’s Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center is a spiritual get away
by Kathleen Stinson

DESERT FOOTHILLS – Have you ever wanted to turn off your cell phone and go away for awhile to experience the quiet?

A worldwide destination to do just that is the Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center located in Carefree.

Set on a site high enough to overlook the rooftops of downtown, the nonprofit retreat was donated in 1993 by Sun City couple, Malcolm and Maybelle Estrem.

“The couple had a fondness for retreat ministry,” says Paul Campbell, executive director of the center.

Spirit in the Desert attracts guests of all faiths from around the world for spiritual retreats as well as people as local as Scottsdale–anyone who for whatever reason just wants to unplug and get away for a spell.

Before Carefree became a town in 1984, the retreat building housed the International Restaurant with a separate room for each type of cuisine, says Lorraine Sponheimer, hospitality team member at the center. Later, the building became another restaurant, an inn, and then a diet center until it was vacated in the early 1990s. The Estrems soon thereafter dedicated the property to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America to be used as a retreat.

The church added three other buildings: a dining room and terrace patio seating 100 guests, a two‑story lodge containing sleeping rooms, and a center with meeting rooms and a living room space at the center. They converted the original building into bedroom suites with large balconies overlooking the surrounding scenery. Overnight accommodations are available for as many as 75 guests.

“The retreat provides a place for a variety of faiths to come and talk and get to know each other,” Campbell says, adding that almost three quarters of the retreat’s business is faith communities.

Although most guests bring their own programs, the center has sponsored programs including two immigration workshops. In mid‑October, the center advertised around the state a three‑day retreat entitled “Who is My Neighbor?”

“The immigration workshops were not slanted. We wanted to provide an opportunity and a safe environment where people could have a reasonable discussion on immigration,” Campbell explains.

The center invited as speakers Rev. Delle McCormick, executive director of Borderlinks, an organization which offers educational seminars along the border; migrant workers to tell their stories (with interpreters); an immigration attorney who works with undocumented workers and current and proposed legislation; and Rev. George Johnson, director of Third World Opportunities in San Marcos, Calif.

“About 40 people attended. It went well. Everyone left enriched–having learned something,” Campbell says.

A number of support groups, such as survivors of domestic abuse and cancer survivors, come to the center for retreats. Another group that returns to Spirit in the Desert trains the deaf.

The center may be better known to people around the country and world than it is to Arizonans.

Nuns from around the world have stayed at the center. Software developers from across the country and Europe come together to collaborate there as well. Church councils, women’s and men’s groups, church choirs, and authors, to name a few that have stayed at the center.

Center guest Donna Authelet, who attended the Sun City West Lord of Life lay ministry retreat recently, says this is one of her many stays at the center.

“I love to come back because of the place and what it represents. It represents a place where you can be quiet and peaceful. You can go apart by yourself and enjoy the fellowship of others as well,” Authelet says.

The food at the center is unique. Chief Chef Roger Grabske and his team prepare meals made of solely organic food. They bake all their own pastries, pies, cakes, breads, and make their own ice cream. Prickly Pear sorbets are a house specialty.

“We try to pay attention to mind, body and spirit. Food is a part of that,” Campbell says.

Spirit in the Desert Retreat is located at 7415 E. Elbow Bend Rd. For more information, call (480) 488‑5218 or visit www. spiritinthedesert.org.

Reach the reporter at kathleen@thedesertadvocate.com.