By Jim Coggins

TIM AND KARLA Erickson figured that if they needed a place to get away from it all, perhaps other people did too.

The result was Honeymoon Bay Lodge and Retreat, which opened in April 2008 on Vancouver Island.

The Ericksons had moved to the Island a few years earlier, after working for years in Christian arts and non-profit societies in Alberta. They helped to start the Rosebud Theatre, Rosebud School of the Arts and the Canadian Badlands Passion Play.

After leaving that work behind, the Ericksons realized they needed a rest.

That, said Tim, led them to ask: “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place where people could get away from the stresses of life?”

The Ericksons set up a non-profit society. In 2006, they bought a vacant four-room elementary school in Honeymoon Bay – a small town on Cowichan Lake, west of Duncan in the centre of southern Vancouver Island.

The society has received funding from the Oswald Smith Foundation, which also helped to establish the Chemainus Theatre, about 45 minutes away.

The school (four classrooms and a library) was renovated to accommodate a kitchen, dining room and meeting rooms.

Then a lodge and retreat centre were built on the property, which has about three and a half acres.

The retreat can now accommodate up to 40 people overnight, and up to 80 during the day. People can rent rooms and use the retreat as a hotel. The facility has also accommodated a number of groups – as diverse as singles, married couples, widows, scrapbookers, church members, poetry lovers and writers. The retreat has even handled a couple of small weddings.

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There are a number of amenities a few minutes away, including Gordon Bay Provincial Park and a golf course. There is a library at the retreat, and gourmet meals in the Cooper Creek Dining Room.

But the purpose of the retreat, said Tim, is “health and wellness in the broadest sense.”

The rooms are well appointed, but there are no phones or televisions in the rooms. This is a place where people can “get away and think about the things that are most important.”

They are aided by a hot tub, a sauna and an exercise room.

A number of health practitioners are available on-site, offering such things as massage, acutherapy and spa treatments. There is a registered clinical counsellor available.

Prayer counselling is also available, as well as “just somebody to talk to” – depending on the guest’s needs and preferences.

The retreat caters to everyone, not just Christians; but the professional helpers are “Christians practicing a craft,” dedicated to helping others and exemplifying Jesus.

“Our arms are open to everyone,” Tim stressed, “to help them with their needs and direct them to the Father.”

The retreat is still getting established; the Ericksons hope to be at a break-even point financially by the end of 2011. But they feel it is well on its way to being “a place where wellness can be nurtured . . . and where passion and creativity can be awakened.”  

July 2010