Captivating TX began with a simple desire: to create a place where women could step away, encounter God, recover their hearts, and discover they were never meant to walk alone.
Captivating TX grew out of Hill Country Women on Fire and a desire to bring the message of God's love, healing, beauty, and adventure to women in the Texas Hill Country.
Inspired by the Wild at Heart and Captivating ministries, the vision became a retreat where women could come away from everyday responsibilities and reconnect with God in a personal, honest, and meaningful way.
Not a weekend about becoming the perfect woman — but a journey toward becoming more fully who God created you to be.
Every woman carries a story.
Some parts are beautiful. Some are painful. Some are still unfolding.
We believe God meets women in every part of that story. Captivating TX exists to create space for women to slow down, listen, laugh, pray, rest, and experience the truth that their hearts matter deeply to God.
We want women to leave knowing they are seen, loved, pursued, and invited into something more.
I was introduced to Captivating by my husband, Shawn, and his Band of Brothers, who started Hill Country Men on Fire.
They host Wild at Heart Bootcamps for men modeled after John and Stasi Eldredge’s ministry in Colorado. Their fire to share the message of Jesus’ love inspired me to start Hill Country Women on Fire and Captivating TX — because we wanted women to be included too.
As I prepared to present the first Captivating TX retreat, I was changed. My vision of everyday life became more meaningful.
This new mission of adventure gave me purpose, peace, and hope for the future.
I began to understand so much more about the difficulties I had gone through in my own life and how God could use those experiences for a purpose — to walk beside fellow sisters who are looking for joy, peace, hope, and the love of our Heavenly Father.
Shawn and I have four grown children and live in the beautiful Texas Hill Country town of Boerne.
Our team is made up of women who believe deeply in this mission because we have experienced God’s love, healing, and invitation personally.
I attended my first Captivating TX retreat in October 2024 while searching for a deeper relationship with Jesus.
The retreat gave me the courage to start a Bible study as I searched for sisterhood with Jesus at the center.
After attending another Captivating TX retreat, I knew Jesus was calling me to share my own experiences by joining the team.
Captivating TX has given me so much more than I ever anticipated, and I am blessed to be part of the prayer team.
I love being near rivers. They calm my heart and draw me very close to the presence of God.
When I am there, my heart feels like it is in Eden — filled with beauty and life.
I love the words of Jesus in John 7: “Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your inmost being.”
That is what I desire for my own heart: to be filled with the beauty and life of God.
I have been following Wild at Heart for more than 25 years and have attended two Captivating retreats in Colorado. In 2023, I attended Captivating TX for the first time and have since become part of this amazing team called Hill Country Women on Fire.
I grew up in the church, yet it was through the ministry of Wild at Heart that my relationship with Jesus, Father, and Spirit deepened and matured in a way I did not realize was available.
I love setting the table for women to come and see — to experience for themselves who Father, Jesus, and Spirit are and to discover just how deeply they are loved.
I am a midwestern raised girl now living in the south suburbs of Houston and loving it! My desire is to serve the people that Jesus places in my path and help them grow in their relationship with Him.
I’ve known Jesus since I was a young girl, but through trials and tribulations in my life, both as a child and as an adult, my heart experienced a great deal of trauma.
In this latest season of my life, Captivating has been a huge part of my journey toward healing. My husband introduced me to Captivating after he discovered the Wild at Heart ministry for himself, and one of the greatest gifts he has ever given me was the opportunity to attend my first retreat.
Through that experience, one of my greatest blessings was finding the ability to forgive. That became a major turning point in my marriage and in my life as a whole.
After attending a couple of retreats, I was humbled and overjoyed when I was asked to join the team. Being able to give back to other women through a ministry that has helped me so tremendously is truly a blessing.
I was invited to my first Captivating Texas retreat in March 2021. I had no idea what to expect or what I would come away with.
All my life, I knew I was meant for more. I spent years trying to find the one thing that would make me feel truly loved, truly worthy, and truly enough.
My story carried fear, doubt, pain, and a lack of self-worth. Yet God had already placed a yearning inside me to share His love and His Word.
There were seasons when I could not hear His voice and felt lost, angry, emotional, and not good enough. But God never faltered.
During a time of reflection at the retreat, I saw Him in the rising sun, felt His touch in the breeze, and heard Him speak to my heart through the rustling leaves.
Jesus led me to the garden, and He spoke my name. I will never be the same.
My prayer is that every woman would experience His love in that same deeply personal way.
I attended my first Wild at Heart retreat in Colorado in 2019, led by John and Stasi Eldredge.
My life completely changed when I came home. I had been confused, angry, and carrying very little faith. God was making Himself available to me, but I simply did not know how to hear Him.
Wild at Heart opened my eyes to the reality that a relationship with God can be personal and interactive — like a friendship.
I discovered that God was not simply an image or an idea. He was my friend, my companion, and my Savior, and He wanted a real relationship with me.
Discovering His unconditional love stirred a passion inside me to love other people and to love myself.
I am so grateful for how God changed my life that I want to share it with others. I joined Hill Country Women on Fire so that other women could experience this journey and discover a personal, intimate relationship with God too.
I was gifted the book *Captivating* by my mother-in-law one year, and I read it pretty quickly from beginning to end. It opened my heart to a kind of relationship with God that I never knew was possible.
Fast forward a few years, two babies and one more on the way, and I had the opportunity to experience Captivating TX at Knott Creek Falls. It was the first time I had ever been away from my children. I knew the themes of the retreat, and I knew the message. What I didn’t know was how God was going to work in my heart that weekend.
I wasn’t sure what I would get out of the retreat, but the Holy Spirit gave me a completely new perspective on life, death, and the people I love most.
In 2022, I unexpectedly lost my stepdad in a car accident. Four months later, I lost my biological father to alcoholism. I truly believed I had made it through some of the hardest moments of my life by leaning on God. What I didn’t realize was that I had never really faced those losses head-on. I was still carrying that pain with me every day.
When I attended Captivating TX in October 2025, God began healing something in me that I had never had control over in the first place. Through His grace, love, and guidance—and through the quiet time I was able to spend with Him during the retreat—I finally allowed myself to feel the pain I had been carrying and to let myself be loved again.
There is something incredible about having your relationship with Jesus reignited. Come to the table and experience what He has in store for you. You will not regret it.
Come as you are. No pretending required.
Women were never meant to walk their stories alone.
We make room to notice the beauty God has placed around us and within us.
God is still inviting each of us into a larger story.
If something in you is longing for more — more peace, more connection, more clarity, or a deeper encounter with God — Captivating TX may be the place to begin.
Explore the Retreat