The Forge Retreat is the male counterpart to the female Beautifully Flawed Retreat, designed for male amputees to focus on faith, fitness, and holistic living. After years of successfully operating our retreat for women and with high demand for a men’s outreach, we launched the first Forge Retreat in 2020 just before the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, we hosted our second Forge retreat in conjunction with the women’s retreat in Del Mar, California, the first dual retreat for the organization.

With a target age range, the Forge Retreat facilitates a 5-day experience for men with a limb loss or difference to learn how to surf, workout as an adaptive athlete, hear messages from other speakers who have overcome adversity, and learn what it means to grow in God-centered courage, leadership, and masculinity. In 2021, the Forge Retreat partnered with This is My Story, a filmmaking ministry of Kevin Durham and Matt Manzari that exists to bring light to the connection between personal experience and the testimony of God-empowered perspective.