Last weekend, Chuck and I had a great weekend with Engaged Encounter. We are a presenting team, which means that every few months we open up ourselves and our marriage for engaged couples so they can get a look at marriage "from the inside". We have written talks about a variety of topics from communication, to unity, to ministering our faith to others, to intimacy, to betrothal. It is totally emotionally exhausting, but so worth it. I think sometimes Chuck and I get just as much out of it as the couples. It rejuvenates our marriage.
This weekend was very small and was held at the Weber Center in Adrian. That is a fantastic facility! They even had a fun little gift shop...I got a new advent wreath! Our community recently had to find new places to hold weekends as our previously facility was re purposed.
Just a note on that...Our previous location was St. Joseph's Home for Children, which hasn't been used as an orphanage in years, but was great. I really miss it, if only for nostalgic purposes. I can remember going there as a kid with my parents at the end of Marriage Encounter weekend. I think we sometimes went as a family, and sometimes went down at the end of one of their weekends. They were a presenting team for Marriage Encounter. We would stand outside the doors of the chapel and line the halls singing as the couples came out. I loved that. Those are the memories I will miss about St. Joe's.
"There's a new world somewhere, they call the promised land. And I'll be there some day, if you will hold my hand......"
At any rate, Chuck and I haven't done any weekends since the move, so this was our first weekend in a a different facility. We had a small weekend, only 10 couples. I don't know if it was the distance or the time of year, but I hope that in the future we get more couples at that facility. These couples were AMAZING! Very faithful, very attentive, really nice. Sometimes we don't get such nice groups. Sometimes they are really mean to us on our evaluations. We are volunteers and doing the best we can, there is no need to be nasty. Anyway, this group was very nice and really wants God to be part of their relationship.
We also had a married couple on the weekend that are going to write their talks and become a presenting team, too. Yippee! This couple are friends from church and they are really wonderful and faithful people. They contributed to the weekend in a way that Chuck and I couldn't do on our own. The small amount of sharing they did really impacted the couples, it was great! As a community, we are very happy to have new blood. We are in need of more presenting teams. Currently we can only offer about 5 weekends a year, and we have only four presenting teams, needing two teams per weekend. That makes it tough. Everyone has busy schedules and committing to two or three full weekends a year is a challenge. Plus, we typically have a lot of couples that want to come, and space is limited. We really would like to add a couple more weekends.
The other thing going on right now is we are in a stage of transition. The National Board for EE came out with a revised outline and we need to rewrite all our talks. The outline is very important because it keeps us on point and gives a lot of information about faith that we need to share with the couples. It also keeps us on time. Our goal is to give the couples the information and give them as much time as possible to reflect on their feelings and share that with their partner. We don't do large group discussions of topics, the marriage is going to be between the couple and God, they need to work out things between them.
So, I did spend a fair amount of time this weekend working on our talks. Chuck and I have finished three, and I am working on one now. We have one more after that. Then it is on to easy ones, like the introduction. We are set to start presenting with them the first of January, so I need to get it in gear! They still need to be checked by National and workshopped (that's like a trial run with another couple to make sure everything sounds right and you got all the points across). Guess I know what I'll be doing next weekend, too!
I always miss my kids while I am gone, but they got to spend some quality time with Mimi and Papa. They were pretty happy with that. Although being gone for the weekend means that I have mountains of laundry and other things to do, I am happy to be home. Is it possible to feel rejuvenated and exhausted at the same time?
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