Pre-Marriage Mentors
CrossRoads Church pre-marriage mentors get paired up with couples preparing to marry. Mentors have a minimum of five meetings with these couples in the mentors’ homes. Our current marriage mentors are Dan and Christa Dyck, Dean and Shauna Willoughby, Dean and Janella Spearing, and Milt and Terry Thulien. These mentor couples have been very active and are just barely keeping pace with the high demand for this mentorship. I am very thankful for the couples serving Jesus this way. Supporting them has been rewarding and worthwhile. I was really blessed to see firsthand the difference this preparation has made for my daughter and son-in-law in 2022.
In addition, the pre-marriage mentors were on stage at one of our young adult nights. The four mentor couples had mini lineups of young adults waiting to ask questions after the presentation. The young adults had many questions about finding a mate and being married well.
Engaged Encounter
The Engaged Encounter team has been busy renovating and updating this awesome pre-marriage experience. It has been a long while since we have been able to run the weekend. We have been working on recruiting some new leaders to bolster the existing team. Dean and Janella Spearing are one of the new additions to our team. Right now, we are planning to offer the weekend in the fall of 2023 if there is enough demand to fill it. The Engaged Encounter weekend allows soon-to-be-married couples to get away from the daily grind, pause and take a fresh look at how to communicate with one another. Couples learn a technique of communication that allows them to explore many areas of their relationship in a spirit of love and understanding.
Through communication, every couple gains insights, tools and confidence for building a future together. This weekend is organized by Sharon Wiebe. This event happens at Camp Silversides on the shores of Gull Lake.
Marriage Enrichment Weekend
This spectacular event was finally able to happen again on November 25-27, 2022. This weekend almost didn’t happen because of a lack of leaders and leaders that got sick. But the team was tenacious, though, and prayed for God to supply. Thankfully it all came together at the final hour, and many couples were deeply impacted and helped in their marriages.
This weekend takes place offsite at Ghost River in the Rocky Mountains. After the event, one of our newly minted leader couples, Benno and Wendy Fath, commented, “As a church, we are engaging in local compassion by supporting local organizations that serve single-parent families and vulnerable or at-risk youth. I saw marriage enrichment as a complementary but preventative measure – supporting couples before marriages break down with the resulting single-parent families, and children and youth at greater risk. All couples can benefit from the content and processes introduced during the weekend. Stronger marriages contribute to stronger families and to children better equipped for life and living. These stronger couples and their stronger families can become salt and light in their extended families and communities as they model in their marriage relationship and in other relationships what they have learned.”
The Alpha Marriage Course
The course is designed as a “date night” where couples sit at private tables for two where they enjoy a relaxed meal together, and is the same night every week for seven weeks. The Marriage Course video creates the opportunity for couple-based discussion to discover things about themselves and each other and then apply tools to enjoy and strengthen their relationship.
Many couples have benefited from this course over the years, including the people that serve Jesus by facilitating these events. The next Marriage Course will be starting in October, 2023. The current Marriage Course facilitators are Henk & Tamara Bos and Brian & Janice Rypstra. The team could use one more couple to help them set up and take down. If you have attended the Marriage Course in the past and you would like to help, please let me know.
