August 1, 2005 volume 24 issue 6 |
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Garry & Arla Thomas
(847) 658-1585
getart@flash.net |
From our Execs |
Hello Lovers,
We hope you had a great 4th of July and are keeping cool!!! We pray your summer is joyful and safe. Here we are in the midst of summer break from school and while I (Arla) really enjoy having the kids home and the slower paced schedule, I know it is not the time for me or us to slow down on our inviting efforts.
We know that God is calling all of us to invite couples and religious to the Weekend everyday. It is such a gift for our sacraments of matrimony and holy orders to experience God's call in this way. These past few months our inviting coordinators and presenting teams have been focusing on what we as an Encountered community can do to get couples to the Weekend. Together, we've come up with a few incentives for you as a couple and for your community.
The first challenge is for the couple who personally invites the most registered couples to the remaining 2005 weekends. The minimum is 10 registered couples, that means you invited them and they registered and paid the registration fee or used a gift certificate given to them. The prize is 2 free United Airline tickets to anywhere in the continental United States!! Just think of all the possible destinations you have to chose from!!! The next challenge is for the Encountered communities who personally invite and have the most paid registered couples on the remaining weekends. The deadline for both of these challenges is Friday, November 18, 2005. The winning community will receive a romantic candlelight dinner served by the presenting team. First runners up receive an ice cream social served by the presenting team. And second runners up will receive a WWME coffee mug for each attending community couple.
We know our communities can think of exciting and fun ways to invite couples. If you'd like to host information nights or do witness talks at your parish contact Tim & Jackie Walsh, (630) 554-2779, and they will get you started!! We know that many of you will be taking off for vacation and we challenge you to keep inviting while on vacation. We do this by wearing our WWME shirts to public events like parades and festivals. We have a great new polo shirt available for you! You can view the shirt design from the link on the home page of the website (alifetimeoflove.org/shirts.php). These shirts were designed specifically for the Rockford/Madison/Milwaukee Encounter and they really show where our hearts are centered, on God and our sacrament. Recently we've had a few great opportunities to wear our shirts as a group. One opportunity was the Rockford/Madison/Milwaukee Family Campout in Edgerton, WI. It was great to be camping and we had the best company - encountered couples and families!!!!! Saturday afternoon we wore our new polo shirts to mass at the local parish. After mass we chatted with Father about WWME and our annual campout. He was impressed that we take this time to play as a community and make mass an important part of our lives. We know he will remember us and maybe he will mention this to his parishioners.
We also wore our polo shirts to the WWME National convention in Towson, MD. We got quite a few comments about the awesome design and what a cool idea it was. The convention was AWESOME!! Over 500 couples and 70+ priests attended. The theme was "In God We Trust". We realized that putting our trust in God and making dialogue and "couple prayer" a part of our every day life is essential to our happiness as a couple and to our family happiness. It was a definitely the charge that we needed to get back on track with daily dialogue and to be open to "couple prayer". Attending the convention made us want to strive to keep our relationship a priority and to invite God into that relationship every day. And the best part was spending that time learning and sharing with so many people that we love and admire. We really hope that you will make convention a priority and tradition for your sacrament and your community.
Our next convention is a section convention hosted by section 7. That's us! It's is planned for July 21 – 23, 2006 – Be the Light - in Collinsville, IL. We want to see you there! And wear your shirts! You just never know when you are a visible sign of God's love!! Plus it's a great conversation opener to invite that couple or priest that you've been wanting to invite! At this time we have a good supply in sizes ranging from medium to double X but we do expect them to go fast so don't wait too long to order yours! Also make sure you bring along some date cards and brochures. You can probably get these from your community leaders, but if they are fresh out give Tim & Jackie or us, Garry & Arla, (847) 658-1585, a call and we will get a supply to you!!
All our love,
Garry & Arla
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| Inviting idea of the month |
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Community baseball! Why not, as a community, go to the old ballpark. It doesn’t have to be the Cubs or Brewers. The B-team games are just as exciting and more entertaining for the kids. We love to see the Kane County Cougars with our WWME group. Make sure you wear your shirts, or better yet, get a WWME ball cap. Have those date cards handy.
Coming next month: WORLD PRIEST DAY – Sep 18th
What are you doing for your priests and pastors this year?
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| Pray the Rosary |
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Does your community meet to pray the Rosary for the sake of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Movement? If you do, let The eSpirit know, so they can post it. If you don't, please think about starting one.
The Presenting Team community prays the Rosary at 7:00 pm on the 1st Thursday of every month. The evening is open to all Encountered couples and their families. We all know the power of prayer, so pray the Rosary as often as you can.
Check the website for more information on location and dates or call Ben & Jane Deutsch at (630) 377-0635. |
| Marriage Encounter "Joy Jobs" |
 Is the Spirit calling you to be more involved in the WWME movement? The Rockford/Madison/Milwaukee Marriage Encounter Community is in great need of couples who ant to be more actively involved in changing the world one couple at a time! Listed below are some of the ways you can help. If you have any questions about any of these jobs or if you're a Community Leader and have a couple in mind that you think would be a great asset to any of these communities please contact Ben & Jane Deutsch at (630) 377-0635 for more information.
SUPPORT COMMUNITY
House/Greeter Couple: Responsible for the set up and takedown of the Weekend. This job is split between 2 couples. This couple is also responsible for scheduling communities to greet on & off for the Weekend.
Prayer Couple Coordinator East: This couple is responsible for making sure all couples on the Weekend from the Eastern part of the Rockford Diocese have a prayer couple and extended Dialogue letter.
Prayer Couple Coordinator North: This couple is responsible for making sure that all Wisconsin couples making the Weekend have a prayer couple and extended dialogue letter.
CONTINUING THE JOURNEY COMMUNITY
Zone Leaders : This couple would coordinate communication from the Continuing the Journey coordinators to the local communities in their zone and attend scheduled meetings to relay and receive information regarding communities within their zone.
INVITING COMMUNITY
Ministry Fair Coordinators: This couple would be responsible for tracking and getting help, if needed, for parish ministry fairs.
Media Coordinators: This couple would be responsible for planning and placing ads in different Catholic publications. They would also explore other media vehicles for getting the WWME word out to people.
Mass Talk Workshop Couple(s): This couple/couples would be responsible for coordinating those couples who already have Mass talks written. They would also workshop couples who would like to write and present Mass talks throughout the 3 dioceses.
Pulpit Pal Coordinators: This couple would be responsible with the scheduling and maintenance of our pulpit pal boards. These new inviting tools are used in the backs of various churches as another means for getting the word out for the Weekend.
Please prayerfully consider one of these or other roles within our Worldwide Marriage Encounter community. Also, please take the time to complete our survey so that you can "Share Your Couple Love" with the community at large. |
| The Funny Bone |
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How to tell if your cat is for real
A true cat will endure discomfort for hours and wait patiently until 3 a.m. to cough up a hairball on your bed.
A true cat always comes between you and your newspaper.
A true cat would rather eat what you're having, even if what you fixed for him is better than what you fixed for yourself.
A true cat waits until you are watching your favorite TV show before asking to go out, and come in, and go out, and come in, etc.
True cats have perfected the guilt-provoking stare.
A true cat prefers your flower bed to her litter box.
A true cat never willingly laps up hairball remedy, no matter what the instructions on the package say.
A true cat can find and discard the smallest pill in the largest heap of food. That's why administering a pill to a true cat is a two-person job. Sometimes a three-person job.
A true cat doesn't do tricks.
A true cat abhors a closed door.
When caught misbehaving, a true cat pretends he was doing something else. |
| Executive Team |
Executive Couple
Garry & Arla Thomas
108 Wander Way
Lake in the Hills, IL 60156
(847) 658-1585
Weekend Support
(Rockford Diocese)
Ben & Jane Deutsch
1423 S. 8th St.
St. Charles, IL 60174
(630) 377-0635
Reservations/
Webcouple/eSpirit Newsletter Editors
Keith & Nancy Howard
1170 Newcastle Lane
Aurora, IL 60506
(630) 801-0910 |
Inviting Coordinators
Tim & Jackie Walsh
36 Ashlawn
Oswego, IL 60543
(630) 554-2779
Continuing the Journey Coordinators
Lee & Jan Kremer
1000 N. Harrison
Algonquin, IL 60102
(847) 458-7000 |
 eMatrimony.org
Supporting, Encouraging, and Challenging the WWME Community |
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© alifetimeoflove.org 2005
All Rights Reserved |
Thanks for reading
Keith & Nancy Howard
The Editors |
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