World Priest Day is September 18th. What are you planning to honor our priests? Have you even thought about it? Please let our Executive Couple or our Webcouple know about any events your are planning or any events that occur on the spur of the moment.

This is an excellent time for each of us to express our gratitude to our priests.Let them know how much we care. Let them know how much they are loved!

Garry & Arla Thomas
(847) 658-1585
getart@flash.net

Hello Lovers,

Ahh, the cooler temperatures of late summer. The kids are back to school and the calendar is beginning to fill with activty again. Life is back to normal for us. We are grateful for normal. We know that there are hundreds of thousands who are praying for life to get back to normal. Our hearts break as we watch the horrific scenes on TV of the devastaion from Hurricane Katrina. We encourage you to help in any way you can. Storm the heavens with prayers and seek out ways to aid our nations people. Please continue to hold those suffering in your hearts and be grateful for normal.

In ourEncounter area we have several things to be grateful for. Our Fall weekends are filling fast with couples who are searching for something. We need your help. We need you to excitedly and lovingly pray for couples and priests on the weekend, greet them at the close of the weekend, and love them into a sharing community. They need you to be a sign and example of God's love for them. They need to see your passion for the Weekend and for inviting couples to experience this awesome weekend. They need to see you striving to live out your sacrament everyday. They need to see you dialoguing and making decisions to love. You need to be their example; not the TV, not the movies, and not the record number of divorcing couples in our nation. We have to show these couples and priests that the sacraments of matrimony and holy orders can be holy and joyful.

Another opportunity we are grateful for is World Priest Day and a special day to honor our priests. This year World Priest Day (WPD) falls on September 18. What is your community doing to recognize your priests? Some of our sharing communities are doing a dinner and inviting the priests in their deanery. Others are putting together baskets for their parish priests, sending cards and notes to priests in their deanery and personally thanking them for their love and commitment to God's people. We really want to urge you to do something for the priests in your area to show them that they matter to you and your families and parish. Our WWME National office wants to hear what you or your community is doing to celebrate WPD. Please take a few minutes to share your ideas and efforts with them by emailing Gene & Maggie at: execs@wwme.org. We'd love to hear too!!

We also wanted to share with you a great opportunity to enrich your relationship and sense of mission as a couple. Section 7 is hosting an Enrichment for Encountered Couples and Priests. The theme is "One Mission - HIS". And it is set for October 1, 2005 and is in nearby Aurora, IL. You can't get much closer!!!! These types of enrichments are mandatory for all presenting teams and priests and are always carefully and thoughtfully prepared. Our section leaders - Scott & Karen Seaborn and Father Dennis Koopman have opened this enrichment to all Encountered couples and priests because we all need opportunities like these to renew and refresh our call to responsibility as couples and priests and our mission of changing the world. Please consider attending this 1 day event. There is a registration fee of $25.00 which includes lunch. An optional Saturday night dinner is available for $8.50 per person. Registration is required and you can find out more about this on our home webpage.

We are holding you close to our hearts as we realize how lucky we are to be loved and supported by you our encountered family. We will pray for your days to be normal and your relationships to be loving. Keep dialoguing, keep being a visible sign to the world, and love one another.

This is the month we honor our priests. Let’s thank them for how hard they work to bring God into our lives. Have your community do something special for the priests in your parishes. Don’t forget to give them a gift certificate to make a Weekend! Priests are people too! It is our way to show them how much we care!

Kodoo’s to Milwaukee community. They are baking cookies for Priest Day at their Family ME gathering.

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.

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.

+ Loaves and Fishes replaced by Pizza and Chips

+ Ten Commandments are actually only five, but because they are double-spaced and printed in a large font, they'd look like ten

+ Forbidden fruit would have been eaten because it wasn't dorm food

+ Paul's Letters to the Romans become Paul's E-Mail to the Romans

+ Reason Cain killed Abel -- they were roommates

+ The place where the end of the world occurs wouldn't be the Plains of Armageddon, but the Halls of Finals

+ The Book of Armaments would be in there somewhere

+ Reason why Moses and followers walked in desert for 40 years: They didn't want to ask directions and look like a Freshman

+ Tower of Babel blamed for Foreign Language requirement

+ Instead of God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, He would have put it off until the night before it was due and then pulled an all-nighter and hoped no one noticed

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