Saturday events

Saturday morning we had worship at the center at 10am with the youth...another outstanding couple of hours of praise. Adam and Mariel did a fabulous job presenting the message. They spoke about forgiveness. Adam told about the Amish massacre and how the Amish families not only forgave the murderer but then blessed his family. It made a very big point with the group. Mariel and Adam tag teamed and I was so impressed with their maturity and wisdom. They have really connected with the youth here and have become great friends with many.

Afterward we started setting up for "Couples Date Night" and had at least 20 youth there at our "beckon call" to set up. I was so cute to see how so many of the older singles in the group were so excited about this date night for the married's of the church. WHY? Because the couples of the church rarely, rarely ever get to "go out" and have an evening alone much less a special evening.

We had 8 tables set up in hopes of 20 couples attending. We used fresh flowers that someone had collected from around the town, votive candles and some Hershey kisses that I sprinkled on the tables. It was pretty cute, I would scatter the kisses and one of the young girls would be right behind me setting the kisses upright...I knocked them over and next thing I knew, they were upright again....OK, they look just fine upright! After awhile, it was obvious the team had it all under control so we left to go home, shower and get ready for the evening.

Jake and I spent some time going over what we wanted to present to the couples which was a bit of our history and then some communication skills. We decided to teach them the technique of speaking one at a time and then repeating back to the other what they said and so on until you have your problem worked out. We illustrated it with a scenario of Jake doing the lawn and then coming into the house tracking grass and mud after I had just cleaned the house....I think we made a good point and Jake now knows that this is an issue I hope we have truly resolved!!

We arrived at the center about 1 hour before the date night should start and everything was all done and the kids had done a beautiful job setting up lights and a photo spot. The couples starting arriving just as the skies opened up with the daily downpour! Unfortunately, the rain kept several couples from being able to get out but the ones that arrived were SO cute and SO excited! We had long-stem roses for the husbands to give their wives and then they had their photos done.

After that we played a trivia game that Jim ran and 2 couples won a prize of coffee and sugar for the most answers. Jake and I then gave our talk (thank you God that I didn't get too nervous!) and then we had dinner, prepared by the church chef, JR, who cooked mushroom soup, curry chicken and rice and then dessert of Ube cake. After dinner, the band started playing "You look wonderful tonight" and all of the couples got up and danced....it was precious!!! You should of seen the smiles on all of their faces. This was a rare treat for them indeed. I will treasure this for a long time and, hopefully, will not take for granted the time that Jake & I get to spend together. God really blessed all of efforts and the couples see that they need to make a priority of their marriages. Tim gave everyone in there a couple of the"Fireproof" DVD and then Jake & I prayed over all the couples and thus ended the night. Thank you God for the blessing of this night for these precious couples!