Weekend Planning next Thu and Bishop's B-day Mass on Fri

Hello Lovers,

Here are a couple of updates:

Weekend Planning Meeting
This is to inform everyone that there will be no planning meetingthis week for the October Weekend. Planning meetings will resume next Thursday, September 24, 2009.

Bishop's Birthday Mass
Bishop Camacho celebrates his 76th birthday this Friday, September 18th. As you know, Bishop Camacho has been a driving force in the Marriage Encounter in the CNMI. As such, encountered couples are encouraged to attend the 6:00am mass at the Mt. Carmel Cathedral this Friday to celebrate mass with the Bishop. Refreshments will be available after the mass.

ME Weekend Planning Committee & Birthday Celebration

On Thursday evening, we attended the weekly ME Weekend Planning Committee meeting at the Y's home. The Weekend plans are coming along smoothly and we need to just find the 25 couples to be encountered. They don't know this yet, but the ME Weekend will change their lives forever (for the better)!

Alfonso brought a beautiful birthday cake for his lovely wife, Jacinta, who celebrated her 49th birthday on September 10th!

Alfonso and Jacinta, the happy couple.
The ME family was happy to celebrate the special occasion and bestow birthday blessings to Jacinta. She and Alfonso were encountered last year and have completed Steps Along the Journey & Steeper Steps!
Many of the couples who continue onto the Steps program remain close with the ME community and their marriage is enhanced through the commitment of prioritizing the marriage.

We missed Julian and Marcia at the Labor for Love Picnic so it was fantastic seeing them again!

The next ME Planning Meeting is scheduled for September 24th at 6:30pm at the Y's since September 17th is the monthly ME Leadership meeting.

Labor for Love Kick Off BBQ

On Labor Day, the CNMI Marriage Encounter Community joined together to celebrate love and family at Susupe Beach. Mark & Jenni Aguon did an awesome job organizing the event! They also received help from Vanessa Pangelinan and Jackie Van Dam with all the games. The ME family contributed food, tents, picnic tables and prizes to ensure a day of excitement. It was a perfect day at the beach with beautiful weather, plenty of food, fun games and to top it off, an awesome community of friends.



After lots of food, the games began! First, the water balloon toss!

John and his daughter won! Congratulations!

There were many families who enjoyed the day, including Jeff, Sonia and Sole Camacho.

We joined the Family Fear Factor with Kenji and Dallas!

Sonia, Jeff and girls won that game.

Juanette and her boys played all day!

The kids limbo. Maybe the bar was too high?

Bella was happy to win the limbo contest.

It was then the adults' turn. Mark is showing his limbo moves.

Tyce is 6'2" but he can get down!

Sheila must have been a limbo queen in college.

The kids didn't want the games to stop so they ended up chasing Russ around the park.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the event. We hope to see you at Thursday's Weekend Planning meeting at the Y's. 6:30pm.

Labor for Love Kick Off 2009 on Sep 7th!

We are also excited to announce that our ME Community will have a family event on Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 2009 - 12 noon to 6pm in and around the 4H Building at Susupe Beach! We've dubbed it the Labor for Love Kick Off 2009 and it promises to be a fun filled bbq picnic type event with games and prizes for our Couples and also for the kids!! We are also opening up this event to any Couples you know who you would like to invite to make the October 2009 Weekend! So dig out that list of Couples you have thought of inviting and ask them to come with you to the Labor of Love fun day! See the attached invitations you can print out to use/share! (You can contact Jenni Aguon at 287-9742 or Kanae Quinn at 285-1168 for more info!) We have also attached a list of what we need to make this event a great success! Please take a look and contact the Aguons or Quinns if you can help out!

Weekend Plannig Meeting Tonight!

The Fall Weekend will take place on October 16-18, 2009 at the Saipan Grand Hotel! Our Weekend Coordinators JOHN & CAROL HOSONO (from the MARCH 2009 WEEKEND) and Cocoordinators JUN & LIN PANGELINAN will be holding it's first preparation meeting...

Thursday, September 3, 2009 (tomorrow)
at
6:00 pm
at
Tony and Lynn Yarobwemal's residence
in Koblerville
(see attached map)
(if you can...please bring a snack)

We know that we alone cannot make a Weekend a reality. It takes the love and support of the ME Community. We hope we'll see you there ~ with any ideas, comments or concerns ~ so that we can make this Weekend WONDERFUL!

You can contact the Hosonos at 286-4997 and the Pangelinans at 483-4111 with questions or for more details.

Let's all work together to spread the love we felt on our Weekends to other Couples!

Let your Couple Power Shine!

Love,
Vince & Hilma Castro and Fr. Isaac Ayuyu

The Myths about the Marriage Encounter Weekend

For those who have not been "encountered", the idea of participating in the upcoming ME Weekend may appear to be a bit threatening. Why? Some people think that if you attend the Weekend, you're automatically admitting that something is wrong with your marriage and that can be either shameful or embarrassing. Family and friends who haven't attended may tease you about it. Others may think that because their marriage is fine, there's no need to attend a "marriage seminar". And still others believe that at the "Weekend", you will have to expose your private lives to strangers. These are the most common excuses for not wanting to attend.

Unfortunately, all of these excuses are just that...excuses and not based on reality or fact. The CNMI Marriage Encounter is a warm, family-oriented organization that not only promotes strong marriages, it also enhances love and communication among couples. If you know of anyone who has been encountered, ask them about their experience!

We've met many couples along the years whose marriages were saved due to the communication techniques they learned in ME. We've also heard from other couples who are back in that "romance" stage of their relationship with their spouse since they can openly share their feelings with each other. ME is for EVERYONE! It doesn't matter if your marriage is good or great, the Weekend will help you reconnect with your best friend and partner for life.

An attractive feature of the Weekend is that the Worldwide Marriage Encounter organization helps make our Saipan Weekend completely affordable: $50 per couple for two nights' stay at the Saipan Grand Hotel, including meals. If you are interested in joining, please contact John & Carol Hosono, the Fall Weekend Coordinators at 286-4997 or johnhosono@gmail.com.

Steps 10 Complete!

Last Saturday night, our Steps Family completed Step 10. What an accomplishment! We fast-tracked the Steps since Ed & Daisy are expecting their son very soon! Our group consisted of Russ and me (facilitators), Mark & Jenni Aguon (co-facilitators), Gary & Vanessa Pangelinan, Justin Mariano & Hee Jae Lee and Ed & Daisy Propst. What an amazing bonding experience we shared through our ten Steps sessions. We've already planned our next two reunions: a party at Ed's Dad's house and a "Fireproof" movie night!

As part of our celebration, I made an angel food, berry, chocolate pudding trifle for dessert. There is one thing about Steps... there is always an abundance of great food!
The next Steps session will follow the October 16-18 Weekend, so it's likely that they will begin in early November. If anyone is interested in attending the next ME Weekend, you can contact Jun & Linda Pangelinan: linpangelinan@gmail.com