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  Family - Weekend Effect

Community, We Are Fred & Luisa Velazquez

Fred & Luisa Velazquez

(Excerpted from Fall 1993 Matrimony magazine)

Fred & Luisa Velazquez

We made our Marriage Encounter Weekend October 15, 1981 in Tarrytown, New York with the Brooklyn/Queens Community. How we got on the weekend was truly the Lord's planning. I (Luisa) wanted to get a Marriage Encounter sticker with a cross to replace the one on the bay window of our first home which at the time had a Jewish Marriage Encounter Sticker.

To my unexpected surprise I saw a sticker on our son's classmate's window with a cross. Well you can imagine after calling and looking for this, it sure put a big smile on my face to find one. When I asked how I can get one, the lady told me we had to go on a special weekend for couples. Married four and one half years, we were ready for a well deserved weekend alone without kids and dogs.

What this weekend did for us will never be forgotten. It is a way of life which keeps growing within us and those we come in contact with. We found friends we had not met until then. These couples formed us in such a way that benefited us for the better. We became instruments of our Lord to do His will. Our Brooklyn/Queens community was supportive and very challenging for us. They showed us what having faith and never giving up meant. They showed us how God truly had a plan for us. Growing on our journey brought joy, hurts, unconditional love and support by those around us. We were lucky to have Dom & Dot Panza, one of the couples who presented our weekend, angel us and give us their unconditional love. To this day they are very much a part of our family.

Then we met the die-hard Power Couple, Tom & Helen Trapasso. They have a direct link with Our Father. Tom & Helen showed us the power of truly being filled with the Holy Spirit. We grew from them and their dedication to Marriage Encounter and learned what being Christ like was. We owe them so much for our spiritual growth.

Then our Marriage Encounter family became a vital part of our journey. They were the true companions we had who helped us be and help others by changing the world. This brought us very close and intimate with each other. When one hurts, we all hurt. We knew they were there for us no matter what situation or what time it might be.

When Fred's job relocated us to Miami, Florida, I felt alone and empty without our community around us to share with. Our mourning process really took a longtime. We kept asking why? We did not allow ourselves to listen to the Lord's calling. We were told the same lines over and over, “God has his reasons”. Why not? Change is good. Well lo and behold; we let go and let God. With this He sent us Pete & Jackie Perez who were the Executive couple for Southeast Florida. Their phone calls and surprise love notes helped keep us in touch with our new area. But it wasn't until Ron & Judy Pekny came into our lives and risked for the sake of our journey, that we realized we had a purpose for being in Miami. Ron & Judy are true lovers. They loved us unconditionally. Until this day they are a part of our daily lives. Their sign was and is still so evident that you can feel God's love through them. We are very lucky to have them in our lives. They too said to us there's a reason for everything. So we went with the flow. After all, God knew best and knew what He was doing, so all we had to do was to have faith and wait to see why. We would be given an answer when the Lord was ready. That answer came to us the last six years as we have seen the growth and changes which we were a part of in Southeast Florida.

Our faith has become and still is stronger as time goes on and our love for our Marriage Encounter community can not be described in words. They are our support for our dreams and wishes. We share with some of our un-encountered friends and family about how special they are, but that is difficult for them to understand. We seem like weirdoes to them. Then August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit Southeast Florida and we were one of those families hit hard. As Fred & I huddled together in a small foyer in our home, we prayed the rosary and asked God for the strength to accept what we were seeing without fear. As our house was being destroyed by vicious winds and foreign articles we looked in shock at the power of nature at work. The strength came within us as we let go and knew that it was God's will and whatever might happen to us, we would still be in a place where we would be loved either by our family and friends or by our Heavenly Father above' This feeling is difficult to describe, the serene feeling of peace and tranquility we were overcome with during this four hour experience. One thing for sure, our Blessed Mother and her Son were there with us. Their presence was evident in our hearts.

As we looked at our home we couldn’t, see how we survived in all the rubble and the “redecorating of Andrew” as we call it. Even though our home was devastated, losing all we had built and worked for, it left us with each other unharmed and left us with our loving community who helped us through our confusion and shock. Their time and love was given with no conditions. They traveled daily for three to five hours to come south to help us collect what we could and secure the house from rain and looters. We could have never moved on, if we didn't have their love. Then there was the support and prayers from our worldwide family. Prayer is powerful. We are witnesses to that. Our special thanks to the many people who prayed and wrote to us during our time of rebuilding. Your love and caring was very enriching to us and our relationship. Knowing we were loved by friends we haven't met yet really kept us going.

We have since rebuilt our home; better than before, putting all our savings into making it hurricane proof. It is strong and prettier. I even had the chance to design my own dream kitchen. A woman’s dream.

Well, we lived in it for two months, when the Lord called on us once again. We started to question God’s plan for us but decided to listen instead of trying to take control once again. God's plan for us now is to live in South Carolina. We are not asking why but we are just doing all we can to share our dreams and hopes with all those we come in contact with. We have grown a great deal in letting go and letting God. We see it as a gift of God's love for us to continue to grow in His love. Our Father knows best. It's like our new area's button reads, "Nothing could be finer than to Love in South Carolina” We are looking forward to growing with them as we have done in our past journeys of adventure and misadventure.

We keep extending our Marriage Encounter family. This is truly a God-sent gift for us. So as we continue on our journey we must always keep in mind and trust that the Lord does not close one door without opening another, and the thing that is important is that we continue to love one another as God has loved us.

So, let's trust in Our Lord. Don't ask why, His response is Why not? We must keep the dream alive. We will change the world.

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