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A Yearning for Arkansas Pays Off

J.C. & Debbie Finton

What do you get when you cross an encountered couple and their home state without WWME? A retirement plan that includes moving to said state AND bringing WWME to that State--in other words when we, JC & Debbie Finton, who lived most of our 34 plus years of married life in the Houston TX area, found out that English speaking WWME had NEVER been in Arkansas--we started “yearning for Arkansas.” We even bumped up our retirement plans--selling our home in TX and moving back to Arkansas before JC’s early retirement.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Arkansas had been having Spanish speaking Worldwide Weekends for several years when we first made an appointment with the Family Life Director, Elizabeth Reha and tried to “sell” Worldwide Marriage Encounter to her.

Our only credentials were having held Leadership positions in the Dioceses of Galveston/Houston and Beaumont TX. We had very little connection with Section 5 that has jurisdiction of the Little Rock Diocese.

“When we moved to Arkansas in Spring 2002, we learned that National Marriage Encounter had been presenting Weekends for 25 years in the state and that the Bishop of Little Rock would not allow both Worldwide and National Marriage Encounter in Arkansas. But this Bishop had recently retired--so we thought “what the heck”! We planted the seeds of WWME with Elizabeth Reha (Family Life Director) that day--even though she had concerns about offering a CATHOLIC EXPERIENCE to “her” couples--since she stated that over 60% of the Catholic couples in the Diocese are only 50% Catholic (one spouse Catholic).”

This didn’t daunt us, we just BELIEVED that Worldwide Marriage Encounter did have something to offer even couples like “that” because we indeed had been one of “those” couples when we were encountered in Nov. 1991—(Debbie was Catholic and JC was not.)

After we moved to Arkansas, we found that work was scarce, that the house that we were building was taking LOTS of time and energy and that JC was going to need to travel for work until we could retire. Traveling for JC’s work, led us to the Ft. Worth/Dallas area, to Oklahoma City and ever so briefly into Arkansas. Mingling with Marriage Encounter communities all over those areas deepened our YEARN FOR ARKANSAS.

But the greatest GIFT was a community that got “laid ever so gently in our laps”.

“We met Glenn & Virginia Reynolds when we saw their names on the roster for the Atlanta Convention in 2001. Glenn & Virginia had recently retired to Arkansas and had their Marriage Encounter roots in Kansas. They agreed that once we got to Arkansas that we might become a “Circle”. So we continued to communicate via email over the next 18 months. Then, another gift, we were asked by one of our Eucharistic Ministers if we had been on a Marriage Encounter. They noticed us because we received communion side by side. Imagine my surprise when Fran Donaldson told me that she and her husband Don had attended a Weekend when they were in the military about 20 yrs. before in Jacksonville Florida. Within a month, we met Donna & Marvin McCall at a Family Conference at Bob & Penny Lord’s Holy Family Mission in our little county. Donna & Marvin had retired to Arkansas 11 yrs. before leaving a very active Marriage Encounter Community behind in Kansas--they were a little amazed when we suggested that we ALL get together and start a Circle in Arkansas. So our Community was born. We began meeting once a month in Oct. 2002, and they all began to YEARN FOR ARKANSAS with us.”

Meanwhile JC was laid off from work so we worked on our house “full time” from mid-Dec. ‘02 through mid-July ’03. Fortunately JC was able to find work in Houston in February and this allowed us to keep our benefits secure. We also hooked up with the West TN Area of Memphis/Nashville. During a 2003 goal setting meeting we were able to put our DREAM for the first WWME Weekend in Arkansas on the planning board for a West TN/Outreach to Arkansas for the Fall of 2003. At the time we had no idea if there would be any danger of being able to convince the Family Life Office to “let us in”.

In the summer of 2003 it became apparent that we would have to go back to Houston in order for JC to continue working in his trade. But, we felt compelled to try one more time to get WWME scheduled in Arkansas before we headed south. We reverse engineered the Weekend--contacting good friends of ours in Oklahoma City who just happened to be the priest schedulers for Section 10 (Texas and Oklahoma - sometimes you use the resources God gives you). We asked them to check to see if there was a weekend when one of their priests, who was not scheduled for a Weekend, would be interested in coming to Arkansas. We realized we still had to find out IF we could get the Family Life Office to agree. The weekend date when a priest would be available was Sept. 26-28, 2003 and the priest that said yes was our very fun loving Catalyst friend Fr. Richard Beck out of Houston. We had been privileged to present Weekends with Fr. Beck both in Houston and Oklahoma.”

It became apparent that we just couldn’t keep building our house. The money was going to run out and it wouldn’t be too long until our health insurance would also run out. So as bad as we didn’t want to--we realized that by mid-July we would HAVE to go back to Houston. Before leaving we had one more important thing to take care of--another lunch with the Family Life Director. When we went to lunch with Elizabeth, the Family Life Director, we thought we’d have to hard sell our idea. But, 15 minutes into the conversation Elizabeth told us “Do whatever you can--National Marriage Encounter has hung it up?” We were absolutely STUNNED by the announcement. It was apparent we needed to scramble--we were about 3 weeks from heading back to Houston for work!

The first thing we did was send out an email to our good friends Bob & Huli Tabone and it certainly seemed appropriate to send an email to Lee & Jan Kremer to announce that WWME was “in”. That was June 19, 2003 and we headed to Houston July 12. We were not able to attend the Illinois Convention but heard that the Arkansas WWME was announced at the Convention by Lee & Jan.

Long story short: we did everything LONG DISTANCE!! Praise be to God--our little Circle picked up the reins--Donaldson’s were the registration couple and both them and the McCalls decided to make a Refresher Weekend. That first weekend was quite small---we had it in our home county---Conway County about 45 miles West of Little Rock. It was a non-residential Weekend with motel accommodations provided if needed for those who had to travel. The Weekend was held at the Catholic High School in the county seat--Sacred Heart. We had 4 couples that commuted and 3 that stayed in the motel. The Team couples stayed with us and Fr. Beck stayed with Don & Fran. We dialogued in classrooms and locker rooms. For us the hardest thing about the Weekend was that although we could attend, for medical reasons, JC and I were unable to present the Weekend. The presenting team couples consisted of Mike & Michelle Stephan from Tulsa, David & Sheila Hunt out of Memphis and Jack & Angel LaBate from Atlanta

Since that first Weekend two more were presented in 2004. For the Weekend held in October 2004 there were NINETEEN couples!! We mention the size of that Weekend with such enthusiasm--because we’ve LONG had St. Therese of Liseaux as our little patroness. We pretty much gave the numbers, the success to that Weekend, to her intercession. We were blessed to present the 2004 Weekends. Fr. Beck came back in March ’04 and Fr. Bob Poandl out of Ohio came down for the Oct. Weekend--that is a story unto itself--I imagine those “miracle” stories happen often on the Weekend. Just getting the Team rallied. Tom & Marcia Hauck from Atlanta had lived in the Memphis Area for about a year and became a right arm couple willing to fly in for Weekends not only for Arkansas but also for Memphis & Nashville. David & Sheila Hunt reached out to Arkansas for the March Weekend again and in Oct. Jim & Debbie Voyle came over from the Memphis Area.

All the while--our little Circle nourishes the newly encountered as JC & I continue to be on the road much of the time--we’ve been in Lake Charles Louisiana since April this year. We’re one year from retirement and there are two more Arkansas Weekends on the roster for next year. But due to being in the right place at the right time--there have been 33 couples encountered in Arkansas and the community continues to grow MAKING GOOD MARRIAGES GREAT.

We feel awed to have been a part of this DRIVE to give WWME to Arkansas. You can’t share the dream if you don’t live it--and we DO LIVE IT!! God willing MANY more couples will come to know God’s Desire for them as couples here in the Natural State Arkansas--the Little Rock Diocese.

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