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WWME Great Community March 2007

John & Tena Franklin

The WWME Community Pillar salutes Oklahoma City as the March Stellar Community! This area is coordinated by John & Tena Franklin .

The Oklahoma City community, a part of Section 10, is a shining light in the world of Worldwide Marriage Encounter. They are open, loving, inviting, and dynamic. It started as a small community of couples who loved the movement, were committed to WWME, and came to Oklahoma City through jobs. They banded together and helped this community grow at a time when there were no weekends in Oklahoma City, and all couples here had to attend a weekend in Tulsa. Those couples are still committed today, some 20 years later!

The Oklahoma City WWME Community

Oklahoma as an area offers 4 Weekends per year, two in Oklahoma City and two in outlying areas. The community has taken such ownership of those Weekends that there are often more couples to greet the Weekend on Sunday than there are couples attending the Weekend. It is an awesome sight to behold the reaction of the couples coming off the Weekend when they are greeted by not only the community couples, but frequently their families. Friday night the couples who come to greet the attendees and carry bags are usually the prayer couples. At that Friday night greeting the community makes a special effort to meet their Weekend couple so when the prayer letter comes on Sunday that Weekend couple already has a bond with their prayer couple. It also helps with knowing who to greet on Sunday afternoon.

There are active circles in Oklahoma City who give their members a place to build relationships not only between husband and wife, but also with the rest of the community. The circles also have fun activities they do together such as a Christmas party, trips to ball games and summer picnic. One of the circles is open to the kids attending so that parents do not have to get baby sitters. They have a wonderful area newsletter to keep everyone informed of happenings.

Oklahoma City has been privileged to work with 2 priests. Fr. Theodore Seneschal started on his journey to becoming a WWME presenting priest, but he was diagnosed with prostate cancer before he could complete the talks. Fr. Theodore attended circles, team meetings, and was the spiritual leader for community enrichments until his death in April. Fr. Gildardo Garcia was also a member of this community for the 3 years he was stationed at an air force base in the area. During that time he attended a Weekend, attended circles, and went on his deeper. He was working on his talks when he was transferred to another post. However he is committed to continue to work on his talks.

Community couples assist each other in the recruiting efforts for Weekends. The scheduling of pulpit talks, bulletin announcements, publicity, handing out brochures are all tasks taken over by the community. This community actively invites couples to the Weekend, and nurtures them after the Weekend. The prayer couples try to keep in contact with couples after the Weekend and encourage them to attend circles, and in some cases will bring them to circle.

Recently the Oklahoma community hosted the Section 10 meeting. The Section leaders, Allen & Monika Fields applauded the community and added “ what this area is doing to promote the Weekend is just tremendous!” Oklahoma is reaching out to neighboring Arkansas and to Amarillo, TX. In recent months they have discovered a priest, Fr. Fu Phan, who is eager to work with them on reviving the Weekend in Amarillo. The first Weekend there is scheduled for August.

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