Dear Lovers,

Wow! February has been a busy month for the Rockford/Madison/Milwaukee Encounter. Over 240 couples showed up for the musical “I Do! I Do!” on World Marriage Day. Over 150 couples attended the dinner that was between the two shows. And then a week later was the combined weekend with the Joliet Diocese (with a few couples from the Chicago/Gary Encounter as well) at the Bishop Lane Retreat Center. On Sunday 28 couples, along with their prayer couples, enjoyed a fantastic potluck hosted by the Algonquin Area and Elburn sharing communities. We would like to send a BIG THANK YOU to all those who helped with the Greet On and Greet Off. It was your work that made it possible for the couples to have a great weekend.

As we write this we are in the middle of Lent. During this season of the church we invite you to pray the Rosary daily with the special intentions of full weekends. Make it a family prayer by inviting your children to pray with you. It is a great way to share your faith with your spouse and your children and a great way to strengthen your relationship with God. You might discover that after Lent is over you don’t want to stop.

Lent is also a good time to invite to the weekend. If you know someone who is looking for a mission or retreat, suggest that they go with their spouse to a Marriage Encounter Weekend. It is a weekend of journeying together toward the Lord. I know our weekend helped us to see how God is present in our sacrament, and how our church needs our sacrament to be visible.

We are looking forward to seeing the leaders of the sharing communities in the Rockford/Madison/Milwaukee Encounter at the Continuing the Journey meeting Saturday, March 5th at the St. Bridget Parish Center in Loves Park. It starts at 1:00 p.m. and goes till 4:00 p.m. We hope to see all the Share Group Leaders or their alternates there. Sitters will be provided so children are welcome. The new Continuing the Journey Coordinator Couple, Lee & Jan Kremer, will be asking you to Dream with us. You will be going home with some additional tools to share with your community so we hope you will be there!

And to close this month’s installment, don’t forget the Puttin’ on the Ritz dance on May 7th. Once again we will be dancing the night away with the same fantastic DJ and location we had last year. Watch the eSpirit and the website for upcoming details. If you'd like to help give us a call!

All our love,

Garry & Arla Thomas
(847) 658-1585
getart@flash.net

We're going to continue from last month's feature and stay on Church Bulletins. Almost 50% of the couples who register for a Weekend state that they heard about WWME in their Parish Bulletin. So, we're going to give you another sample notice and encourage you to visit the section of our site loaded with sample bulletin announcements about the Weekend.

They are divided into four categories: Generic, Four Seasons, Concepts, and Eye-Catching. Each announcement can be used as is or can be modified to fit your particular parish or church. There are some that refer to Information Nights and most have a reference to our Website and the toll-free number.

As a side note, we have been placing some special announcements in our parish bulletin and encouraging people to visit http://alifetimeoflove.org to learn more. We had 140 visits to the Website when the notices first hit our bulletin. If your Parish Bulletin does not have WWME notices, please encourage your pastor to put them in. IT WORKS!

Here's a sample:

The fun never stops in our "Fun Stuff" section.

We continue to create new crossword puzzles each month as well as new on-line quizzes. In addition to our "Romance" and "Marriage History" quizzes, this month we feature our New Year's Trivia quiz. There are only eight questions regarding New Year celebrations around the world, but be careful. These quizzes can be addictive.

We have also included a place for you to share your favorite recipes with other Encountered Couples. Everyone knows that Community nights are all about the food. Why else would everyone gather around the kitchen? Just kidding!

And while you're browsing the section, don't forget our downloadable screen savers for your PC. There are several pre-made screen savers with a Marriage Encounter theme. And as if that wasn't enough, we can customize and create your very own, personalized version of one of the available styles.

We are all family and we believe in the lifestyle and mission of Worldwide Marriage Encounter. From time to time we need assistance in fulfilling that mission. To that end, we have installed a quick survey and we want to get some information for what assistance you might be willing or considering to offer.

Is the Spirit calling you to be more involved in the WWME movement?

The Rockford/Madison/Milwaukee Marriage Encounter Community is in great need of couples who want to be more actively involved in changing the world one couple at a time! Listed below are some of the ways you can help. If you have any questions about any of these jobs or if you're a Community Leader and have a couple in mind that you think would be a great asset to any of these communities please contact Ben & Jane Deutsch at (630) 377-0635 for more information.

SUPPORT COMMUNITY
House/Greeter Couple: Responsible for the set up and takedown of the Weekend. This job is split between 2 couples. This couple is also responsible for scheduling communities to greet on & off for the Weekend.
Prayer Couple Coordinator East: This couple is responsible for making sure all couples on the Weekend from the Eastern part of the Rockford Diocese have a prayer couple and extended Dialogue letter.
Prayer Couple Coordinator North: This couple is responsible for making sure that all Wisconsin couples making the Weekend have a prayer couple and extended dialogue letter.

CONTINUING THE JOURNEY COMMUNITY
Community Start up Couple: This couple would be responsible with helping the CTJ Leaders to get new communities started up. CTJ is also looking for seasonal couples who could help with different functions throughout the year. These different committees would be for "Puttin' on the Ritz" dance, WWME Family campout, and the Rolle Bolle tournament.

INVITING COMMUNITY
Ministry Fair Coordinators: This couple would be responsible for tracking and getting help, if needed, for parish ministry fairs.
Media Coordinators: This couple would be responsible for planning and placing ads in different Catholic publications. They would also explore other media vehicles for getting the WWME word out to people.
Mass Talk Workshop Couple(s): This couple/couples would be responsible for coordinating those couples who already have Mass talks written. They would also workshop couples who would like to write and present Mass talks throughout the 3 dioceses.
Pulpit Pal Coordinators: This couple would be responsible with the scheduling and maintenance of our pulpit pal boards. These new inviting tools are used in the backs of various churches as another means for getting the word out for the Weekend.

Is your community looking for a great way to invite couples to the Weekend? A romantic candlelight dinner might be what your community is looking for. Candlelight dinners are easy to give and fun for the whole community. The Rockford/Madison/Milwaukee WWME Community has 2 candlelight dinner kits available for use. Each kit contains all you need to help your community put on a romantic candlelight dinner. If your community is hosting a candlelight dinner please let us know and we'll announce it here in The eSpirit. For more information contact Garry & Arla at (847)658-1585 or by email at: getart@flash.net

Creamy Pesto Shrimp Linguine (Just in time for Lent)

• 1 pound linguine pasta, cooked and drained
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup grate Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup pesto
• 1 pound large shrimp - peeled and deveined

Directions:
In large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat; stir in the cream and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, for 6 to 8 minutes or until hot. Add the grated parmesan cheese, stirring until thoroughly mixed. Stir in the pesto sauce and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until thickened. Add the shrimp and cook until they turn pink, about 5 minutes. Serve over hot linguine.