Couple’s Night

Rick Bergen — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 11:10:40 +0000

“You guys are going on a date night, with each other?” Incredulous looks. Then smiles. Then rolling eyes and laughter. Even now, five years after we have moved to Marabá, people start laughing when they hear that Deanna and I are going on a date. Tuesday nights. The girls have to figure out something to do on their own. So this is what I talked about on our first Maraba Church Couple’s Night.

Monica hosted three games, including one where all the men had to close their eyes, and all the women had to some to the front and put their shoes on one big pile. Then the women sat back down with their husbands, and the husbands had to go find their wife’s shoes from the pile, and put them back on her feet. Some of the husbands were at quite a loss.

Quita and Lene were in charge of making supper, which included fried chicken.

Healthy, long-term, marriage friendships are very rare here. Most of these couple’s have a very broken history but I think everyone dreams of having a loyal, best-friend as a spouse. Judging from the smiles and laughter, this was a fun evening for everyone. We want to start doing this on the first Friday night of each month.

Suzi and Nadeson, on the left, are getting married in our church in two weeks. They have three cute little girls. Preto is Nadeson’s brother, and he is with Ghislaine, who is Adrianna’s mom. It was very cool to see them all at this Couple’s Night event. Very cool.

Monica did a great job hosting three games. 1. Find your wife’s shoes. 2. What stresses you out. (You blow into a balloon as Monica lists potential marriage stressers, until balloons started popping). 3. Write down your spouse’s response to various questions, and later review to see who really knows each other. It seemed to me like these games were kind of awkward for everyone, and scary-fun, which really was attractive. I think many of these relationships will become committed marriages. Some already are, and I think those people had the most fun.

Zecca and Nilma

Marques and Adrianna are both gifted worship leaders, but neither of them are serving on the worship team at the moment. They have a cute little baby girl, Alice Vitória.

This is the first time Lene, on the left, has helped cook a big, church meal. Quita, her sister on the right, is 23 years old, and pregnant with a baby girl. This will be child number 5 for her. She has four healthy little boys ripping around the house at her feet when she is home.

Ivanildo tells Paula and Izak about the big fish that got away last Saturday, and the big fish he is going to catch today. (We have a men’s fishing trip planned for today, Saturday, following the Friday Couple’s Night event). I think Paula and Izak have their doubts.

Zecca and Nilma are the grandparents of Alica Maria, and the parents of Jacquelene, who is married to Wandro.

Food and church go together like root beer and ice cream.

I think maybe Wandro never got the answers right to what Jaquelene likes.

The XM ChallengeCouple’s Night – The XM Challenge

Couple’s Night