(1) The whole Program 3 had been offered to Our Lady long before it began

(2) Just before hour zero

(3) Topic 1: “Culture Invited Home”

(4) Workshop summary

(5) Though we talk in foreign languages, the problems are not foreign at all

(6) Paul John, the youngest Coach in this Program

(7) Matthew Spielberg-Cuarón was shooting a film about the Program

(8) Meal time (Marychu & Juan Manuel,  Agnieszka on the far right, first row: Pepe and Armin)

(9) Song of songs festival 😉

(10) Workshop in the English-speaking group

(11) Think-tank with the Coaches of the Polish group – Dosia and  Jarek – before Workshop 6

(12) Workshop-workout: Yes, we can!

(13) Take your time to prepare a good strategy for this one!

(14) The Programs Co-Author, Agnieszka Rogalska, arrived from Warsaw for the Holy Mass

(15) The Mass with the Renewal of Marriage Vows – celebrated by a “Befriended Priest from Poland”

(16) We were joined by our Friends – the Graduates of Programs from Wrocław

(17) Renewed in love

(18) And they lived long and happily ever after

Photos: Małgorzata Rybak (1), (3) and (6), Danusia Opala (16), (17), (18), Beatriz Gonzalez – the remaining ones

So this has happened at last – we are so happy to be the hosts of the international Program 3 in Poland, near the metropoly of Wroclaw, in a small village named “Krzydlina Mała”, at the retreat center of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We started today with the Mass on the Feast of Her Immaculate Heart, hoping and believing she is taking us all under her tender and maternal protection: the ones present here, the ones who had enrolled but could not come, the participants and the organizers, and those joining us remotely in their prayers, for which we are so very grateful.

It is also a very special time for me. As a person involved in the “overseas” activity of the Foundation, I have known many of our allies only from correspondence. To meet them in person is a wonderful thing – to which I’d been looking so much forward.

The Program is running in the double, bilingual version: one for the Polish-speaking group, and the other for the English-speaking one. A tough task for Fr. Jay: giving a lecture by lecture, switching languages, with less than one hour break between them (if any). It is also a challenge for my and Andrew’s four-month old son, who is among the youngest coaches of Love and Life Programs 😉

The couples made the effort to come here from Scotland (our Foundation’s IT Team), England, Belgium, and Mexico – and of course Poland. Among nationalities we have also Venezuela and Colombia. It’s so great to see that God works in people’s hearts in such distant parts of the world, and living by the grace of the Programs becomes an everyday reality for so many. When we share our experience during the workshop part, it turns out that our ups and downs, and problems to deal with are the same – like protecting your children in the era of technological revolution or balancing life and work.

We are asking for your support in prayers and offering your acts of love for this event and for all us involved – we count on you as part of the “global parish”, as Beatriz Gonzalez (who coordinates Programs in Latin America) says. Thank you so much for being with us.

Margaret

Without priests willing to cooperate with the Family Support Foundation there is no future for the Love and Life Programs. That is why we are very happy and honored to be able to publish the vidoes through which we can meet Fr. Michael Voithofer from St. James and Fr. Bill Safranek, the Pastor at St. Joanne d’Arc parish in Omaha, Nebraska. Fr. Michael and Fr. Bill have taken part in the preparation process to present the I+YOU=WE Program. We’re hoping that in autumn Fr. Michael will be able to present the Program on his own, together with the Coach Couples from our FamilyCare Center of Omaha.

We would like to wish Fr. Michael and Fr. Bill many blessings and graces of the Holy Spirit on this journey! Thank you so much for joining us!

The testimonies are definitely the most beautiful part of the Program. We can all share the moments we remembered in a special way. I am happy to hear the Participants like the Program for being so practical and so insightful on everyday life of a married couple. We are grateful for all the belssings of that time.

For the first  time in history we could listen to Fr. Michael Voithofer from St. James parish in Omaha (where I stayed last year), who started learning the Program at that time and now presented it for the first time and on Sunday gave a lecture on Topic 5: Dialogue and Communication. His performance was brilliant, showing the real expertise in the field and making it an excellent part of the whole Program. In September we’re planning a Program which will be presented by Fr. Michael entirely on his own. That gives us a very optimistic perspective for the growth of our Love and Life mission in Omaha. I hope Fr. Bill Safranek will be willing to join in.

The Mass is always the grande finale of the Program. It makes it possible to thank Our Lord and to bring Him all the couples taking part in the Program, entrusting their future to Him.

I would like to thank again all who helped us prepare the Program, and all those of you, my Dear Ones, who have supported the Program with your prayers. May Our Lord reward you abundantly.

Remembering you warmly in my prayers

Fr. Jay

The Participants

Martha and Todd – a Coach Couple

Lisa i Kevin – a Coach Couple and the  Coordinators of FamilyCare Center Omaha

Fr. Bill Safranek, the Pastor at St. Joanne d’Arc parish and the host of I+YOU=WE in Omaha

Fr. Michael Voithofer, a priest at St. James parish in Omaha, Nebraska, trained to present Program 1

Fr. Michael during the presentation of Lecture 5: Dialogue and Communication

We enclose our best Easter wishes of Our Lord’s continual blessings for you, your homes, families and work.

Thank you for being with us. This gives us joy, which we can share with you, faith that this work matters, and strength to go on.
The Family Support Foundation’s Team

We can operate only with your support in so many ways:

– your help with organizing the Programs (Thank you so much for your commitment. If it hadn’t been for you, the Programs would have not taken place at all in so many new locations),
– your talents (we need them),
– your financial help (with monthly or one-time donations), because our budget is Providence-dependent, and its limitations do not let us do as much as we would like to for the couples.

You will find our paypal button HERE.

Every Tuesday a special Mass is celebrated for all our supporters as one way to express our sincere gratitude. You remain in our grateful prayers and thoughts and in the bonds of friendship, which grow through working side by side.

We are happy that our Centers are also growing abroad: the largest of them are in Omaha, Nebraska, USA (at the Pope Paul VI Institute, founded by Dr. Thomas W. Hilgers, the originator of NaProTechnology); Belgium; Mexico City and Glasgow, Scotland. In Omaha we are greatly supported by the PPVII staff and by Fr. Michael Voithoffer, who runs the monthly follow-up meetings with couples. We are hoping to start cooperation with the priests from Hastings (Nebraska) where the Program will be presented at the beginning of May 2015. Also in May 2015, Bogota (Colombia) will host their first “I+YOU=WE” Program.

Also in May of this year we’re planning a Program in Austria, which has been kept waiting for a long time since the first edition of “I+YOU=WE” for German speaking couples was developed.

To organize our Programs abroad we need a huge amount of translation work. In 2013 Małgorzata Rybak translated Program 2: WE+FAMILY into English, and in 2014 Agnieszka Buczkowska from the Belgium FamilyCare Center translated the Program for Fiancées. The English version of Program 3 is being prepared. All the time we need to translate promotional and information materials, coach training outlines and many other things.

We are also looking for priests willing to learn to present the Programs. The Polish Conference of Bishops (its National Family Pastorate Center, chaired by Fr. Przemysław Drąg) supported these efforts by asking Fr. Jarosław (“Jay”) Szymczak to present our Programs at meetings for family counselors in Polish dioceses. This has resulted in requests for training people to run the Programs locally.

At a meeting of Fr. Szymczak and Agnieszka Rogalska (the Programs’ co-author) with the Chairman of the Polish Conference of Bishops, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki blessed our efforts and encouraged us to continue our mission. We are also hoping to obtain the patronage of the Council for the Family at the Polish Conference of Bishops.

We are working hard to prepare clear rules of cooperation with new locations, to improve the training materials and the procedures of coach certification, and to unify the guidelines for ongoing formation. The load of work seems to exceed our capacity, but with God’s help and your invaluable support, good things continue to happen.

Since Program 1: I+YOU=WE has become so popular that it is no longer possible to offer it at all the places that ask for it, we decided to assign some of the work we do to specific FamilyCare Centers (preferably co-operating with FertlityCare Centers). You can find their list on our Foundation’s website.

The main centers in Poland are Wrocław and Łomianki. FamilyCare Centers are intended to create the environment for ongoing formation of Program 1 (or 2, 3 and 4) graduates, for training new coach couples and for mutual support among the families. The Centers also assist smaller locations in organizing the Programs.

In 2013 Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz accepted our Program for Fiancées: “GAUDIUM et SPES. Joy and Hope,” as one of the obligatory marriage preparation courses in the Warsaw Archdiocese (Poland). This initiated a series of trainings for priests and coach couples, which last to this day. The couples who enroll in this Program are still more numerous than we are able to admit.

You can read about the Program HERE.