In our December blog we mentioned not really knowing what 2022 had in store for Sozo for Couples, and also invited readers to join us for the on-line training we were putting on in January and February. Amongst those who booked on for that training was Paty Calcaneo, who heads up the Sozo team at her church in Mexico City. She obviously enjoyed and saw the value of the training because she had a word with her pastor and before we knew it, he had invited us to Mexico…
…but not just to Mexico! We were asked to run a Marriage Retreat weekend at a holiday resort in Acapulco, which was attended by almost 40 couples and, frankly, it was a wonderful and amazing and, for us (and the delegates!) a deeply rewarding experience. On the final evening nearly all of the couples recommitted themselves to each other in an oceanside ceremony. It was very lovely and very moving.
You may be wondering what we taught on at the retreat. We started by underlining what a Biblical marriage really is, and what it isn’t. So many of us have grown up with the idea that the wife is somehow subservient to her husband, or have veered to the opposite end of the scale, that everything is shared absolutely equally. Neither of these is Biblical, so we talked about mutual submission and the giving of everything for each other. We also talked about unforgiveness, shame and offence; communicating well; how to resolve conflicts; the importance of intimacy and honour within the family, all good topics to be unpacked and discussed, with lots of time for our couples to discuss things between them.
The Marriage Retreat was really just a bonus for us! We were in Mexico primarily to work with Paty and her team to get them trained, mentored and released to be able to offer Sozo for Couples in their own church, El Almendro, and we’re very pleased to be able to report that we now have our first Spanish speaking SfC team, and first team in Latin America. We’re very excited! It also means that the SfC manual is now available in Spanish and the intention is to make it available on Amazon with the next few weeks. We really cannot thank Paty, Pastor Humberto and our wonderful hosts Ricardo and Priscilla enough for their exceptional hospitality, love and kindness. Friends for life!
Our next outing is in July when we’ll be at Shore Life Church in Toms River, New Jersey, USA for a Sozo for Couples conference and short Marriage Retreat. You can find details of this on their website at https://www.shorelife.church/events. We know that some of you are planning on attending and we really look forward to seeing you there!
We would love to do more Marriage Retreats, Couples’ Weekends, Couples’ Conferences, Marriage Enrichment Events…you get the idea. We plan these to be interactive, instructive, rewarding and, above all, fun! You know where to find us if you’d like to bring either SfC training or a Marriage type event …or both, to your church!
Lastly, whilst those churches who invite us usually pay for flights and baggage charges, it falls to us to pay to get to and from UK airports, airport car parking, visa charges and required Covid tests, all of which stacks up! If you’d like to help us meet these out of pocket expenses, or to sow into the SfC ministry generally, we’d be very grateful. Everyone appears to have a PayPal account and you can use darrellcocup@gmail.com for us and I’ll apportion between us.
Many blessings
Darrell, Anthea and Liz