Being invited to serve in the Discovery Weekend came to us as a blessing. In 2008 we received an invitation to attend a marriage mentoring group. We felt flattered to be invited. Though we didn’t really know what to expect from it, we said YES. Being a part of a mentoring group naturally led us to volunteering more often in DW. Because we are both working parents, we consider weekends as sacred time with our two kids so it’s not really easy for us to choose to go to DW, yet we do. Why do we do it? Because we believe that the family is at the core of the solution of our country’s problems; and the best foundation for a healthy family is a healthy marriage. In its own way, DW became a venue for us to extend our mutual mission and desire to teach and to transform.
Unexpected graces have continually come our way ever since we chose to become active volunteers in DW. Through our marriage mentoring sessions, we not only gained practical tips on how to dialogue and handle issues; but more importantly, we gained a support group composed of fellow young couples who were on the same boat as we are. We realized that we were not alone in our difficulties and that gave us comfort. It became easy for us to talk to them about our concerns because they understand what we are going through for they go through it themselves.
In addition, our kids have also gained new friends, namely the kids of our couple friends. We found ourselves visiting one another’s houses and even going on out-of-town trips together. We found it convenient and comforting to know the parents of the kids our own children were playing with. It’s important to us that the parents of our kids’ playmates share the values that we ourselves consider important: we believe in marriage and we will do our best to make it work. We’d like to think that our children see this value present in us and in the families we spend time with. We hope that seeing this would make them imbibe it; and it will be our assurance that the value will be passed on.