Intimate Encounters

Sunday we sat in the West, and the guy who sang Ring of Fire always does a good job singing in Kidstuf. I was trying to determine if someone different sang it simultaneously in the East.

The Intimate Encounters study we are doing in our small group goes a predetermined number of weeks, and we finish June 8. That will be the last week with Alpharetta couple appointed to lead the study by North Point. Unfortunately Ceil and I have been the most “slack” in the group in completing the mandatory weekly assignments. With the in-laws here this weekend, and Anna having her ballet rehearsal Friday, we’ll probably miss, putting us deeper in the doghouse. We may not graduate, but the studies have been well-worth it.

This summer our group will probably only meet occasionally. We added a new couple sometime last year, a little younger but fun and outspoken. The husband is a busy accountant with Earnst & Young, who went to Michigan. We’ve had 4 couples do Intimate Encounters, plus the leaders. The three non-North Point couples in the group dropped out when we started IE, so they may rejoin this summer (two are having lots of problems with sick kids). You should’ve seen the astonished look on the new couple’s faces when Lee first mentioned ending the group, only a few months after they had joined.

IE is a 16 week commitment with a break in the middle, where individually you complete each weekly chapter, then have a ‘staff meeting’ with your spouse to discuss. The chapters focus on needs, meeting needs (relying on God to meet them, as opposed to your spouse), past family relationships, how to deal with past, negative emotions filling your cup, etc. It gets real specific, and the blanks to be filled in/discuss require thought and soul-searching…certainly not to be breezed through. The idea is to make the weekly staff meeting ongoing after the study ends…an emotional checkup a little more involved than just a date. It has helped all four couples…the other three probably more than it’s helped us.

Will Vick be suspended? Murphy’s Law…it got worse after Schaub was traded.