WestRock Hosts Blessing Workshop

This past weekend, June 27 and 28, the WestRock Family Church community held its annual Level 1 Blessing Workshop at the local parsonage. Although it was small, they had participants from New York City, Bridgeport, Connecticut and Maryland. They even had a few parents attend as well.

The presentations were given by the local Blessing and Family Ministry representative, Debby Gullery, who used the new PowerPoint presentations developed by national ministry media team. The schedule on Sunday included several presentations that covered a variety of important topics. “Love Smarts” gave everyone an opportunity to think about and discuss their misconceptions about love and marriage. Then the group was divided by gender and each group heard presentations that explored the unique challenges each gender faced in their quest to maintain their emotional and physical purity.

After a deluxe pizza dinner, participants engaged in an activity that allowed them to reflect on their current relationship with God, which was followed by an honest and heartwarming testimony by a young Blessed couple – Mirandy Kim and Hyun Moraes. They shared about how they prepared themselves individually before they went into the matching engagement process, and about how they met and decided to receive the Holy Marriage Blessing. It was a great ending to their first day.

Monday began with a presentation on the value of the Marriage Blessing, which explored in depth the difference between marriage and the Marriage Blessing, and what it meant to inherit the legacy of the Marriage Blessing from their parents. Then, they talked about how the matching process has developed, and concluded with a presentation on how to use these next few years as single people – by making smart choices and growing intentionally. They ended the workshop with Q&A and an ice cream party! All the participants left feeling better equipped to develop their characters and their faith, and to prepare for the matching in the future.

Contributed by Debby Gullery