Couple Learns to Stay Romantic Within Routine and a New Baby and Wins $1000!

Emma Karina and Eduardo Vilchez have been married for 2 years and have one daughter, Leilani. At the encouragement of their pastor they signed up for a class held at West Coast Christian Tabernacle to “learn and be guided for solutions in (their) relationship and ways to have a healthy marriage.” They completing the Marriage Education class and filled out the outcome evaluation form they received.The Vilchezes are the latest couple to win $1000 in the California Healthy Marriages Coalition Outcome Evaluation drawing.

Karin and Eduardo took Matrimonio de Clase Mundial (World Class Marriage) through AMOR de Orange County in Santa Ana, CA. When asked about their experience Karina states, “I felt very familiar with all the topics spoken in the class and found solutions to most of the conflicts that I didn’t know how to deal with. I also learned how to accept my husband as is and that I had to accept our wide culture and family differences.  Most of all, I learned how to work around most of the circumstances throughout our daily agendas and even stay attracted and romantic within routine. This was a great program to attend because it greatly helped our relationship and learn more how to accept each other.”

The Vilchez family will spend their prize money on a vacation to Yosemite National Park.

CHMC supports many quality relationship-building classes. To find out more information about World Class Marriage and other great classes available in your area, go to www.camarriage.com.

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Couple Learns Skills to Help with Family Communication and Wins $1000!

Jose Luis Eusebio and his wife, Maria, met on a mission trip in Mexico and have been married for 11 years. The Eusebios have two children and are expecting a third.  The Eusebios are the latest couple to win $1000 in the California Healthy Marriages Coalition Outcome Evaluation drawing. They won the award by completing a Marriage Education class and filling out the outcome evaluation form they received.

Jose and Maria took a World Class Marriage workshop with Happy Families in San Diego.

Jose said they decided to attend a class because “when the opportunity was offered we realized that it was something we needed.  We have not been married for that long and it’s always interesting learning something new. With these classes I learned more.”

When asked how the workshop affected their relationship, Maria explained, “It helped us in our communication and learning how to resolve problems. Before, it was difficult to resolve situations and get to a decision. Now we can reach a solution together. Now we learned how to have communication.”

Jose added, “Sometime we live stagnate, but this class helped us to dust off our marriage. We easily fall in a routine. Now we have even more communication with each other and our kids. This class changed us.”

The Eusebios plan to put the money they won towards a much needed vacation.

CHMC supports many quality relationship-building classes. To find out more information about World Class Marriage and other great classes available in your area, go to www.camarriage.com.

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>> Statewide Survey Reveals Hispanic Marriage Paradox: Want Marriage but Don’t Marry

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Community Leaders and ME Advocates are Latest Winners of $1000 From CHMC!

Pastors are known for their charitable gifts of time and energy to help their communities; you don’t hear much about their receiving gifts, but in this case, Pastor Bryan Harris and his wife Kelly are the latest couple to win $1000 in the California Healthy Marriages Outcome Evaluation drawing. The Harrises were excited to hear that simply by spearheading something to help marriages in their church and filling out the CHMC outcome evaluation form they received this exciting win.

The Harrises have attended many marriage seminars and classes before but Kelly Harris reports: “This class (Mastering the Mysteries of Love–MML) has been the one with the most impact on my life. We learned skills that taught us how to communicate with each other in ways that we had never experienced before. (MML) taught us about the importance of non-verbal messages and how they can hurt your spouse.” The Harrises attended MML through their church, Emmanuel Temple.

Kelly and Bryan also really appreciated how much the class helped other couples open up to each other. Kelly said: “It was powerful to see all the issues that couples were facing such as the chaos that comes with babies being born and financial crises, yet the couples were working through those tough issues together. Older couples were also helping the younger ones with their own stories of how the skills helped them. It was a meaningful experience for us to discuss these pressing issues and help each other.” Pastor Harris loved the class so much that he will also be bringing the skills to the singles ministry.

The Harrises will have been married for 14 years in February and have two children. Of the win, Kelly said, “We will use our winnings to pay off some bills and it is coming at a perfect time.”

CHMC supports many quality relationship-building classes. To find out more information about Mastering the Mysteries of Love and other great classes, go to www.camarriage.com.

After 39 Years of Marriage, Couple Seeks Improvement and Wins $1,000!

Sandy Tripple had been married for 39 years and yet was still interested in improving her marriage. When she first heard about the class Mastering the Mysteries of Love from her co-worker, she and her husband, George, signed up immediately. “My friend told me about this class that was helping her marriage. It sounded so great! I told my husband and we went to the next class. It helped us so much, we signed up for a second class,” said Sandy. Now, the Tripples are the latest recipients of the $1,000 outcome evaluation drawing.

The Tripples sought help for their 39 year marriage when they realized they needed more help communicating with each other. “My husband had a hard time opening up to me and this class helped us share our feelings privately, but in a class setting,” said Sandy. “It was great to see other couples in the class that were experiencing the same communication issues.”

Both George and Sandy benefited from Mastering the Mysteries of Love. Sandy said, “ I think there is something so powerful about sitting knee to knee and holding each other’s hands; then when you begin repeating what your partner is saying you start to see insights into your partner that you have never seen before, even after 39 years of marriage.” The Fresno based couple have experienced growth in their communication skills within their relationship, but also with other people. Tripple said, “These skills have helped us to relate to our children and our parents.”

The Tripples are grateful for winning the $1,000 prize. “This past year has been really difficult for us because of medical complications with George,” said Sandy. “This money will be a welcome windfall and be used to pay some of the bills that have resulted from George being sick.”

CHMC supports many quality relationship-building classes. To find out more information about Mastering the Mysteries of Love and other great classes, go to www.camarriage.com

OE winners Sandy and George Trippel with Ron and Joan McClain from Healthy Marriages Coalition of Fresno/Madera County

Bay Area Sibs Win Big Because of OE!

Thanks to the generosity of CHMC’s newest Outcome Evaluation prize winner, Markus Buergi, his kids will be enjoying a very special birthday this year! Buergi said that the $1,100 Wal-Mart gift card he won through CHMC’s OE “big prize” drawing will be used to lavish his kids with exceptional gifts that they normally wouldn’t be able to buy. He will also use some of the winnings to give back to his church by purchasing supplies for the congregation.
 
Markus and his wife heard about Marriage Education when CHMC Master Trainer Bento Leal was promoting the course called Mastering the Mysteries of Love at his church. “We were really excited to go to the class because we consider marriage one of the most important building blocks of our society.” Buergi said the class offered so much information that it kept the couple very engaged.

“The best part of it for me was the sheer excitement that the pastoral couple who taught the class had for the material. They were so inspirational and they really helped us understand why Marriage Education is so important for our society,” said Buergi. “The teachers really kept the class unified even though it was a very diverse class. It was very exciting!”

The Buergis have been married for 14 years and have two children. Markus believes one of the most important things you can do for your children is to show them how to have a really loving and supportive marriage so they will know how to have strong relationships when they grow up.

Buergi got a lot more out of the class then he expected.

 

“The MML class gave me strategies to train myself in communicating better, especially to listen better to my wife and others. At the time I attended the 8-week class, I was job searching full time and really didn’t spend much time sitting down and talking with my wife, who wasn’t able to attend the class because she was at home taking care of our 4 young children. The class woke me up to the power of listening. The follow-up (OE) questionnaires have also been helpful as reminders to me, helping me do a lot of self-reflection on how I’ve been doing lately with my communicating.

The main point of all this is that I’ve learned that no matter how busy or pressured I am in my work and life it’s important for me to focus on my relationship–my communication–with my wife. “

CHMC supports many quality relationship-building classes throughout California. To find out more information about Mastering the Mysteries of Love and other great courses, go to www.CaMarriage.com.

Kingsburg Couple Wins $1,000 Super Date!

When Aaron Winslow of Kingsburg, CA received the phone call that he was the latest winner of the California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC) Outcome Evaluation drawing, he couldn’t believe it. It took at least ten minutes to convince him that he’d actually won.

“I never win anything!” said Winslow. Aaron had filled out the simple questionnaire after his “10 Great Dates” class and that set him up to have his entry drawn as the recipient of $1,000 cash! Now, that cash is being used to gift his wife with a super date!

Aaron and his wife, Denise, heard about the Marriage Education class through Kingsburg Community Church. The Winslows thought they would give it a try because it seemed fun, it fit perfectly within their schedule and to top it off, the church provided childcare. “Childcare was huge for us, “ said Winslow. Pastor Joe also added an extra benefit by offering weekly drawings for the couples that came to class.

“The best part of the 10 Great Dates class was that it got us to talk about different issues, kids, different feelings and all kinds of stuff,” said Winslow. Another direct benefit of the class was it gave the couple an opportunity to date each other again. “When I was single, I was always trying to take her out and now that I’m married, I rarely get a date,” Winslow said with a laugh. Now Aaron knows how to fix that problem!

Aaron adds that not only has the class helped his 7-year marriage, but learning ways to talk things out has also helped him grow at his work and with his 4 year-old son, Ethan. “The more information you can get the better!” said Winslow.

Kingsburg Community Church worked with the Healthy Marriage Coalition of Fresno-Madera County (HMCFMC) to launch the “10 Great Dates” program.  HMCFMC is part of the California Healthy Marriages Coalition which supports many quality relationship-building classes.

To find out more information about 10 Great Dates and other great classes, go to www.camarriage.com.  For classes and activities in the Greater Fresno and Madera County area, check out www.growyourmarriage.com.

El Dorado Hills Couple Enhances Communication and Wins Family Vacation!

Desiring to enrich their marriage and enhance their communication, Roberta and Steve Kubes enrolled in a Mastering the Mysteries of Love (MML) class held at a local church in El Dorado Hills.  By participating in the California Healthy Marriages Coalition’s Outcome Evaluation survey during the class, the Kubeses won the raffle drawing and received $1,000 cash, which allowed them to take a family vacation to Santa Barbara with their children!

Offered through the Healthy Marriage Project of Greater Sacramento, MML is an interactive, hands-on Marriage Education program that spotlights ten essential relationship skills that change how people listen, talk, solve problems, and relate to one another.  Through live demonstrations, teaching, and skills coaching, Roberta and Steve learned skills that have helped them build trust and work as a team to enhance their relationship.

Roberta reports that the class helped them realize that they were not alone in seeking to improve their marriage.  According to Roberta, “There are always other people who have the same issues,” and now the Kubeses have skills that help them work through those issues successfully.

For the Kubeses and many other graduates of Mastering the Mysteries of Love, the communication skills they learned extend benefits beyond the marriage relationship.  Roberta says her improved communication skills enable her to “connect with others in a more understanding way,” and as a result, others have begun to view her differently.  “The greatest parts of the course for me”, says Roberta, “were the demonstration videos.  They were great!”  Roberta’s only complaint?  She wishes the 16-hour MML class had been longer!

Mastering the Mysteries of Love classes are occurring throughout California.  Find a class near you at www.camarriage.com.

Couple Builds Their Marriage & Wins $1,100 to Build Their Home

CHMC VP Patty Howell presents Karen and Tim Jobe with $1,100 prize

 

Married for 36 years, Karen and Tim Jobe stepped in to the World Class Marriage workshop in San Diego hoping to gain insights that would provide new direction for their struggling marriage.  They walked out with the insights they had hoped for, plus a cash prize of $1,100 at Home Depot!

 

Offered in partnership by the San Diego North County Latino Marriage and Family Resource Center and the California Healthy Marriages Coalition, the workshop teaches “16 Pillars” of a World Class Marriage, which are built upon the foundation of empathy, acceptance, and genuineness.  The course covers the skills of empathic listening, non-blameful confrontation, win-win conflict resolution, plus skills for avoiding blame, handling hot topics, love languages, and commitment.

 

According to Karen, before taking World Class Marriage, the couple’s 36-year long marriage had fallen upon hard times.  “When we went to that workshop,” she says, “I was ready to walk out.  I was committed to the relationship, but I just did not know what direction to go next.” 

 

By the end of the two-day workshop, the Jobes had new hope for their relationship and had learned skills to make good on that hope.  “It amazed me how quickly we could go from feeling completely hopeless to feeling like we had the key to moving on with our marriage and making the effort to make it work.  Taking this class helped us to know that if we really want to have a great marriage, we can do it!” says Karen. 

 

The Jobes credit the World Class Marriage workshop with improving their communication skills and giving the pair a newfound sense of clarity, direction and purpose for their relationship.  Learning better communication skills has helped the Jobes to feel more comfortable speaking up about their feelings without the fear of causing painful conflict.  They even posted the “Defective Communication Tools” handout from the class in their home, saying, “Having it there helps us to realize when we’re using harmful communication patterns, and also allows us to use humor when that happens, because we can go to the list and catch ourselves.” 

 

What really impressed this couple about World Class Marriage was the “universality of what was presented.”  According to the Jobes, the skills taught in the class are valuable to any couple, “whether you are someone like us who had been married for 36 years, or 20 years, just married, or engaged.  [We] wish a class like this would have been available earlier in our marriage.” 

 

In addition to learning the skills to better succeed in their marriage, the Jobes also entered into a prize drawing by completing Outcome Evaluation surveys for the California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC).  CHMC’s Outcome Evaluation study is the first broad, statewide evaluation of Marriage Education programs, and studies the comparative effectiveness of different programs.  The Jobes chose their $1,100 Home Depot gift certificate from four available prizes.  Other prize options include $1,000 cash, $1,100 at Walmart, or a 43” High-Definition TV.