If you're in the Army or work for the government, you're probably familiar with the Strong Bonds program, where military personnel spend a weekend with their spouse in a group setting meeting with the chaplain about topics to grow their marriage. If you're a civilian, you might be jealous of that opportunity. But don't be. At Army Contracting Command, you can have it, too.
After working with the Strong Bonds program for 18 years as a military chaplain, Chaplain (Lt.
Col.) Paige Heard, ACC command chaplain, decided to explore the opportunity of getting Ministry Program Grants awarded by the Office Chief of Chaplains. She wrote a plan for five marriage and enrichment curriculum courses that were similar, with a shortened two-day and one-night plan. She received three grants that would pay for all lodging and meals for the civilian participants.
"It's an opportunity for the civilian workforce to come together for marriage training," she said. "It's nice having something for the civilians too."
Two of the marriage enrichment weekends have taken place--one in Nashville, Tennessee, and another in Austin, Texas. Another seminar is scheduled for the end of July in Crystal City, Virginia. Each weekend accommodates approximately 15 couples and has its own theme related to how to bring one another together based on a particular typical couple issue.
Heard was able to conduct a seminar in Nashville, along with Staff Sgt. Michael Frickie, ACC chaplain assistant, at the Embassy Suites-Nashville Airport. Fifteen couples from Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, studied skills on avoiding communication conflict.
"My wife Amy and I really enjoyed the civilian marriage enrichment weekend. It provided us a chance to get an expert third party perspective on how to better communicate with each other as husband and wife," said Scott Romero, G3 chief of operations. "We also got a chance to spend a weekend to focus on nothing else but strengthening our relationship, which is hard to do when we have such a busy family schedule."
The seminar in Austin focused on faithfulness and commitment. Most of the 19 couples there were from the Mission and Installation Contracting Command headquarters at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The course was taught by Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Nathan Zimmerman from Army Northern Command. Heard does not travel for all of these because of the way the grant funds are distributed.
The Crystal City seminar, July 24-25, will focus on the difference in gender roles in a relationship. That class will be taught by Chaplain (Col.) Wayne Boyd of U.S. Central Command.
For her part, Heard is extremely satisfied with the results she is seeing.
"These classes can be a jumpstart for some marriages…like PT [physical training], you are working not when you are broken but to continue to make things stronger," she said.
Heard said she will apply for the grants again for fiscal year 2016.
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