Congratulations Aaron & Brianna!

Pre-marital mentees Aaron Johnson and Brianna Gulbrandson didn’t quite know where to take their relationship next, but as it turns out, they knew exactly who to ask.

Brianna explains, “Aaron has always been really good at praying. Even when he was in Iraq, I remember listening to many prayers across the phone lines. His trait of always turning to God in prayer started to impact my life as I saw my prayer life continue to grow. When he finally settled down in Omaha this summer, we started attending Brookside Church together. Along with many other areas of involvement, we were excited to see that they had a marriage ministry (of course, we weren't going to put ourselves through 9 months of torture being half-a-world apart if we weren't considering the other for a marriage partner).

Being new to a church the size of Brookside, we didn't really know where to go or if pre-engagement counseling was really what we needed to do. However, we still wanted to be sure that God was leading us to marriage. So one day, I thought to myself...why not pray about it?! (Aaron is always saying to me, ‘...well, let's just pray about it and see what God has to say about it!’) I remember kneeling down and asking God to give Aaron a clear cut sign. Please just make it so obvious that this is the direction that you are leading us that we can't ignore it! I just wanted to make sure that we were doing stuff right!

Not more than three days later, Aaron and I were getting up to leave the church service when the lady (Denise Friesen) in front of us, just dropped her books all over us! And guess which one landed at Aaron's feet? "Preparing for Marriage!” I mean do we really need a bigger sign that that?!

After a few sessions with our mentor couple, Mark & Deb Schiffmann, we are confident in knowing that God is leading us to marriage. Now we are engaged and looking forward to a May wedding!”

Aaron and Brianna are currently preparing for their May 10, 2008 wedding which will take place at Cedar Covenant Camp in Hordeville, NE. Congratulations to them both!

Marriage PREP

Titus 2 Marriage Mentoring
Premarital Coaching
& Engagement Prep

We appreciate the opportunity to describe what our Pre-Engagement Prep, Premarital Coaching and Titus 2 Mentoring Ministry at Brookside can do for your future marriage. First, we have a team of specially trained couples, one of which will go through the 6 sessions in the book Preparing for Marriage. Initially, to cover this material a coach couple meets with you every two weeks.

You will study Why God designed marriage, God's Equation For marriage (When 1 + 1 = 1), Authentic Communication in marriage, and Roles & Responsibilities: Moving Beyond the Cultural Stereotypes. This book also has a section just for you, the section is moving from "Do I?" to "I Do!" or "I Don't." This section helps you to make a Biblical decision as to whether God is leading you two to marriage.

You can purchase these books from Brookside for $12 each, and we recommend that you each have your own book to fill out and study from. We will have these books available for you when you come to your first meeting.

We ask that you each fill out a deck of information called Pre Engagement Prep Groundwork. We would like you to fill this information out completely and bring it to our first meeting together. We use this information to help us come along side you and get to know you better for our Coaching. Please know that all the material is held very confidential.
If you should decide that God is leading the two of your toward engagement, we would have you do two more sessions with your PREP, now Premarital Coach, close to the wedding date. These sessions cover Finances and Intimacy in marriage.

Our Titus 2 Marriage Mentoring part of the program pairs you with another older Couple that meets with you for the first year after the wedding, should you proceed to engagement. At this point, Brookside Marriage Ministry presents the newlywed couple with a Dennis Rainey book “Starting Your Marriage Right,” as a token of our commitment to help your marriage start off strong. This book is the perfect book for the newlywed couple and our Marriage Mentor Couple to discuss as they get together their first year of marriage. We also have quarterly get-togethers where young couples meet others in their stage of life and fellowship with other Mentors.

We believe so strongly in the Titus 2 message of the older generation teaching the younger generation that we have formed this ministry to aid newlyweds, not so newlyweds, pre-engaged couples, engaged couples and even oldie-weds. Yes, everyone has someone older that they can learn from as they travel through many different stages of life.

We trust that this Ministry will prove to be of special value to you. We will be praying for the two of you as you explore what we feel is one of the most important institutions ordained by God, that of marriage!

Serving our Savior, Roger & Denise Friesen 402-253-2355 denisemfriesen@msn.com

Do I? I Do? I Don't!

We've heard it all. We have been mentoring marriages and pre-marriages for 15+ years. Because of the glory of God that we have seen take place in so many instances, we continue on in our marriage and family ministry. As this ministry continues to expand, we are training mentors and putting people in place to help other out. We've been married 25 years and we have four children, so we've seen it all (almost!). If you are interested in serving in our ministry or if you need our assistance, please contact us.

Serving our Savior,
Roger & Denise Friesen