Moody Chapel coordinates another successful marriage enrichment retreat

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Joseph McCurdy
  • 23 Wing Chapel
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The Moody Chapel orchestrates two or three Marriage Enrichment Retreats each year. The most resent retreat was held Aug. 21-25 at St. Simons Island, Ga. 

We at the Chapel utilize these retreats as a tool to surgically target those individuals that would benefit from a seminar in effective marital communication. 

Our overall goal is to save and improve marriages of all Airmen. This seminar has proven itself as an effective enabler to military readiness through enriching the marriages of Airmen. 

The Air Force Chaplain Corps understands that the rigors and stress due to separation while deployed can be a huge contributing factor to the health of an Airman's marriage and well being. 

While our target audiences are those individuals that have recently deployed or will soon deploy, commanders were given the opportunity to nominate couples based on identified needs. More than half of the attendees at this year's retreat noted that their marriage, while not in immediate danger of divorce, still benefited greatly from the skills learned and the time spent together during this retreat. 

With a total of thirty four couples attending the most recent retreat, its impact can be felt across the base. 

As always one of our largest hurdles for any program of this magnitude is funding. Without the direct support of the Chief of Chaplains, Air Combat Command, Integrated Delivery System helping agencies and Chapel funds, this retreat would not have been possible. 

Every retreat has proven beneficial and well worth the time and resources committed. This critical funding provided by the above organizations reduced the final cost per couple by a factor of 10. 

Our most current retreat was lauded in many feedbacks as "saved my marriage". Many attendees noted that their marriages were overly strained due to deployment and day to day mission requirements and that this retreat was an absolute blessing and critical resource to strengthening their marriages. 

The atmosphere and location proved to be a factor to the success as well. Located on St. Simons Island, the seminar was spaced over three days with seminar time and relaxation time. This allowed the couple's time to explore the island and local area. Childcare was also provided for those who had children. 

During the actual seminar times, couples explored effective communication through the Air Forces' Marriage Care: Renewing Our Relationship series. 

Ultimately the Moody Chapel Marriage Enrichment Retreat has proven to be a critical readiness program whose success and impact is self evident of the need of such a program.