The Marriage Course

By Allan & Tonia Gooding

Sector Couple, Teams of Our Lady, Trinidad & Tobago

Teams of Our Lady (TOOL) Trinidad and Tobago extends an invitation to married couples to participate in the ‘The Marriage Course’ (TMC) created by Nicky & Sila Lee as part of the Alpha programme.

‘The Marriage Course’ has, and continues to have, excellent reviews that can be researched online: “Getting married provides us with one of life’s greatest opportunities, and one of its greatest challenges. The opportunity to build one of the most intimate of relationships, and the challenge to learn what it means to love another person, and to look beyond our own needs.

Attending TMC allows couples the opportunity to invest in their relationship, they provide the practical tools that will help every couple to provide a strong marriage, no matter how long you have been married.”

What is it like?

In the privacy of your own home, you are encouraged to set up as a date night, with a meal or refreshment. This special atmosphere creates a feeling of safety and helps you as a couple to open up to each other and have those important, honest and intimate conversations.

The format begins with firstly watching a film about different aspects of marriage, broken up by times for discussion as a couple. All your discussions are completely private, as your videos and microphone can be turned off for this programme.

The workbooks, which are also used during these breaks allow for guided communication, to respond to questions, individually, and as a couple. It is also a keepsake to see how much you have grown and provides topics for further discussions after the course.

Couples come to TMC for a variety of reasons.

Some may wonder:

• “How can we communicate better, without arguing?”
• “What should I do about my in-laws?”
• “Why is a date night important?”

Others have said:

• “Really grateful for a course that I do not have to share in public.”
• “I learnt so many little, but important things, even being married for over 20 years.”
• “Thank you for re-kindling the spark that had diminished, but not gone out.”

TMC gives hope and encouragement, as well as practical tools, for any couple from any background, with or without a Christian faith, so you are welcome to invite others to strengthen or restore their connection for a healthy marriage.

The Trini TOOL experience

The first Marriage Course in Trinidad was held as a couple’s retreat for the TOOL movement in 2021. It was as a response to a need during the Covid-19 lockdown for couples to keep connected.

The Super Regional couple from the UK, Paul and Annette O’Bierne, provided this to us. It was so well-received, and the tangible benefits so clearly experienced by the Trinidadian couples, that we thought many other couples should also gain from the experience.

Since then, we have been able to touch over 280 couples in six sessions, including couples in St Lucia who expressed interest and co-hosted the online sessions with us last year.

Based on the feedback from our questionnaire, every couple said that they would recommend the course to couples they know.

Details

This year, we will again host TMC as a Lenten retreat by members of TOOL Trinidad and Tobago. It is an opportunity for couples to take advantage of participating in this free, virtual course:

• 7 Saturdays
• 7 – 9 p.m.
• starting Saturday, March 8 and running until Saturday, April 19.

To register or for more information, please feel free to email us at caribbean.tool@gmail.com Register before March 4 to participate via Zoom link, and to obtain the pdf workbook. A Google form will be sent to register.