Ben and Brianna

How did you feel about premarital/marriage mentoring before you started meeting with us? How did you feel once you got started?

We hoped to regularly meet with a mentor couple during our dating relationship but struggled with how we could find one during the COVID-19 pandemic when new relationships were hard to form and maintain. We reached out to our church in search of pre-engagement guidance. We were pleasantly surprised to stumble upon Tom & Ruth Ann and their informed, intentional, and compassionate ministry to couples. 

What did you find to be most valuable about our times of meeting?

Tom & Ruth Ann have a comprehensive curriculum (with many biblical principles informing it) that they teach. They are excellent at communicating this information and teaching how to use the curriculum frameworks for relationship problem-solving and loving each other well. Tom & Ruth Ann offer two pairs of neutral listening ears and create an environment where we both felt seen and heard. They invested themselves into helping us form a healthy relationship and genuinely cared for us as individuals. 

They have worked with many different couples over the years, which allowed them to generate a wealth of trustworthy wisdom and experience from which they remind us that all couples struggle, and there are so many ways to love each other well.

Have you seen changes in how you relate to each other? If so, please explain.

We have seen ourselves implement many communication techniques, specifically listening practices, to sort out differences in a healthy way, which provides us both an opportunity to grow and more deeply understand and love each other. 

What would you say to someone who is unsure about doing premarital/marriage mentoring?

We did not know what we didn’t know before pre-marital mentoring. We cannot imagine going into marriage without the wisdom we have learned from Tom & Ruth Ann!

Is there anything else that you would like add?

Our wedding is next summer - we feel incredibly thankful to have been mentored by Tom & Ruth Ann during this season!