Ruben and Rachel Guerrero have been married 36 years and have three grown children, but they saw a need to refresh their marriage so they attended a Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekend in Corpus Christi.
“To be honest, I didn’t want to go, Ruben is the one that wanted to attend so I agreed to go,” Rachel said. “I even joked about not attending when we got lost going to the retreat center. I told him it was a sign from God for us not to attend.”
Ruben said he wanted to find out what the marriage encounter weekend was truly about.
“If it was a wonderful experience for couples, as I had heard, I wanted to get help in learning to have a better relationship with Rachel,” he said. “It’s surprising to know how much you can actually do for your spouse and enjoy a much better life together. We have been married for 36 years. The ME (marriage encounter) weekend was a blessing in disguise for me, I realized how much I could improve our relationship for the years to come.”
Rachel was surprised by some of the things she found out about her husband; things that he just did not know how to express to her.
“I feel that we can communicate a lot better. I am able to share my feelings and needs to Ruben and he understands them and me better. He is able to do the same,” Rachel said. “Our children say that they can see the difference in subtle ways of how we treat and speak to each other. Our close friends say that they see the difference in how we look at each other.”
“Anyone that asks us how do we manage to have this glow about us we tell them that they have to attend a ME retreat,” Ruben said.
Ruben agrees that he and Rachel now communicate better. He said he is able to explain himself better and share more deeply his thoughts and wants with her.
“We want to be good role models for our family, therefore we are more conscious of our actions. We try to live by example and we want others to feel that everyone can have a great meaningful relationship,” Ruben said.
Rachel said she appreciates Ruben’s willingness to show and share his faith in God with everyone; his willingness to do anything and everything for her and their children.
“If you are privileged to call Ruben your friend, you have a friend for life,” she said.
Ruben appreciates Rachel’s ability to always be considerate to him, their children and others.
“She is a very giving and forgiving person. She has RSD [Reflex Sympathy Dystrophy, a debilitating disease of the nervous system that causes chronic pain] and even though in the last couple of months her illness is getting worse, she still goes until she cannot give anymore,” Ruben said.
The couple believes the marriage encounter weekend was well worth their time and recommends it for other couples. “If you think it’s going to be something that you won’t benefit from, you are sadly mistaken. You must attend a ME weekend to find out how much more you can enhance your relationship with your spouse,” Rachel said.
“Please, do not wait. We wish we had gone a lot sooner. We plan to attend another ME weekend in three to four years from now,” Ruben said.
The couple attends Sacred Heart Parish in Rockport.