 By Lavern Nissley
Ronda and I are facilitating relationship skills training in Costa Rica with 36 students preparing for missions and service outreach in Central America. A unique aspect of this training is that all of our sessions are needing to be interpreted into Spanish, as about half of the students understand limited English. It got us thinking about how often we might benefit from an interpreter, even while speaking the same language! There are at least 3 signs of communication confusion.
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 By Lavern Nissley
(Adapted from a presentation by Les and Leslie Parrott, well known relationship authors and educators) In our almost 41 years of marriage Ronda and I have become experts at conflict. Experts in failure, that is. But we continue to learn and gain insights into our own foibles and tendencies. You’ll get an inside look into a “prickly” we had just this past week! And a helpful tool that we recently added to our conflict resolution toolkit.  By Lavern Nissley
Ever thought about what you'll leave for the next generation? What you'll be honored for as your life winds down? We celebrated the 90th birthday of Ronda's mom this past weekend. Her father isn't far behind in age, turning 90 next August. Being together with Ronda's siblings in inlaws was inspirational and gave me a profound appreciation for the legacy these two people are leaving.  By Lavern Nissley
After 12 years of providing RINGS (Real Intimacy and Growth Skills) for couples, we are rolling out a major update/upgrade. The overall look and structure has been refreshed. Want to take a sneak peek?  By Heidi Biswas
(Dave and Heidi are fairly new residents in Springfield, Ohio, with Dave joining our Encompass team in January, 2019 as Outreach Coordinator. You'll get an interesting and inspiring glimpse into their process of selecting wedding attire and atmosphere.) So we got married in our pajamas. It took me a little while to figure out that this was what I wanted. At the time of being engaged I didn’t know I had felt an expectation of how I was supposed to get married. The dress, the venue, the decorations, the guest list - I knew it wasn’t what I wanted, but that’s just how weddings are, and I felt some unspoken pressure that that was how it had to be, or I’d be letting people down. In preparation for the wedding, my sister and my mother would show me pictures of beautiful decorations and plates and dresses and ask which ones I liked best, but I remember not being able to answer very well.  By Cindee Johnson
(Cindee is pastor of Fletcher United Methodist Church and an avid supporter of Encompass, along with her husband, Dave. They just celebrated their 30th anniversary and saw a dream of theirs fulfilled last week that goes back to a 2009 marriage enrichment experience.) Some day. When dating and first married, Dave and I could talk long into the night about our hopes and plans for the future. Yet as time marched on, those dreams faded into the background, and some day was replaced by the immediate demands of careers and family and, well, just the challenges of life in general.  By Lavern Nissley
Dave King, a friend and colleague from 30 years ago in Cincinnati, died at age 55 last week. The text notification from another friend hit me hard. "No, no, no!" I had just been thinking of calling him and getting together. But he had collapsed while working out and couldn't be revived. Several of us who worked together with Dave in the 1980's at New Beginnings Fellowship, a small suburban church in Finneytown/Cincinnati, attended his funeral Saturday. What a surreal experience to see such a close friend laying in a casket! But there was unexpected inspiration in this funeral from Dave's two children, Matthew and Erin.  By Lavern Nissley
I've never been a fan of the saying, "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy". Ronda and I have talked about it, and we both have found it somewhat derogatory and sexist. A 14 year research study in the UK took a look at this hypothesis and came up with some pretty interesting results. And some compelling implications.  By Lavern Nissley Dave Wilson and I were chatting briefly after a men's breakfast. He was telling me about how he doesn't know what to tell other men when they ask him the secrets of being married 40+ years. But he knows what husbands should NOT do! I asked him, "So, what are your top three things NOT to do? He very quickly listed them By the way, Dave and Cindi have been married 46 years.  By Lavern Nissley
(Photo: Cara Owsley/The Enquirer) Ronda and I have followed the heartbreaking story of Brooke Skylar Richardson, the young teen from Warren County who secretly gave birth to her baby in the middle of the night, then allegedly killed it (she claims it was stillborn) and buried the newborn in the back yard. Last week she was acquitted on 3 counts of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter and child endangering. She was convicted of abuse of a corpse and sentenced to three years of community control and seven days in jail. Did any good come out of this horrendous story? Or was it pretty much all terrible? |
HostsLavern & Ronda Nissley are co-directors of Encompass. Married since 1978, both enjoy coffee, riding their tandem bicycle and working together to build strong relationships. 
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