 Dr. David and Theresa Mabry (center) with their children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. By Theresa Mabry Encompass Director of Operations David and I had been married for 13 years when we took our first relationship assessment. He was getting ready to begin work at the Marriage Resource Center—what you now know as Encompass Connection Center—and we were invited to help teach relationship classes to couples.
I remember thinking, “Well, they’ve asked the right people! We've been married long enough to teach this stuff with our eyes closed.” Boy, was I wrong.
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 Mabry family portrait 1976. David is bottom left corner. By Dr. David Marine Mabry Encompass Executive Director I grew up as the third of four boys in a rural, working-class family just outside a small Ohio town. To put it simply, we didn’t have much—and I don’t just mean financially. Our home was filled with stress, instability, and frequent conflict. I have few happy memories from those early years. What I do remember most is waking up to my parents arguing and navigating the constant emotional turbulence that came with it.
My mother carried deep emotional pain, and my father—quiet and passive—often disappeared into the background in the face of her outbursts. My brothers and I were largely left to figure things out on our own, often getting into trouble at home and school. We endured emotional abuse and confusion about what family was supposed to feel like. I lived with a constant sense of insecurity and instability. It felt like the ground beneath us could shift at any moment.  Our blog posts in June will focus on reflections surrounding fathers, fatherhood, and their influence in our lives.
By Theresa Mabry Encompass Director of Operations My dad’s 82nd birthday is this Friday, June 28th. Normally, I would celebrate with him, eating some peach pie or cobbler, hanging out with the family, laughing, and enjoying his stories. But that celebration won’t happen with him because he is no longer living on earth with me. My dad passed away way too young. He was 54 years old, and I was only 26. Our time together was way too short-lived and I would give anything to have him here in person; especially in June to celebrate Father’s Day and his birthday. By: Ronda Nissley
Encompass Co-Director I grew up in the small town of Kalona, Iowa as the seventh of nine children. My mother never worked outside the home and Dad was employed by a variety of small Christian schools and church agencies – earning a modest income even by standards of that day. Looking back, I’m sure our family would have been classified as “poor” by pretty much any economic measure. To my parent’s credit, I never figured that out until I was an adult. Thanks to my mother’s large garden and skills as a seamstress-we were always well fed and clothed. Encompass Executive Director Lavern Nissley shared this 23-minute SOUL Talk presentation on "The Good: Investing in Healthy Families and Relationships" at The Nehemiah Foundation's annual Case for Community Summit September 8, 2023.
You may want to download a number of items he refers to in the presentation:  The September theme for our social media and blog posts is devotion/faith. As always, there will be relationship health connections in terms of insights, tips, and tools.
By Lavern Nissley Executive Director of Encompass Would you agree that family is the primary means of transmitting faith to the next generation? It certainly seems clear from a familiar scripture in the Jewish Torah known as the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” So how is that done in our setting, some 3,500 years later? Is anyone actually writing stuff on doorframes and wearing headbands with faith messages?  Ronda is the little girl sitting on her Daddy's lap. By: Ronda Nissley
Encompass Co-Director A year ago, I gifted my 92-year-old father a Storyworth subscription for Father’s Day. Each week, he was given a question to which he could respond or simply write his own story. Although we’re still working on completing and editing the stories into their final format, I’m sharing one that has given me a renewed appreciation of the huge responsibility he carried providing for a family of nine children.  Lavern with his Dad, David Nissley, June 21, 2020 Our posts during June will feature the themes of Fathers, Father's Day, Leaders/Leadership.
By Lavern Nissley Encompass Executive Director My Dad would have turned 90 tomorrow, June 8. Although much of my experience of him as a father included spillovers from his own unhealed and unresolved childhood (anger, anxiety, agitation), I still miss him and acknowledge positive takeaways from his life. He passed November 12, 2021 and is buried in Arcola, Illinois at the Sunnyside Mennonite Church cemetery. Mom was buried in the same plot earlier this year after her death March 6. Some of the content you'll see in this post is drawn from A Tribute to Our Dad that Ken, Karen, and I shared at his funeral. But his legacy and impact are anything but buried. In some quirky and interesting ways they live on both in and through me.  By Encompass Outreach Group When you get married, you get your first experience of having in-laws with your partner’s parents. This can often be a time filled with frustration and complications. However, once you have children and they grow up, get married, and have families of their own, you suddenly become the mother-in-law or father-in-law that you once had to deal with. Here’s how to be a good in-law when your child has a family of their own:
 By Encompass Outreach Group While we’ve written about the impact a mother has on our relationships, fathers also influence who we become and, therefore, how we behave in relationships. What kind of father you have, the specific type of relationship you share, and how involved he was in raising you all play a role in the relationships you seek out as an adult.
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HostsDr. David Marine and Theresa Mabry are Co-Directors of Encompass since June 1, 2024. TOPICS
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Funding is provided by Clark County Job and Family Services, Charles L. Shor Foundation, Nehemiah Foundation, Springfield Foundation, Turner Foundation, and private donations and fees.
Program content is the sole responsibility of Encompass Connection Center and does not necessarily represent the views of the funders.
Encompass Connection Center services are provided to all eligible persons on a non-discriminatory basis. Encompass Connection Center complies with all applicable laws and regulations concerning discrimination does not discriminate on the basis of the potential participant's race, gender, gender orientation, age, disability or religion.
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Program content is the sole responsibility of Encompass Connection Center and does not necessarily represent the views of the funders.
Encompass Connection Center services are provided to all eligible persons on a non-discriminatory basis. Encompass Connection Center complies with all applicable laws and regulations concerning discrimination does not discriminate on the basis of the potential participant's race, gender, gender orientation, age, disability or religion.
Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 37-1485217