By Kimberly Wolford, Student Reporter

The ACU Counseling Center, Peer Health Education and the Department of Sociology and Family Studies will collaborate to present “Sacred Relationships Week” Saturday through Wednesday.

The week will begin Saturday with a marriage retreat. Steve Eller, a counselor with the Counseling Center, said registration for the retreat is already closed. Unfortunately, all available spots were filled before most of the campus heard about the retreat, Eller said. Dr. Greg Smalley, will be the guest speaker, and 32 married couples from the ACU community will participate in the retreat.

Smalley is the director of marriage ministries for the Center of Relationship Enrichment and an assistant professor of marriage and family studies at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Ark.

Smalley will speak during Chapel in Moody Coliseum Monday. He will also speak at a Chapel forum titled “Growing Healthy Relationships,” from 2-3:00 p.m. Those attending the forum will earn three Chapel credits, Eller said.

The Counseling Center, Peer Health Education and the Department of Sociology and Family Studies will present a relationships fair Wednesday in the Campus Center.

Naomi Mandel, a counselor with the Counseling Center and peer health coordinator, said eight students are helping with the relationships fair.

“We realize that talking about relationships doesn’t do much to help relationships,” Mandel said. “We are making it possible for you to practically connect with someone else.”

During the relationships fair, members of Peer Health Education will be handing out coffee mugs with the verse I John 3:18 inscribed on them: “Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Students will receive two mugs each when they visit Peer Health Education’s booth, Mandel said.

“The point is to do it like ‘The Big Give,” she said.

Students are expected to keep a mug for themselves and give one to a friend or someone they wish to grow closer with.

Each mug will have a tea bag or hot cocoa mix inside. They also will have cards with tips on how to “massage your heart” and foster relationships. Cards with questions to develop new friendships or grow old friendships will be provided at the fair.

“This way, you have everything you need to go out and just hang out with other people,” Mandel said.

Eller said the Department of Sociology and Family Studies and the Counseling Center will have booths set up during the fair.

More activities during Sacred Relationships Week will be announced as plans are finalized, Eller said. The main point of the week is to spend more time focusing on relationships, she said.

“I think it is important for us to take these opportunities, even if they are brief, to take advantage of the things we let slip,” Eller said.