Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s Ben M. Elrod Center for Family and Community will host Dating, Engagement and Marriage Week March 9-14 on Ouachita’s campus. The theme is incorporated into ongoing events that students already attend each week such as Noonday, chapel and Refuge. Current students, alumni, faculty and their spouses will be speaking throughout the week.

“Our desire is to help OBU students learn to communicate and have healthy, strong relationships with the opposite sex and this week goes a long way toward helping them do this,” said Judy Duvall, assistant director of the Elrod Center.

At 12 noon on Monday, the Noonday service will feature a panel on dating with current students Zach and Ashley Wright speaking.

On Tuesday, university counselor Dan Jarboe will speak about dating during chapel at 10 a.m. Then at 6 p.m., the engaged and married couples dinner will be held at the Honeycomb Restaurant. James Taylor, campus ministries director, and his wife, Amy, and Terese Cox, assistant director of campus ministries, and her husband, Michael, director of student life, will be the speakers and facilitators for the evening.

Noonday on Wednesday will be a panel on engagement along with speakers Joey Dodson, assistant professor of Biblical studies, and his wife, Sadie.

Refuge will be held on Thursday at 9 p.m. at Second Baptist Church featuring Ouachita alum Brandon Barnard speaking about dating.

A panel on marriage will be held at Noonday on Friday with speakers Tully Borland, assistant professor of philosophy, and his wife, Amy. Friday at 5 p.m. begins the engaged and married couples retreat at the Wingate Hotel in Little Rock. The speakers for the weekend are Steve Lee, professor of psychology at Huntington University, and his wife Twyla, director of social work education at Huntington. The topic will be “Communication in Marriage.”

“Last year, we changed the traditional ‘Marriage and Family Week’ to ‘Dating, Engagement and Marriage Week’ to make it applicable to more of our students,” Duvall said. “It is a week dedicated to helping our students build good, solid relationships under the Lordship of Christ.”

For more information visit the Elrod Center’s website at www.obu.edu/elrod and follow the link to Dating, Engagement and Marriage Week.

 

by Genevieve Horton