National Marriage Week is celebrated from February 7 - February 14. To celebrate, we asked the international TEC family to share stories of couples who met their spouse on TEC! Check out the compilation of stories we received below:
Blake & Joy Steckler—SWITEC
Married 1 year
Though we belonged to the same homeschool group growing up, Blake and I didn't really get the opportunity to know each other until we both served on the SWITEC #99 Wheat Team. We clicked right away, and I even started to like him a little, but I was happy just being good friends. In March of 2019, I had liked someone else, but when I realized it wasn't going to work out, I had a giant heart to heart with God and asked him to give me peace in the single life and to let me use this time to focus on Him and trust His plan for my life. I felt so much better and was excited to just let go for a while. Three days later, Blake called me and asked me to be his date for an upcoming dance. I was very taken aback, but I gladly said yes! Blake and I went on our first date on Palm Sunday in 2019, and the rest is history! Three years later, on Divine Mercy weekend, we received the Sacrament of Matrimony and have since had a sweet baby girl.
Christie & Keith Dewig—SWITEC
Married 6 years
My husband and I met through SWITEC back in 2014 on TEC #86. We worked together on this TEC and started a friendship that led to a relationship. He even proposed at a later TEC reunion. It will be 7 years of marriage on August 27th (St Monica's feast day), and we have 2 boys. We are forever grateful for the way TEC has changed our lives.
Mat & Janelle Stephens—Mid-America TEC
Married 7 years
Although we had both been on many TECs, we had never been on one together, when mutual TEC friends asked us to sing at their wedding. A month after meeting at the wedding we served on a TEC weekend together. On the Sunday night after prayer, we ended up staying up talking all night long, and by 3 AM we both knew this was the person we were going to marry (though neither of us voiced the thought out loud). We were married 13 months later and have a 2.5 year old son, Micah.
Cole & Bailey Marxen – Peoria TEC
Married 8 years
Both of our families have been involved with the Northwest Peoria Diocese TEC since the very beginning. We grew up in and around the community. My wife's first TEC was #258 and mine was #266. We became friends pretty early on, and I became very close with her mother. In fact I have been calling her mom "Momma Cherry" since I was 16 years old. We hung out a few times in high school but nothing romantic was ever even thought of. After high school I went on to join the US Navy and we lost touch. Over 18 months into my first tour we reconnected via Facebook and less than 8 months later we were married. We have now been married for 8 years and have 4 beautiful children together!
David & Maribel Sanders—Great River TEC
Married 9 years
My husband David and I met in December of 2008 while going to meetings for TEC # 256 in Quincy, IL. We didn’t really get to know each other much on the weekend other than the occasional interaction. We started messaging back and forth after the weekend and went out with friends from the TEC community a couple of times before we finally decided to go on a date. We were married on September 7, 2013. God is good! We have a beautiful family with 3 little boys. All because God had a plan for us on that January TEC #256 weekend.
James & Katie Boyles—Great River TEC
Married 13 years
My husband James and I started our relationship on my first TEC weekend. He was a senior at my high school and I was a sophomore. We went to the same youth group, but we did not speak much. He did tell me I should go on TEC and that he would be on a particular one. So I went thinking I would have at least one person I knew. Well, he didn't show up until lunch. He was a Wheatie. It was a huge comfort to finally see him. He was a tether for me and still is. I know God woke my soul up that weekend. His plan for me was James. We began dating 6 weeks after that TEC. We married 5 months after I graduated high school. We have seven children ages 12-20 months.
Cory & Susan Knapp – Belleville TEC
Married 19 years
Our TEC center used to coordinate an annual service mission trip for members of the TEC community who had graduated high school and were interested in volunteering a week of their summer. About 15-20 of us would travel to Appalachian Kentucky (5-6 hours away) to make much-needed home repairs for local residents who needed assistance. My husband and I had both been on several TECs within our community at that point, but met for the first time when we worked together putting down linoleum in a bathroom in Kentucky in 1999. We dated for four years before getting married in 2003, have had four children.
Dale & Melinda Kreher – Omaha TEC
Married 43 years
We met on Omaha TEC #4, which was in October of 1976. Melinda was working as an observer, having made her original TEC weekend in Des Moines, IA. Dale was working as a Resource. He had made weekends in Sparta, IL; St. Louis, MO; and International Falls, MN.
We got to know each other through the team meetings and on the TEC weekend. We had many of the same friends. Things slowly developed from being friends into dating and eventually marrying on June 8, 1979. We will be married 44 years on our next wedding anniversary. We have 4 children and 8 grandchildren.
Billy & Sara O'Regan – TEC New Orleans
Married 17 years
We met on TEC New Orleans #82 in January 2002. Billy had been involved in TEC for about five years and was serving on that weekend as the Assistant Spiritual Director. Sara had been invited to attend TEC several times by some college pals who were also mutual friends of Billy. The timing hadn’t worked out until that January. Sparks flew! Within a month of the retreat, Billy and Sara started dating long-distance. After Sara graduated with her masters, she found a job in the New Orleans area, and they were married in 2005. About a fourth of the wedding attendees were TEC people. In 2014, they adopted their daughters Jess and Rita.
