Staff Contact Info.

Marriage and Parenting Resource: Here is a flier of a sample newsletter, "Marriage Moments and Parenting Pointers." This is produced by Susan Vogt and she has excellent resources to support couples and families. Go to her website to review her ample resources: http://www.suanvogt.net/index.html.

Family Life Ideas You Can Use: "The family is to serve life, both physically by bringing children into the world, and spiritually by handling on values and traditions as well as developing the potential of each member to serve life at every age." From Familiaris Consortio, 21. An excellent web site for parenting, an extension of Boys Town, may be found at www.parenting.org. This website has valuable resources, articles and stories that offer parenting help in today's world. It is easy to use with  quick tabs to search by age of children/youth or by topic. We have a few copies of Common Sense Parenting for review. If you'd like a copy of other family life information contact IlaMae Hanisch at hanisch@davenportdiocese.org.

A Natural Family Planning three-part series will be held October 17 and November 21. All sessions will take place in the Fanning Room at the Mercy Plaza, Iowa  City. Persons attending are asked to sign up online at www.ccli.org. For more information contact the Pastoral Care office at Mercy Hospital, 319-339-3556 or the course instructors, Gary and Geralyn Ward, 319-360-4964. Sessions are sponsored by Mercy Hospital and the Couple to Couple League. Here is a list of couples in our diocese that have been trained in Natural Family Planning instructors.

M.O.M.S. (Ministry of Mothers Sharing): This program of spiritual enrichment is designed to help women have a greater awareness of their inner sacred self and teach them new ways to inspire and affirm each other. Renee J. Crock has led several MOMS groups in her parish and she has completed training with Sr. Paula Hagen (MOMS co-creator) at St. Paul's Monastery in St. Paul, MN. We welcome her as a regional coordinator. If you have MOMS groups in your parish please let her know how she might resource you. If you would like more information about MOMS or would like to start this program, please contact Renee at rjayck@iowatelecom.net or 563-886-1249.

Free Marriage Resource:

Weekly "news bites" are available from Family Matters, a website designed by Susan Vogt. A Marriage Moment and a Parenting Pointer will be emailed each week and you have permission to include them in your parish bulletin or newsletter (giving the appropriate source information as a footnote) or have a link to them on your parish website. Sign up to receive free news bits and other very useful family information on her website, www.susanvogt.net. Susan has worked in diocesan family life education for the Catholic Church and been a consultant with the ecumenical Parenting for Peace and Justice Network for over 30 years. She is currently editor of the Journal of the National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers (NACFLM) and content editor for the USCCB website on marriage, www.foryourmarriage.org.