About Us
 In 1973, Sister Josephine Stewart, a family counselor at the Catholic Renewal Center in Fort Worth, Texas and a divorced friend, Jo Lamia, attended a Marriage Encounter weekend with the intention of developing a program for engaged couples. In the course of the weekend, Ms. Lamia adapted the Marriage Encounter process to face issues and concerns in her own life that had never been addressed. At the close of the weekend, Sister Josephine saw a profound change occur in her friend.
The copyrighted program was soon in motion throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Great Britain and Ireland. Today, 117 certified teams of peer ministers present the program in communities on three continents. The origins of Beginning Experience in North Dakota date from November 1979 when 12 people from eastern North Dakota attended a Beginning Experience Weekend in Watertown, SD. In April 1980, these 12 people became the first B.E. Team of Eastern North Dakota and presented the first B. E. Weekend at Valley City, ND. Current active Beginning Experience support groups are located in these cities in ND., Bottineau, Devils Lake, Fargo, Grand Forks, Jamestown and Fergus Falls, MN | ||
