Terry and Sara Wilk have a beautiful love story that is part of God’s larger love story for all of us, which was celebrated this past summer at the National Eucharistic Congress.
The couple’s story originates at a challenging point in Sara’s life that underpins her love for God and steadfast commitment to surrendering to his will. In January 2005, her late husband passed away from complications of a genetic neuromuscular disease.
“It was a very difficult time as I was caring for my husband while working and raising three children,” Sara shares.
“God has a plan for everyone’s life. We have to be open to the call and willing to bear the cross that might follow. The beauty in the call is that God fulfills beyond our imagination,” she adds.
“After my late husband’s passing, I turned to Christ for comfort. I slept with the crucifix next to me because he gives me the strength to continuously move forward, especially during this difficult moment in my life. It was not too long after the passing that God’s beauty radiated in my heart in an unexpected nine-hour phone call.”
The Nine-Hour Call
“In September 2005, following a nudge from the Holy Spirit, a friend from my parish Bible study in Traverse City shared my number with a gentleman from Posen. In October 2005, while I was preparing to relocate to Monroe, Mich., I got a call from my now husband, Terry,” Sara explains. “I received the call at nine in the evening, and I asked if we could begin our conversation with a prayer.”
“We prayed the Our Father together for the first time, and at that moment,” Terry recalls, “I knew she was the one for me.”
“Terry had a list of all the items he desired in a spouse. We joke now because after that call I exceeded those items,” informs Sara.
“God is the perfect matchmaker because he knows our interior and exterior,” says Terry.
Their love for each other continued to grow over the next couple of years, even with the distance between Posen and Monroe and their busy lives.
“We would sometimes meet in Grayling, attend Sunday Mass together, enjoy each other’s company for the day, and end the visit giving thanks to God in the adoration chapel at St. Mary’s Church,” the couple shares.
“While I was confident Terry would make an excellent spouse and desired marriage, he needed some reflective time,” offers Sara.
Terry adds: “Since the nine-hour call, I was praying about marriage, and it was through various Scripture readings at Mass that I felt called to marriage. I was discerning priestly vocations at one point, but God knew my heart better than me and moved me towards marriage.”
The two-year courtship that included morning and evening prayers over the phone, rosaries, trips to adoration and Mass, lunches and dinner dates culminated with a complete self-giving of each other on Dec. 28, 2007, at St. Patrick Church in Traverse City when they exchanged their nuptials with Father Bill Lipscomb, Sara’s pastor, and Father Charlie Donajkowski, Terry’s pastor, from Posen officiating at the Mass.
“On that day I became a husband, father and grandfather,” reflects Terry.
“Let go and let God”
“God’s timing is always perfect. Let go and let God,” says Terry. Sara echoes: “It was hard to wait two years from our initial phone discussion, but we were relying on God’s time. So much growth and change can happen during that waiting when you trust in God.”
The beauty in their love story includes the proposal as Terry got permission from her two boys in front of the Blessed Sacrament during eucharistic adoration.
“Self-giving and self-sacrificing are qualities that make marriages real, and when God leads a couple, the radiant love that is shared blossoms into a transforming experience,” shares Terry.
“Today, Sara and I continue to sacrifice for each other since our jobs keep us apart during the week. Sara serves as a nurse at Munson in Traverse City and teaches nursing at Baker College in Cadillac. I help run the family Wilk potato farm in Posen, almost three hours away,” says Terry.
“Each Sunday when we meet at Mass at St. Patrick Church in Traverse City, the reunion is so special for each of us,” adds Sara. “We spend the day together honoring God with our lives and our marriage.”
Prayer, love, communication and God, front and center, are the pillars of their marriage. It was their love for God and the steadfast commitment to opening their hearts to his love that propelled
their participation in the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimages and Congress this past summer.
National Eucharistic Pilgrimages, Congress
Terry and Sara had a unique opportunity to participate in all four eucharistic pilgrimages in the United States before attending the National Eucharistic Congress.
These pilgrimages invite the faithful into the life of Jesus to follow him, to trust him, and to open your heart to him, reflects Terry.
Their unique experience started when the couple was invited, by Sara’s sister, to attend the Diocese of Winona-Rochester’s priestly ordinations. They learned the northern Marian Route of the eucharistic pilgrimage would be traveling through this Minnesota town at that time.
After planning to cross the Mississippi River with the Marian Route pilgrimage, they found out that a second eucharistic pilgrimage was starting in San Francisco at the very time they were slated to be in California for Sara’s son’s college graduation.
“We were excited to follow the St. Junipero Serra Route as a whole family; we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge on the very first day of this pilgrimage,” she explains.
Since they attended these two pilgrimages, Terry suggested they complete the remaining two. So they began planning the next two jaunts.
Steubenville, Ohio was next with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton route where the couple sang hymns and adored Jesus in the Eucharist as the monstrance ventured onto a steamboat to make its voyage 20 miles up the Ohio River.
Finally, the two joined the St. Juan Diego Route at the Proto Cathedral in Bardstown, Ky. “This time allowed us to draw closer to each other as a married couple as we drew closer to Christ in the Eucharist,” offers Terry.
“The four pilgrimages offered us a glimpse of heaven. So many faith-filled Catholics giving praise to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” says Terry. “Through these experiences, our encounter with God is at a deeper level because we realize there is no one we desire more to be with than him. We recognized how much he has done for us, and we learned how much we want to be with him and give him praise,” he adds.
The couple decided to complete their experience by attending the National Eucharistic Congress, where the four pilgrimages would be converging. “This experience was the culmination of all our efforts, and we were not disappointed. We were in awe,” they mutually reflect.
“At the Congress, we were tasked to ‘Walk with One,’” recalls Sara. “To come alongside one person and help draw them back to the fold through charity, sacrifice and prayer. You do not always have to look far to find that one to walk beside as sometimes the charitable sacrifice element is found under your roof.
“The Congress called us to be witnesses of sacrifice and charity and to open our hearts to these qualities, which is the bedrock of organically living our nuptials exchanged under God’s grace, ” Sara added.
When questioned how life is different now, Terry responds, “I love you more.”
“When couples put God at the center of their marriage and attend such events that invite our Lord into a deeper relationship, the marital bond is strengthened and the channels for navigating life’s challenges together are equipped with God’s loving grace,” the couple ends.
