Roger & Denise Friesen - Founders

Roger & Denise, a pastor’s kid and a no-nonsense mom. While there are no letters behind their names, Roger and Denise have a Ph.D in caring for people.

Roger & Denise met and married in 1983. They began ministering and mentoring couples together in 1995 shortly after God miraculously restored their marriage after a 3 year period of turmoil. God restored their marriage and they were given a challenge: glorify God through our marriage and use what He had taught us to give others hope and healing. SOS Marriage Care was formed.

Roger has 25 years experience in electrical wholesale sales and 7 years as a Tupperware distributor. Denise sold Tupperware for 20 years and “retired” in 1997 to be a mom to 4 children.

After a 13 year stint of living in Springfield, Missouri, God sent them to another Springfield – Nebraska! – near their home town of Omaha where both their parents reside.

The Friesen’s enjoy entertaining, cooking together, gardening and taking care of their 22-acre hobby farm, which includes many pets and animals. Roger & Denise have 3 married daughters and 1 married son, and 11 grandchildren.

Email Roger
Email Denise

Caleb & Sara Turack

We are Sara and Caleb Turack! We met and were married at Coram Deo in 2015, where we attend and serve with our 3 kids.

Life has consistently had twists and turns we never expected. We thank God for the truths he taught us beginning in pre-marital preparations with Roger and Denise.

We are thankful for our support network of friends, that are more like family now from SOS. We are passionate to see people come to know God’s design for marriage.

We own our own businesses and enjoy getting our kids involved in our businesses as much as possible.

Mark & Donna Aman

Marriage is hard. Hardly anyone tells you that before the proposal. The movies make it look pretty easy and if it is not, well then something is wrong and you just shouldn't be married anymore. Both Mark and I experienced the disappointment when our first "happily-ever-afters" didn't go quite like we thought and we have seen the effect on our children.

As Mark and I prepared to marry, each entering our second marriage, we knew we would need help. We found that help in SOS Marriage Care. Our pre-engagement and pre-marital mentoring taught us that yes, marriage is hard, but God allows it to be that way to help us become more like Jesus, to set our selfish desires aside and minister to each other. Our spouse is His gift to us, not our enemy. Through Heart Care, we were able to check our baggage in with the Lord and forgive the pains of yesterday so that we could learn how to share our hurts, minister to each other's hurts and hang onto His hope for our family's tomorrows. Today, so many couples need that hope, the truth that marriage is hard, but hope in knowing that He has a purpose for them as a couple. Early in our marriage, Mark and I felt called to help spread that hope and began ministering to challenged couples in our church. We apply the core principles of Heart Care in all that we do. We have had the privilege and blessing of leading couples through Heart Care and seeing how the Lord works in their relationships and their families. Following His lead, we accepted the call to join the Board of Directors of SOS Marriage Care.

A mission field we often overlook – the struggling families in our neighborhoods and our congregations. That is where SOS Marriage Care intercedes as the missionaries for marriages in our churches and neighborhoods. SOS Marriage Care has directly served hundreds of couples with 4-night intensive Heart Care mentoring and trained hundreds more to be mentors within their own churches. 

We are honored to support His work in the mission field of marriage to SOS Marriage Care.

Email Mark
Email Donna

Dusty & Jaci White

He is a city kid from Nebraska. She grew up on a farm in Montana. They met and committed to the covenant of marriage in Minnesota in 2000. And now they have six fantastic kids!

After they graduated from college in Minnesota they spent some time in the San Francisco Bay Area launching a college ministry before returning to Omaha - Dusty’s home town. Dusty is the Pastor of Marriage and Family at Coram Deo Church Community where he helps lead the church in both proactive and reactive family-focused ways. In addition to the pastoral work he serves as an Omaha Police Department Chaplain and they both count it a privilege to have been in full-time vocational ministry since 2002.

If they aren’t corralling their own kids or investing in their own marriage, you can most likely find them helping other couples or families mature in self-awareness as they direct them to gospel-centered biblical hope. They enjoy unhurried time on the family farm, motorcycle rides, baseball games, and remodeling projects around the house.

Email Dusty & Jaci

Andrew & Emma Bayly

Hi, we are Andrew and Emma Bayly. We got married just a couple weeks after we both graduated college in 2015 and then we had 4 kids in 3 years. Andrew works in construction management and Emma is a part time pediatric nurse and part time homeschool mom.  

 We both had very different childhoods but both led us to the same goal walking into marriage: that we would make it work and stay together, no matter the cost. Inevitably we hit some tough seasons in our marriage and resentment began to grow so we decided to do Heart Care. This decision was life changing. We began to understand each other on a new level; to have empathy, compassion and grace for each other even when we couldn’t relate to the other’s feelings. Through each trial we have been through we have seen evidences of God’s grace to us. We moved from a posture of needing to dig our heels in to “make it work, no matter the cost” to a posture of excitement and anticipation of what God could do in and through our marriage. By no means do we have it figured out but we are excited to help further God’s design for marriage by helping others experience the grace and freedom that we have.

Oh, and Emma happens to be Roger and Denise’s daughter :).

Email Andrew
Email Emma

Scott & Jennifer Marion

We are Scott & Jen Marion, married 29.5 years with three adult children, two kids-in-law and two grandsons all living nearby in Omaha. We attend Relevant Community Church and have been leading the Marriage Support ministry for about 11 years. We are originally from the south (Scott - NC, Jen - AL) but have lived in many states since we were there. Scott works at Lindsay Corporation, and we love to travel, so Jen joins Scott on work trips as often as possible. 

 We have been using Heart Care primarily with couples in crisis for about six years. We lead couples through it, with the help of a mentor couple who commits to walking with the original couple for at least a year.

We have had the privilege of sitting on the front row of people’s lives and watching God redeem their hearts and marriages. Honestly, we don’t know why He trusts us to do this, but we are grateful that He does and we are passionate about helping hurting or ‘just surviving’ couples move into the thriving relationship God intends. We have several mentor couples on our team who are willing to walk alongside and we invite our Pastors into mentorship when they are available. 

 We believe God is calling us deeper into Heart Care by joining the board because we have seen it work firsthand and we are believers in the work and in Roger and Denise. We can see ways that SOS Marriage can grow and evolve, and are enthusiastic about assisting in whatever capacity necessary to see more couples become what God has intended for them all along. 

Email Scott and Jennifer
Relevant Church, Elkhorn, NE