About Us

Growing Together in Marriage (GTIM) is a marriage enrichment programme, which is held in South Australia on selected weekends throughout the year.

This non-denominational programme was started by several couples in the Uniting Church who benefited from participating in a programme called “Marriage Encounter”, initiated by Father Gabriel Calvo in his ministry to Spanish couples in the late 1950s.

GTIM is now run by a diverse group of couples of various ages and stages of marriage, and from a variety of churches. It is regularly reviewed and updated.

From 2018, Growing Together in Marriage is a ministry of Baptist Churches of South Australia.


Abbotsford Country House

Weekend Venue

Our weekends are held at Abbotsford Country House in Lyndoch.

The venue is located one hour’s drive from Adelaide, in the picturesque Barossa Valley.

All meals are included, and our team provides the complete GTIM programme across the weekend.

Meet the team

The Team

Person

Rob & Lee Allen

Team Leaders
Person

Bruce & Hua Burman

Team Members / Registrars
Person

Fred & Lesley Vince

Team Members
Person

Steve & Val D’Arcy

Team Members
Person

Dean & Anita Turner

Team Members
Person

Kym & Kay Riding

Team Members
Person

Noel & Elim Verma

Team Members
Person

Josh & Rach Pang

Team Members

Our Weekends

GTIM weekends start at 8pm on the Friday evening and run through to about 3.30pm on the Sunday.

100% discreet

No one is asked to share publicly about their marriage (no group discussions).

Connect with love

Following each talk, each person has time to interact with their partner on the same topic in the privacy of their own room.

Engaging talks

A team of three leader couples presents a series of talks on various aspects of marriage, drawing heavily on their own personal experiences of joy, pain, laughter and frustration.

Move to the next level

Deepen your communication and understand your partner's feelings, joys, disappointments, hopes.

Look deeper

Take time out from your busy lives to focus on each other.

Get in touch!

The couples who currently present the weekends are listed on this site. They welcome your enquiries by phone or email.

Couples Say...

Some comments from couples who have attended a weekend:

“I was a bit apprehensive about going and sharing publicly about our marriage, not that we have any issues (well, major ones, anyway!) but was relieved and delighted that there was no public sharing or group discussions — in fact, we only talked together in our room, after hearing from the leaders. It was great to have time away from everyone and everything to do that.”

Sandra M.

“…blessed, fulfilled and re-invigorated after attending the GTIM weekend. Flabbergasted with the openness and honesty of the leader couples and the encouragement it has provided us in our own marriage. Wonderful program. If only more people knew about GTIM, it would certainly heal and save many broken relationships.”

Couple, married 10+ years

“We shared an amazing weekend together. Having the opportunity to spend a whole weekend together focusing on ‘us’ gave valuable time to explore some of those niggling issues that we had pushed aside and yet had become the source of some negativity between us. Although there were many tears (and laughs!) we experienced an incredible true intimacy and a new deepened love.”

Dean & Anita T. (Attendees and now Team Members)

“We were blown away by the weekend … [the Team’s] willingness to share, humbleness, love and humour. Who would know after 34 years of marriage we could learn more about each other and feel closer? Massive things happened for us. What an amazing program. So grateful to the Team for making this happen.”

Russ & Jane (October 2023)

“The weekend was life-changing for both of us in ways that can’t be explained with words. God's intervention in our marriage at that time has been dramatic and exceeded anything that we could have hoped for or predicted.”

Dennis & Brenda W.

“Marriage is something to celebrate, something to enjoy and something that can do with a bit of maintenance once in a while, in order to keep it fresh. We’d like to tell you that a GTIM weekend can be one of the most refreshing and beneficial things you can do for your marriage.”

Dean & Vivienne C.

“GTIM helped us realise that putting all our energies into raising our three boys was askew; we needed to make it a priority to enjoy time together and focus on ‘us’.”

Couple, married 20+ years

Dates

November 2024 Update: Weekend dates for 2025 are shown below.

Click the “Enquire Now” buttons to jump down to the contact form, where you can get in touch to enquire about or register for a particular weekend.

Abbotsford Country House

Jun 27–29

Winter weekend


  • 2 nights accommodation
  • All meals included
  • Full GTIM programme
  • $590/couple ($100 deposit)
Enquire Now

Abbotsford Country House

Aug 29–31

Winter weekend


  • 2 nights accommodation
  • All meals included
  • Full GTIM programme
  • $590/couple ($100 deposit)
Enquire Now

Abbotsford Country House

Oct 31–Nov 2

Spring weekend


  • 2 nights accommodation
  • All meals included
  • Full GTIM programme
  • $590/couple ($100 deposit)
Enquire Now

Get in touch

Use this form to request a booking, register your interest for a weekend or make a general enquiry. One of our team will then get in touch with you. If you don't receive an email confirmation within a few days, please call our Registrar, Bruce Burman on 0417870410 to discuss.

If you are enquiring about an upcoming weekend that is within the next few weeks, please call our Coordinators, Rob & Lee Allen on 0438892980 to confirm that accomodation is still available.

Should you choose to book a weekend, payment details will be provided by the Registrar via email.