January 16, 2013 Issue 37 ~ “Our First Year ~ LOLACHE Benefits in 2012”
Hello Friends,
As I’m settling into my new home, I’m also easing my way back into business. I’ve so missed my work and routine, but I’m particularly hopeful now that my work space is once again in my home. I’ll be able to accomplish so much more this year with my life and work all centralized! No more wasting time driving, and I can putter around in my office in the evenings whenever I’m up for it. I feel calmly excited at the prospects for this coming year.
Don’t you just enjoy fresh starts? The new year evokes a sense of new beginnings, and even though I’m a bit late in getting this year started due to our move, I still wanted to spend some time taking stock over the past year, and being thankful for all that we accomplished to provide the Lord’s ministry to our members. I thought you might be interested in what I discovered as I tallied up the benefits we put on the LOLACHE website for our members in our first year of operation as a membership association!
LOLACHE Benefits:
Conference Call Seminars—We held 59 1-hour conference calls, and we made 2 additional testimonial audios!
Here’s a breakdown of the audio seminars:
11-Love’s Actions, Barbie Poling
9-Heart of Learning, Marilyn Howshall
16-Lifestyle of Learning™ Beginnings Interviews
Audio Transcripts—We’ve provided 44 transcripts to go with the audios!
Kids Character Blog—Rachel Poling wrote 46 instructional blogs on all sorts of family relational topics for parents to read with their kids!
Miss Marilyn’s Visits—Our film crew produced 47 videos in 2 categories!
Featured Member—18 of our members blessed us by allowing us to feature their family with pictures and descriptions of their family’s lifestyle of learning!
Mommy Blog—22 members blogged their family’s experiences with lifestyle of learning!
Kids Forum—We have quite an active kids forum with over 600 topics being discussed in 37 categories of subject interest, accompanied by many wonderful photos and videos!
Moms Forum—Over 200 topics being discussed!
LOL Blogs by Marilyn and Barbie—49 (not counting the posts from the archives)
133 Members in our first year of operation!
Other Lifestyle of Learning™ Activity:
Facebook Party—We hosted our 1st Facebook party and gave away lots of materials and discounts!
Mini Coaching Programs—We produced 5 mini coaching programs in Making Heart-Level Connections, available in the member eStore at a 25% discount! 24 of our members participated in all 5 programs when they were being held live! Several others participated in one or more of them.
New Website—We built a new “seeker-friendly” website that features 5 instructional videos in preparation for promoting our upcoming kindle books through Amazon! homeschoolcurriculumoflife.com
It’s truly been a lot of work that we hope has benefitted you in many ways. Now I’d like to tell you a little about my team members who serve me and you.
My TEAM Members
Barbie Poling and her kids have been the driving force behind our weekly efforts to get benefits to you. They film and edit videos, write blogs, provide technical support, produce our eNewsletter, provide customer service, and many other business-related tasks. They’ve been doing such a great job, and they sacrifice other areas of their lives to serve us. I haven’t the words to express my gratitude for the Lord placing them in my life. They have been so lovingly dedicated in their service.
Mike and Nancy Lama help us with miscellaneous editorial tasks when we have a need. Mike collects notes in preparation for my son and daughter-in-love to write video scripts, and Nancy proofreads manuscripts when we have a need. The work they do is so far behind the scenes that it may seem insignificant, but our written materials would never be able to get out to you and others without their valuable expertise. This year we’ll be launching several Kindle books with Nancy’s devoted help, and launching the 1st season of the Seven Seasons to LYFE coaching program with Mike’s preparatory work making it possible. I’m so grateful they are lending their fine, sharp minds to our work.
My son, John, and his wife, Eireen, have helped us whenever possible with video projects and some weekly tasks, and have just begun this month to work on the new Seven Seasons to LYFE coaching program that we will begin to make available one section at a time sometime this year. We are really excited to finally be able to move this huge project forward!
My sister, Carolyn, edits all of our audios and types up the transcripts for them. This is by far one of the most time-consuming and tedious jobs that has to be done weekly. This is why we contract it out. We are not yet able to pay her what her time is worth for creating a truly professional product for us, but are hopeful for increase this year! I’m really grateful she is commited to continue helping us to provide for you. We’ve heard from many of you how much you value the transcripts.
Before I close, I want to make special mention of my dear friend and co-laborer, Barbie Poling, who has been with me in every detail, helping me to “come back” from a severe health crisis and lending her talents to help me rebuild the ministry God entrusted to me 20+ years ago. Words cannot express how blessed I am to have her in my life. I know she has blessed many of you as well with her practical insights to heart-level parenting.
I remember from a book I read long ago an acronym for T.E.A.M.—Together Everyone Achieves Miracles! We certainly have achieved what has seemed miraculous to me today, all due to the love, support, and expert help of these dear ones who have made themselves available to learn and grow with our ministry and business needs.
We are looking forward to providing a couple of new benefits for our members this year! Barbie and I hope to get going by the end of the month in providing mini inspirational videos for you. I’m also going to be working on another mini seminar idea just for members. I’ll let you know more about these plans later when they’re more firmly set in place.
I hope you will visit the forum and let us know you’re there! We’d like to get to know you and bless you as the Lord leads. Barbie joins me in praying abundant spiritual blessings in your family this year!
Marilyn Howshall for Lifestyle of Learning™ Ministries
[Lifestyle of Learning™/LOLACHE eNewsletter ~ January 16, 2013, Issue 37]
That is astounding! Looking at those numbers makes me even more grateful for all the work you’ve all done! THANK YOU!
You’re welcome Michelle and bless you for being so grateful! It blesses me a lot! ~ Marilyn