One Accord

This past week was very exciting for me, and Valentines had nothing to do with it. ;)

On Thursday, February 13th, I launched the first of many more groups for One Accord.

From the website (which isn't quite ready to be published yet)...

One Accord is a community and inter-church pre-marital program. The goal of the program is to equip seriously dating and/or engaged couples with the skillset needed to foster healthy marriages. It is built upon the idea that marriages are the foundation of communities. If the marriages aren't strong, balanced and secure, then this impacts the family base, and the wider community. It is our hope that through One Accord we can assist with the strengthening of our nation...one couple at a time.

The program is set to run for 10 weeks, engaging up to 7 couples on everything related to creating solid marriages. Core topics include: understanding female/male differences, marital expectations, communication, conflict resolution, finances, and parenting. Couples will be engaged in couple and group activities within session, and will be expected to complete assignments together at home (date night).

In addition to the main facilitators, One Accord also invites other professionals and lay couples to share their expertise on matters related to creating a vision for your marriage, marriage and the law, marriage and finances, boundaries, and finally on building lasting relationships.

As I mentioned, we just got started with our first cycle of couples with the plan to expand to multiple cycles per year. We will look at demand to determine the frequency in these early years, but for sure we will offer one more cycle this year and then at least another two cycles in 2015.

One Accord will eventually offer a mentoring component. I hope to gain support of couples within local churches and community to serve in this position.  Additionally, as the program grows, I see our past couples serving as mentors for new participants.  Beyond that, also having regular retreats for the networking of the now married couples will provide a forum for the continued growth and upkeep of the newly formed families. It is my dream to create a network of couples who will have access to the facilitators and each other even beyond their group setting via blog, email, newsletters, and marital activities/retreats. 

What the blurb doesn't share is how long I've been dreaming of this program. It's been almost 8 years that I participated (as a co-facilitator) in a similar program in South Florida and decided that I would launch something similar at my church. Since then the vision has expanded and rather than tie it to any particular church, I've opened it up and advertising it as a community and inter-church group. I've been collecting information over the years and just archiving everything. 

Can you imagine how exciting last Thursday must have been for me? :D It was almost like having another baby!

If you pray, I'm asking for prayers for wisdom, favor, and success. If you don't---I'll take positive thoughts about the same.

Grace, peace and love as I build community!
Gia