A brand exists to help people remember who you are and what you mean to them. We want people to see our colors, logos, and images and think about the “easy, light, and rest” of Jesus’ love. After much collaboration with our teams and our designer, we landed on what you see here! Our primary colors are inspired by lavender, which evokes a sense of grace, health, and rest. As you read this report and explore our website you will see all the different design elements included in this update.

We want to make sure that everything we say and write effectively communicates the emotional force behind what we are saying. So now we use the phrase “intimacy-building activities” to describe Love Verses and God Sightings because activities are fun and anyone can do them! Plus, as of this year, we are able to name what we offer in three categories: Teaching, Training, and Touchpoints. A touchpoint is a term in psychology to describe a point in a person’s life that marks the start of a leap in growth. A FLM touchpoint leads to spiritual growth.

Rachel had been working with another writer to clearly and concisely write scripts for all the sessions in our Taste and See series before she was brought on to be our Associate Director. She and her writing partner continued this project throughout the year and are scheduled to wrap up the scripts by year's end. This means that we will be able to move on to the next stage of filming the First Loved: Taste and See teaching and training videos!

Mark has had the great privilege of working with exceptional people over the years to accomplish the mission of FLM. This year, for the first time in FLM’s history, we were able to bring on an Associate Director to work alongside Mark in making our vision a reality. Rachel Delgado has been volunteering with and contributing resources to First Loved for years, and we are thrilled to have her on the team full-time.

To scale our reach and impact we need multiple teams of volunteers doing a variety of tasks. This year we were able to establish an Advisory Team of deeply invested friends of First Loved to help with scaling and sustainability decisions. We also re-established a Discernment Team that meets regularly to pray and listen to the Lord together. Finally, we now have a team of Facilitator Trainers who are editing and updating our training curriculum (See our Things to Come section below for more details!)

Vida 220 is a 10-month discipleship school where Mark teaches First Loved for a week in the fall and Getting Along in the spring. This fall is his 9th school year in the past 10 years (missed a covid year). Students, ages 18-30, come from at least 7 different countries to study at Vida 220. Many have become missionaries, church planters, and leaders in their local churches throughout Latin America.

Check out their website.