In September, we chose to create the Marriage Can Be Forever Project as a Baha'i-inspired global social and economic development initiative. We are still very much in the early stages of setting up this project and creating its direction. In early December we had the bounty of a group of wonderful souls coming to our home for a "workday" to create activities for couples to get to know each other's characters. In addition, we spent time creating project purpose and mission statements. Here's what we've come up with:

PURPOSE:

Empower people to create happy, lasting, spiritually-based marriages – the foundation of a prosperous, unified world.

MISSION STATEMENT:

Create practical resources and powerful learning opportunities to support successful marriage preparation, and to sustain and balance the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical aspects of married life.

Also in December we were trained through the PREPARE/ENRICH organization to work with couples on assessing the strengths and growth areas of their relationships. We are adding to our knowledge and skills so we can keep up with you all!

Many people are volunteering to assist the project, which is a huge blessing. We so appreciate the excitement people have about making a difference with families and marriages. Please be patient with us as we go through the process of determining how to utilize everyone's skills, create an organization, sort out the time needed, and much more. We will be more and more relying on you for input and assistance. We are doing our very best to balance creating new materials, doing workshops, and growing the project all at once! Your prayers and encouragement are invaluable to us.

Susanne Alexander and Craig Farnsworth

Marriage Educators

Project Development: Advisory Board Needed

We are forming an advisory board for the project. Please contact Susanne at susanne@claricomm.com to request an outline of the qualifications and requirements if you wish to serve...or if you know of someone who may be a possibility.

Marriage Week USA

February 7-14 is Marriage Week USA, as designated by the Coalition for Marriage, Family, and Couples Education. Here's a few simple things you can consider doing that week (or any time you are inspired!):

· Express appreciation to a couple who is married for the example they are setting to others

· Throw a "Celebrate Marriage" party

· Hold a study session about marriage and learn new skills and practices that will contribute to your own marriage

· Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about the importance of strong marriages

Be sure to check out the Smart Marriages Website at www.smartmarriages.com for more information!

New Materials Under Development

Our new facilitator's guidebook to assist groups to work with "Marriage Can Be Forever--Preparation Counts!" is undergoing its final review and edit, and we plan to have it available for purchase in March/April. Our listserve members are currently participating in developing names for it. Its primary developers are Susanne Alexander and Johanna Merritt Wu, Ph.D. with input from many creative people.

Book Distribution

We are currently selling the first and second editions of "Marriage Can Be Forever--Preparation Counts!" through Amazon Marketplace (the new & used button next to our book listing), www.amazon.com. Please use it rather than placing orders on the main Amazon screen. Orders for the second edition can also be placed with Special Ideas (www.special-ideas.com) and Baha'i Gear (www.bahaigear.com). See our website for other distributors too (www.marriagecanbeforever.com).

Workshops in the News...

Our "Both Eyes Open: The Adventure of Relationships" workshop at the Baha’i Home Wilmette, Illinois October 31-Nov 2, 2003 was a great success! Almost 75 people attended from across the country, ages 16 to 72! We were blessed by sponsorship of the Maine Township Spiritual Assembly and new facilitators, the fun and energetic Nevin Jenkins and Mahsa Khelghati joining us. Betsy Calabro supported us as volunteer staff all weekend with others as assistants.

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Nevin also did a great job presenting at the D.C. Youth Congress in December with Ingrid Wallace assisting him. Craig and Susanne as well as facilitator-in-training Jessica Gaines presented a workshop at the Ohio Midwinter Youth Conference in December as well.

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We attended the Social and Economic Development Conference in Orlando in December and gained much knowledge about project management. Over 130 people attended our session, with standing room only! We are so excited our work is reaching out to so many! Ingrid Wallace and Keith Schlesinger coped wonderfully distributing handouts through the crowd!

Upcoming Events

April 25-27, 2004 Insights: Young Adult Conference

Louhelen Baha'i School, www.louhelen.org

This conference will include a session on marriage preparation.

There will be a weekend workshop in the greater Atlanta area in the upcoming months! Stay tuned to the marriagecanbeforever@yahoogroups.com listserve for further details!! Other areas are consulting about

hosting workshops as well.

**Note: Details for sponsoring our full weekend workshops are available upon request (email susanne@claricomm.com). If you have needs for shorter sessions, please communicate your needs, and we will attempt to meet them.**

The Reading Room

We have discovered these wonderful books that include spiritual principles that support lasting marriages,

and are very excited to share them with you!

30 Secrets of Happily Married Couples

Dr. Paul Coleman, 1994, ISBN: 1558501665

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families

Stephen R. Covey, 1997, ISBN: 0307440087

Hints for Successful Facilitators

Often people need to have their hands busy to assist them to concentrate during sessions. Sometimes this can also assist them to express feelings and thoughts in unique ways. We find it can be helpful to have on hand items like colored blocks of modeling beeswax, pipecleaners, colored pencils, clay, small toys, and so on that people can pick up and use as needed.

An Activity to Try Out: Walking Your Own Path

Here's an activity from the upcoming facilitator's guidebook that you can do individually or as a group:

You are walking the pathway of preparing for a spiritually-based marriage. On a piece of paper, draw the journey, what the path looks like. Draw who you might encounter along the way. What landmarks would indicate that you are making progress? What might be an obstacle? What forks in the path might indicate choices to be made? What might distract you on your journey? What might cause you to step off the path? Where are you headed in your relationships along the path? Who are the people and things you meet along the way? Share your drawing with someone else or with your group.

Listserves

Sign Up Today!

Note: It's best to be on the main project listserve as well as whichever specialty listserve fits for you. We will do our best to not post the same information to more than one list.

Best way to get project-related news and announcements:
MarriageCanBeForever-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Place to have discussions about marriage and relationship-related topics:
MarriageCanBeForeverDiscuss-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

For parents to discuss assisting their children with relationships:
MarriageCanBeForeverParents-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

For facilitators or those interested in facilitating:
MarriageCanBeForeverFacilitator-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Feedback Needed

We hope you’ve enjoyed our newsletter! Please email us at staff@claricomm.com with your feedback or if you’d like to see something added in future issues!

ClariComm Group Claricomm Publishing

P.O. Box 23085 Cleveland, OH 44123 USA

(216) 383-9943

susanne@claricomm.com

www.marriagecanbeforever.com