|
(Revised April 2012) Greetings to our
family and friends, business associates, Daily Encouragement readers and supporters. Weber Family We would like to share this update on our family and ministry through Spring 2012. We continue to give a heavy focus to our online Daily Encouragement Ministry, which we consider our main steady ongoing ministry. Through our various internet writings and podcasts we are ministering to many people all over the world and are so grateful for the continual feedback indicating this to be true. The entire daily project normally takes us all morning and often into the early afternoon to complete as we both work on it together in our home office on two separate computers. Finances: We want to thank those who have supported our ministry; either by praying for us, by telling others about our internet ministry, by your financial gifts to our ministry, or by your kind words of commendation. Asking for financial support is not something we have ever felt comfortable in doing. We choose never to whine because God is always good to us!! We trust Him to lay on the hearts of His people the desire to support our ministry according to the difference we've made in their lives, along with a shared burden to reach others with this internet ministry as a mission. We seek to be a blessing to all and never want financial giving to be guilt driven, but rather a response of affirmation and support toward our ministry as the Lord directs. If you would like to donate to Daily Encouragement Net please see this page. This page also has some foundational fundraising principles we follow. For current YTD offerings to this ministry see the daily email post (in the footers) or on the main website on the left side of the page. Other income sources: We consider ourselves intentionally "multi-vocational". Corporate chaplaincy: We serve local companies throughout our area, as well as an assisted living center, as part-time corporate chaplains. In this role we regularly visit the companies, walking through, greeting and briefly visiting one on one with the employees at the worksite. The goal is to provide interest and care. We also provide offsite care such as hospital visits, funeral visitations, and counseling. For more information about this aspect of our ministry see our chaplaincy website. We presently serve the following companies and assisted living center in our corporate chaplaincy role:
Daily Encouragement Net Detail The process: I generally start studying and writing either the night before or early in the morning. When I have the message essentially ready Brooksyne edits and adds her thoughts as she studies the text and my draft. She also writes the daily prayer and often adds a personal note or otherwise inserts her thoughts. While she is doing this I convert the text to html and format the message as you will see it in the email, website and blog. I add the photos, search for suitable music supplements and possible supplemental resource links or materials. After this we record it for the podcast which often gives us occasion for additional sharpening and edits! Faithful listeners at times have to bear with our unprofessional but sincere oratorial deliveries as we come upon a mistake or deal with voice issues. After this is done Brooksyne again proofreads (mistakes are always looming, in part because we often seek to improve the message "on the fly" just before it's sent out!!!). It takes another hour or so to complete all the technical work in the various means of distribution; website, email list, blog and the podcast (audio edition). Technical and Administative work: Of course even if everything goes well there's still tech work involved and especially if we are setting up something new. However everything does not always go well and there are many components that can break down from hardware to software. Administrative work includes thanking donors and accounting for offerings to the ministry. Additional resources: We are increasing the preparation of special resource helps for the family and church available for direct free download. Our analysis of web site statistics indicate that these special pages get a lot of use, perhaps due to search engines as well as a direct link from the daily messages. Examples include information on writing tributes, a sample prayer for pastor and a page of sympathy messages that people sent in for my mom when she passed away in November 2005. Although we can't respond to each comment message we try to do so when a specific need is addressed and this is often done by Brooksyne. It's an extension of the many years of our pastoral ministry where she often prays and counsels with others who have need. She's also a little quicker in responding since she's a real typist; I'm just a pick and click pecker! Current online ministry stats: * Average daily pageviews to the Daily Encouragement website: 3,500 (this is the most meaningful web statistic. It is a record of each page requested from the main server. The same visitor may view several pages as they "surf" through the site). * Number of country visits since April 2010: 192 (See here for current) * Average daily unique visitors to the Daily Encouragement website: 1,500 (This is a record of different unique visitors). * Average daily "hits" to the Daily Encouragement website: 27,000 (This is the least meaningful but a frequently used statistic which records each file, photo, image, html page, audio file, etc. requested to the webserver). * Subscribers to the Daily Encouragement mailing lists: 4,000+ (changes daily) * Average daily downloads of Daily Encouragement podcast shows: 1,500+ * Average daily visits to Daily Encouragement blog pages: 650+ (We have a blog presence using the daily message on wordpress as well as the material in the supplemental blogs mentioned below.) Family News: We have been blessed in every way including that of good health over the past year and more food than we need! Be encouraged today! Stephen & Brooksyne Weber  Practical ways to use this ministry. "A
Daily Prayer" -
A blog simply posting the daily prayer. We keep this up each day since
it's merely the prayer from the Daily Encouragement Net message! "Clear
Minded" - I plan to write and post longer,
periodic
articles on specific issues impacting the faithful believer and the
church. "A
Little Foolishness" -
A humor/satire blog (a great outlet for non-serious writing
but at
times with a subtle message!) I only periodically get "inspiration" for
this for awhile but it has several stories that get regular page views. "Hymns of Hope" -
Brooksyne along with two friends made a CD using classic hymns.
Brooksyne
tells the background story of the 11 hymns. All of these songs are available
for download on the site.
|
