A Message from Pete Lionheart’s first academy turned nine years old this year. There are 16 more today! God planted the seed; we have watered, and He has made it grow. Lionheart acts as a front porch to the young families living near the church. While the majority of those families do not embrace a biblical world view, they do need excellent, safe, affordable, and educationally rich child care. We then work together with the host church to build relationships with these families and draw them into the church for events and ultimately into The Kingdom. We have a 9 year track record to prove it works. Churches are so delighted that 6 of them are either adding rooms or a second campus! I asked the 50 people at our national support center (“HeartHub”) retreat if they believed there are 1,000 churches in the US today that have rooms for a Lionheart and a heart to reach their unchurched young neighbors. Fifty hands went up. We all see the opportunity and feel God’s presence. Each academy takes about $600,000 of Lionheart startup costs. It turns cash positive in year 2 and repays the startup cost within 5 years, all the while planting gospel seeds, connecting families to the church, and blessing the church with a revenue or surplus share. Each academy is modeled to be financially selfsustaining over the 7-year initial covenant. The HeartHub provides all the offsite support the academies need including: operations leadership, HR, payroll, benefits, talent acquisition, curriculum, teaching tools, marketing to drive enrollment leads, launch team, financial services, IT support, fleet services, risk management, scholarship and subsidy support. Each academy provides 10% of their revenues for these services. But with 17 academies, the cost of the HeartHub is not fully covered yet. We anticipate it will be fully covered at 35 academies in 2025 and that it will take $4M over the next two years to complete the foundation. Thereafter, the surplus from the support fees will be used for scholarships and planting academies in child care deserts. (Table below) Lionheart received about $20M in seed funding over the past nine years from grants and Kingdom investors, like you. This has allowed us to build a robust team to support our rapid growth plans. We believe that we can complete the funding with another $4M. Lionheart was founded on the guidelines that it would first and foremost be spiritually effective. Then it would be scalable. Finally, that it would be sustainable. We have proven the first two and are nearing sustainability. Would you consider a significant two-year gift to complete the foundation? The eternity of thousands of families is at stake.
Pete Wayman Chief Executive Officer
P.S. If you have suggestions to improve our ministry, I would love to hear from you. 214-499-6520 (cell) or petewayman@lionheartkid.org
Building the Kingdom, one piece at a time 7.2K
This year, 2,206 Lionheart kids have been reminded that God made them, God loves them, and Jesus wants to be their friend FOREVER! See what God has done just in 2023! Just this summer, we had 54 elementary children trust in Jesus as their savior!
Gospel Presentations
511 New Hires
3K
1:1 Spiritual Connections
774 Church Visits
Pieces of Praise LIONHEART IS WORTH THE DRIVE A Lionheart family purchased a new home, and invited their academy director and the Pastor from their partner church to visit and pray blessings over it. The family said that because they moved further away, they had considered other child care options closer to home for their children. After much thought and prayer, they chose to stay at Lionheart because their children have grown so much spiritually and academically at Lionheart. They would rather drive one hour than go anywhere else. Lionheart is a ministry that makes an impact not only in the children, but the whole family. YOUNG FAMILIES ARE FINDING BIBLICAL COMMUNITY “We are so excited to share that three of our Lionheart families have decided to join a small group within the local church. It is a blessing to see secular families feeling comfortable enough to plug in and experience biblical community.” — Academy Director LIONHEART IS IMPACTING FAMILIES BEYOND PRE-K GRADUATION A Pre-K graduate learned about Jesus at Lionheart and the truth has been foundational to his understanding of life. Today, he is sharing the Gospel with his classmates in Kindergarten. He has been praying for them and talking about how good God is. It is incredible to know that the work that we do for the Gospel does not come back void. We are raising up and sending out little evangelists!
Divinely Placed
God continues to bring the pieces of the Lionheart puzzle together year after year. This year we have already opened three new academies and are working with two additional covenanted churches as they put the finishing touches on their new builds. We currently have ten covenanted churches expected to launch a Lionheart in the next two years with many more in our robust pipeline. The map below shows where God is taking Lionheart.
In addition to growing our presence in Texas, Colorado, Tennessee and the eastern part of the Midwest, we have opportunities to bring Lionheart to Arizona, Oregon, Illinois, Idaho and California.
1
1
2014
2015
WHERE WE STARTED
Pipeline Academies Current Academies
3 2016
5
6
2017
2018
8
9
2019
2020
11 2021
38 26 17 14
2022
2023
2024
2025
50
Projected SUSTAINABILITY!
Each academy operates independently and is fully sustainable over the seven year initial contract and is daily welcoming young neighborhood familes to the local churches.
2026
Where We’re Going
Caring for Our Essential Pieces We recognize that in order to serve each community and church body to the glory of the Lord, we need to we need to prayerfully and intentionally pour into our staff spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally. Here is a quick snapshot of just a few of the ways we are taking care of our HeartHub Staff and teachers across the nation.
Grew STAFF BY
44%
Published 30-DAY
KEPT Jesus THE CENTER OF ALL OUR RETREATS & MEETINGS
DEVOTIONAL
WEEKLY STAFF prayer
INVESTED IN
Enhanced
new teacher
EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION
ONBOARDING PROGRAM
17
INITIATED CORE VALUE
employees served
awards
THROUGH BENEVOLENCE FUND
Help us Complete the Puzzle 2023
2024
2025
2026
17
26
38
50
Year-End Enrollments
2,250
3,900
5,300
7,500
HeartHub Net Surplus / (Deficit)
($2,950)
($2,525)
($1,450)
$975
Grants and Donations Received
$2,950
$0
$0
$0
$0
($2,525)
($1,450)
$975
HEARTHUB FUNDING (BY $1,000’s) # of Operational Academies - EOY
Funding Needed By Year
$20M
With our current donations, we have: Achieved proof of concept Successfully scaled to 17 academies and served over 9,075 children
$2M Raising $4 million over the next two years with God’s help will allow us to reach ongoing sustainability.
$2M
God can use your piece of the puzzle to change a child’s life forever. GIVE WHERE NEEDED MOST give.lionheartkid.org Retaining the best teachers who are passionate about serving Lionheart kids and their families, while also expanding our reach into new communities, takes great financial support. Your unrestricted gift will be applied to our work where it is needed most.
GIVE TO A REGION OR PROJECT give.lionheartkid.org/projects Supporting a specific Lionheart Academy, assisting with scholarship funds, or giving toward special projects is a great way to partner with us. Find the academy or project you would like to support and make a gift today.
REFER A CHURCH lionheartkid.org/churches If you belong to a large church that would be interested in learning about Lionheart as a ministry, contact Nate McClintock at 214-763-4546 or natemcclintock@lionheartkid.org
OTHER WAYS TO GIVE OR CONNECT
GIFTS OF STOCK OR OTHER ASSETS
Mail: Lionheart Children’s Academy PO Box 210663, Bedford, TX 76095 Phone: 405-777-6436
Contact: Julie Barker at 405-777-6436 or juliebarker@lionheartkid.org
SHARE T HIS WITH YO FRIENDSUR !
facebook.com/lionheartchildrensacademy instagram.com/lionheartkid linkedin.com/company/lionheart-children’s-academy lionheartkid.org (866) 948-5112 PO Box 210663 Bedford, TX 76095