Emily Parker spoke with Mark and Christine Daniel, Directors of FamilyLife UK, about their new relationship app, Toucan.

Christine: We decided we'd start with communication, because that's a really good foundation for everything. A lot of Toucan is there to help have you talk about things that perhaps you wouldn't normally talk about.

Each module is put together with little bite sized segments so it's really easy to use. Each little segment is a combination of video clips of ordinary normal couples, not super spiritual perfect people, just ordinary people telling their stories, the good things, and the struggles, and everyday life. That's woven together with animation and tips and tools, so that these little bite size segments are just little bits of great input. Each one of those ends with a little interactive exercise and we've tried to make those varied and really good fun.

Emily: Is there a team of you who are putting all the courses together? How does that side of things work?

Christine: Actually that's been quite an amazing journey. In fact, it's been a real collaboration, because when we started out in this we had absolutely no idea how to do anything, just lots of ideas and thoughts. We really just prayed about it.

I'll tell you a quick story. One night when we were praying about it with some friends, this lady gave us a story of a cuckoo and she said, "Do you know the story of the cuckoo?" and we said, "No". And she said, "Obviously the bit that people know is that their eggs are laid in the nest and they throw the other birds out. That's the not so nice part. But basically this bird hatches in a nest that's not it's own and it's brought up, then it has to fly back from northern UK back to Southern Africa, across the Sahara, a place it's never been before. It's not flying with its aunties and uncles, and all the rest of it like geese; it's just flying by itself. No-one knows how they do it. It's a complete mystery." This lady said, "I need to tell you this because it's a real story of faith and encouragement. God will take you to where you've never been before and He'll provide everything you need, including on board navigation."

And that's really what happened. A few weeks after praying, we came across a fantastic team called Onesheep.org, who are amazing technology partners, and they started to help us.

Then at every stage of the project, whenever we needed voice over artists or animation, people that we didn't even know we'd suddenly find that we'd make connections and meet people, tremendous people. Basically we've all been working together for the last two years to develop this. We've spent over a thousand hours developing Toucan, testing it and then rolling it out. We're really excited about it.

Emily: What feedback have you had already?

Christine: We've had great feedback, in fact the couples that are using it, and we've got nearly a thousand now, are absolutely loving it.

The common features of the feedback are that they love the fact that they can use it any time and any place. It just fits into lifestyles because you do the little bits individually, then you have your couple time. People love that. It's really, really flexible.

They love the fact that it's really interactive and also the key thing is the honesty of the couples; couples from all kinds of backgrounds and ethnicities with different stories, ups and downs, just ordinary people. And people just love that. It's like bringing a friend into their home and into their lives.

Emily: What are some of your hopes and dreams of where this app will be able to go and who it'll be able to reach?

Christine: This is the first app of its kind in the world anywhere. There is nothing quite like it and we think it's really exciting to have a really fun and engaging online learning tool that can reach anybody. People around the world speak and understand English. We just really dream for it to reach anybody and everybody; those in need and those just wanting to strengthen their relationships. Those are the most precious things that we have. We're really hoping that it's going to reach people and strengthen relationships around the world.

Mark: Years ago, we were in a right mess in our marriage and someone invited us to join a group. Over the space of about nine months, we started applying biblical principles in our marriage in the power of the Holy Spirit. We found our marriage was absolutely transformed. That's where we've come from and that's why we do what we do, in that we just want other people to be able to experience the transformation that comes when you apply biblical principles in life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Emily: If anyone wants to find out more, how can they do so?

Mark: Just go to ToucanTogether.com. And it's free. We're not asking people to pay for this. It was a gift to us and we want to pass it on. It wasn't free to develop, it cost about £120,000 to get where we've got to, but we're not asking people to pay to use it.