Family and Friends -

I cannot believe it will be 9 weeks and counting from tomorrow, April 10, till my team leaves for Ethiopia. First and foremost, a heartfelt thank you to all that have supported me with this, either through prayers, curious questions, conversations, and/or financial means - THANK YOU!

I'm nearly 3/4 of the way there to being completely funded! Unbelievable! The total cost increased for me since I got some shots (almost $500 - absolutely worth it!)

Will you prayerfully consider investing in this project? Our last deadline is May 15th.

Here's an update on my team and our training:
- On Saturday, March 21st, we had a big team building event in Dallas for all 3 teams headed to Ethiopia. I'm on the first team, Ragin' Golden Leprechauns. We got competitive with some relay races, hung out on a ropes course (never done that before!), and built connections over some deep southern cooked food. 

- Later that day, a group of friends hosted a March Madness Game Night. They created a general fundraising page for our Fort Worth team so people could learn more about our trip and donate! It was an awesome turnout, well organized, and I felt blessed to know people that would give up their Saturday evening to 1) plan it all, 2) go all in with the festivities, and 3) steward their finances to support the mission.

- SHOTS PARTY - Sunday, March 29th - 6 shots - 3 in each arm - bruise is still going away from one of them - NO fainting - NO hand holding - ALL SET

- Our team is reading "When Helping Hurts" by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. It's about how to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor and yourself. I've really enjoyed it and it's been eye-opening to look at "poverty" from a variety of perspectives. I liked this quote: "The goal is to restore people to a full expression of humanness, to being what God created us all to be, people who glorify God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation."

- Part of how we will share the gospel with the Ethiopians is through an "evangecube" - really, it's a cube, but it opens and folds in different ways to share through pictures the story of Jesus. With each pictures are Bible verses that we are memorizing. The weight of these verses is heavy - Jesus Christ said things no man has ever said and He certainly is the most polarizing, notorious and dividing person in history. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, "For what I received I pass on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."

More training is to come this month and into May. Looking forward to this adventure and please continue to pray for our team, our translators, our organizers, the Ethiopians on the ground who are the movers and shakers of the church, for the people God's already planned for us to meet, and for me, that I would not rely on my own strength but that of God's, to seek Him first, and to be faithful and obedient.

Amma say ga nah lo (thank you)-
Jessica