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Dear Friends and Family,

April afforded me new opportunities that I had not yet experienced in West Africa, a great ending to seven months of cross-cultural ministry.

-Tenena and Kolo’s wedding, where we were involved in the ceremony (country line dance - photo below left).

-A side trip to hunt some elephants (in vain, but still fun - photo right) on our way up to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

-The local dance studio inviting me to teach classes and dance with the national dance champion.

-Church Easter celebration with singing, dancing, and potluck.

All of these experience support what I have learned to be the key to ministry - relationships. It is because of the friendships that I cultivated that all these things were possible and I pray that our time together pushed them one step closer to Christ. I realized that encouraging Journeyers, the local church body, and my community was the most influential ministry I could have when the pastor of my church came with a committee member to say goodbye and give me a thank you gift from the church - two beautiful traditional Boualé pagnes. This was an extraordinarily generous gift from a church that I attended for 6 months, even though I was involved with worship. Between the gift and blessing from the church, I knew that my presence alone was impactful.

Saying goodbye to everyone was hard, so I am in many ways glad that I ended up leaving quickly to accompany a Journeyer being medevacuated out of Africa two weeks before my scheduled departure. We arrived in Denver a week ago and have been blessed to have each other through the re-entry process. As the sun sets on my ministry in Cote d’Ivoire for the moment, it is rising on opportunities to encourage other young people to join JourneyCorps as I visit you and recruit over the summer.

-for me as I go home for a week, interview for fall teaching jobs, and spend the summer recruiting

-for the Journeyers as they continue in their homestays and ministries without American mentors

-for Jamie, the Journeyer who I accompanied home, to get well and reestablish herself in the US

-for the leadership as they lost half of the team this month

Love, Peace, and Blessings to all of you, my dearests,