It is with great thrill I get to announce our upcoming Love Hope Storyteller Trip to Ethiopia, the greatest country on earth (no bias here). Help One Now has been working in Ethiopia for one year, and we are now moving from the urgent work of aid into the sustainable work of development.

We are specifically working in the community of Gunchire (gun-CHEER-ee) where extreme poverty has put most families at risk. But here is why I believe in this trip so deeply: we are coming alongside this struggling community with one primary goal – keep these families intact. This is absolutely orphan prevention, as these families are on the brink of disruption not for lack of love but resources.

We say no to this. We say poverty orphans are not okay on our watch. We say every Mama and Daddy should have the right and means to raise their own beloved children, and if they don’t have the means, then the ‘haves’ in the world will not sit on our pile of privileges while good families disintegrate around the globe.

We are going to tell you all about everything. You’ll get the goods. A bunch of you are going to help hold this community together and preserve entire families. It is going to be amazing. We are going to Love Hope together, because if we love hope for our precious families, shouldn’t we love it for everyone else’s?lovehope-ethiopiaWe have a killer team flying 24 hours in coach to Ethiopia to tell you this story. (Jesus be near. And also, Ambien.) You’re going to love these people. Some of us are going to write about it: me, Kristen Howerton, Korie Robertson, and Jillian Lauren. All of us have adopted (three from Ethiopia), one of us is a professor, two of us have tattoos, three of us are good at Instagram (the other shall not be named), one of us is married to a rock star, and one of us is married to a Duck Guy.

Our creatives will bring their typical shock and awe of talent: Scott Wade and Ty Clark. They make the pictures and do the pretty. The brainy Mike Rusch of Pure Charity is coming for smart thinking. The Help One Now fearless leaders will keep the wheels on their loose-cannon storytellers: Chris Marlow, Lamar Stockton, and Tim Newberry.

We’ll be on Ethiopian soil September 10th. I can hardly stand it. We are going to Love Hope like a boss. You are too. Sign up for our emails and blogs here. Follow us on the Twitter and IG (#lovehope) so you can see lots of pictures of me kissing Ethiopians (I can’t not). Get ready to fall in love with the people of Gunchire. Resistance is futile.