We are learning, and we are growing. Reaching 5,000 interviews is a daunting goal huge, and tremendously large but we are familiarizing ourselves with the concept. I know my calendar spots are not going to fill up as quickly right now because I made the intentional decision to focus specifically on Jesus Believers. In my previous podcast run of 4,242 episodes, I spoke to strangers from all parts of the world with wildly varying backgrounds—everyone from CEOs, artists, and educators to athletes, medical professionals, and everyday entrepreneurs.

Even with so much podcasting experience under my belt, would you believe there are still challenges? Yes, there are! The moving parts are always changing. One of our major focuses this month was connecting with more people from the eastern side of the world. While I have spoken with many North Americans, expanding globally brings new limitations, like language barriers and different dialects. But I am naturally curious and absolutely love accents, so having these conversations has been tremendous fun. This month, I spoke with Richard Handley (who was in Australia but is originally from America), Tim Thomas (our first guest from the East, tuning in from Australia), Henry Duodu from Ghana, Karin Thompson from Australia, Michael Olowookere Alaba from Nigeria, Tinashe Mujera from Zimbabwe, and Basil Sparks from Cape Town.

To protect the longevity of this mission and learn from my past experiences with burnout, I have started putting buffers on the schedule. Now, if I have a guest booked, I schedule a 15-minute buffer before the next one, whereas in the past I would do back-to-back bookings. Having the opportunity to just speak and connect a bit after the recording has been incredibly life-giving. Another new addition to the format: I began asking the guest to pray before we start recording. I absolutely LOVE THIS!

As much as I would love to purchase every book written by our guests, I have to keep our budget in mind. I did purchase two Kindle versions of books from our guests this month, and I will share my feedback once I finish reading them.

With everything moving so fast, some things had to be put on the back burner. Specifically, the video storytelling clips that need to be edited for Family Faith in Action, chronicling our road trip across the 48 states and Canada. Amanda and I have been attempting to get this done, but other high-priority projects are taking up the top spots on the totem pole right now.

On the operational side, Liezl is getting a bit worried because she isn't seeing the response rate match the massive amount of initial work she is doing sending out invitations. It is a test of endurance for the team. Meanwhile, on the family front, Amaziah is drawing much closer to his national exams coming up on March 26th, so we are supporting him through that final stretch.