Jessica Newsome is a native of Montgomery County, Maryland. She spent the early part of her life there, living first with her mother and then with her father in the city of Rockville after their divorce during her elementary school years. She graduated from Colonel Zadok A. Magruder High School in 2002, and went on to study criminal justice at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. After obtaining her Bachelor of Science in the field, she later spent two years in a Master’s program for the same course of study.

In 2008, while working in Maryland, Jessica decided that she wanted to change the course of her life, and began attending First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro. It was during her membership with this congregation that she rededicated her life to Jesus Christ and got baptized again as a sign of her faith’s renewal. A year after she turned this corner, she moved to the small town of McAllen, Texas to pursue a career opportunity, a move that would ultimately change her life.

Since her relocation to Texas, she discovered that God had a strong call on her life, one that would cause her to reevaluate her entire lifestyle. Upon totally surrendering her life to God, she would be called to The Family Church in McAllen, a church body that would help her to grow in Christ more than ever. During her time with TFC, Jessica has been involved with the congregation’s youth ministry, as well as the Celebrate Recovery ministry, a twelve-step program that she herself completed and then led others through. After years of being active in ministry through her church home, she felt as though something was missing from her ministry life. “I was seeking to find a group in South Texas [that] could use a leader to assist individuals seeking to leave homosexuality and I couldn’t find one. A friend and mentor told me that I should start one. Soon after, God confirmed to me that I should start my own ministry through several other encounters.” Out of this confirmation grew Love At The Cross, a non-profit that Jessica founded in April of 2014. By sharing the story of how God’s love gave her the power to change the destructive patterns in her life, it is Jessica’s hope that she can help others break all kinds of destruction in theirs.