1 YEAR + 2 MONTHS (October and November)

Hi!!!! I am so excited to finally sit down and recount the last two months for you. Writing my newsletter always brings me immense joy as I am reminded through photos of the wonderful souls God has placed in my path.

WARNING: There are lots of great pictures ahead hahaha. I miss everyone back home, but I am thrilled to report that I have had a great last two months regarding self-growth, community love, and strengthening of relationships.

Okay, let's do this thing...

WELCOME TO BRAZIL!

Brazil???? I thought you were in Peru, Sarah!? yes, yes, yes, don't worry, I am still in Arequipa. I was just blessed to visit Itu, Brazil (2 hours from São Paulo) for about five days to check out another mission that's happening over there! Caily met Missionary Ali Kaiser last year at a retreat/conference in Brazil. Caily heard the story of her mission and instantly knew that she wanted to visit Ali before she left South America. Ali and her husband, Mark Kaiser, invited us into their home and lives to show us the wonderful acts of love they have provided for their community for the last decade!

unfortunately, we did not snag a single photo with Ali or Mark, but we were honored to hang out with and snap several pics with Mark and Ali's mission intern, Cody! Cody is from Texas and has been living in Brazil now for almost 6 months.

Above are pictures of the farm "Sítio" or "Place" which is a part of the Kaiser's non-profit called "Crescimento Limpo" (Portuguese) which means "Clean Growth" in English.

Here is a link about Mark and Ali and their mission: https://www.crescimentolimpo.org.br/

The story is: Mark and Ali began welcoming homeless individuals into their home, inviting them to the table, and serving them with love and food.

They would do this practice every week. Their community of homeless friends grew and grew and so did their whole operation.

Eventually, after years and years of slowly adding to their mission they now have a cafe called "Caféla", the farm Sítio, and a large building downtown that houses their homeless friends AKA "Casa CL".

A picture of Ali Kaiser and Bruno (a best friend of the Kaisers) eating at Caféla

A picture of Ali and Mark with one of their sons, Dom, and their friend Gabs (middle)

Meeting the Kaisers and experiencing the life-changing work they're doing in Itu was such an inspiration to me. The whole organization works together in harmony as some of the residents of the CL house work at the farm, as the cafe uses the produce from the farm, and as the community comes together to work hand-in-hand and learn each other's stories.

Mark and Ali's home church is involved with their mission as well as members of the church volunteer every Sunday to host a breakfast at Caféla for the homeless community. Some of the residents of the CL house program are a part of the church body and Ali, for example, leads a young adult group in her house every Sunday evening. This was a part of their mission that stuck out to me and meant the most to me. The crossover between the "haves" and the "have nots" is strong in this community. There are relationships between individuals from starkly different backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses.

I have always felt God tapping on my soul and leading me toward ministry with the homeless. The homeless and the poor are fed more by love, relationships, and respect than any meal we could provide for them. Yes, inviting them to the table and serving them food accomplishes both things. I was honored to see the mission of the Kaisers and how beautifully it grows relationships, respect, and empowerment for these friends who are looking for change.

God is good. All the time. I thank him for allowing me to meet Ali and Mark and all of their friends.

Here is a QR code to a recent update Ali posted on her Instagram. I strongly strongly encourage anyone reading this newsletter to at least watch this video. And check out their website that I linked above as well.

I believe that the community of Grandview Baptist Church in Berryville could grow a community like this as well. We could welcome in those who have little with open, loving arms. Just food for thought heheheheh. Love you guys!!!

Now moving on...

Here are pictures from a trip Caily and I took to the Peruvian Amazon with Paty

We traveled to Puerto Maldonado and stayed for about five nights in the jungle. It was a great way to spend time with Paty, learn about different areas and cultures of Peru, enjoy God's creation, and meet a plethora of people from all over the world!

We were able to see monkeys, tarantulas (one crawled on my foot), the most butterflies I've ever seen in my life, macaws, strange bugs, strange birds, piranhas, and the most beautiful plants!

We also visited the native family who lives along the Madre de Dios river and they taught us how to build fires and shoot bow and arrows.

At our camp, we stayed with friends from Ireland, India, England, Lima, Canada, and Pakistan. Experiencing the beautiful creation with new stranger-friends, all coming from different backgrounds, was my favorite part of the trip. We would all come together at the end of the day, share a meal, exchange life stories, and recount the wonderful day of exploration from different perspectives. It is truly beautiful how different God has made all of us and how wonderful it is to experience different glimpses of God in the unique beings of this world.

Now to give you some updates on my day-to-day:

Paty and I just finished our personal finance classes at the jail! We had two groups of women, both consisting of about 50 ladies. Each group was taught personal finances in four class installations over four weeks. Paty taught how to construct a budget, how to save, how to calculate costs, and how to obtain the proper documents to run a business. All of these women are "productive inmates," which means that they all work either in the bakery or kitchen, work with their outside companies, make things like clothing, or own their own businesses. They are all entrepreneurs and dreamers who work to make money for their own cost of living, to save money (for their eventual release), and/or to send money to their families as most of them have children.

Being a part of these classes brought me joy as I learned alongside these ladies. I made friends like Ruth, Iris, and Carmen, who told me about their families and their personal history. Each woman was an inspiration to me because they are all productive members of society who have decided to change for good. Despite some of them expecting to spend the rest of their lives in jail, they have not lost hope, joy, or their personal fire. They each strive to do their best each day and to be contributing members of society. I was honored to learn alongside them about how to steward the money God provides us. Paty is a beast and absolutely used her knowledge of personal finances to empower these women! Oooyeah, it was so great.

Caily, Grace, and I cooked all day to prepare a Thanksgiving meal with our Peruvian and French friends who had ******GASP****** never had stuffing, cream corn, nor broccoli rice cheese casserole!!!! The horror

Anyway...It was a beautiful night sharing with friends a piece of home and sharing in thankfulness the gift of life and friendship. This was a special time with the people who have taken me in and called me their sister.

I am so so so blessed to have so many friends here in Arequipa. God placed each person in my life and I have learned about patience, hard work, love, creativity, and curiosity from them. I'm so happy to know them. muah!

Caily recently left to return to the States to start grad school for physical therapy. I will miss her so much and I am so glad that I have a friend who was brave to come to Peru to do mission work! She is the reason I came here as well. Prayers for Caily as she awaits the decision from UCA grad school interview! She is going to impact so many lives in her career, I just know it!

We had a goodbye party with the church. Sang karaoke from 12-5pm. so serious.

Welcome to the world, baby Rio!

Our friends, Anaisa and Max welcomed their first baby into the world! To celebrate the gift of life I made breakfast burritos...duh! So happy for the new parents! Help me pray for them as they care for their new baby! I did cook 2 kilos of sausage. It was a lot of sausage.

Fashion shows and cookouts! What more do you need?

Analis, a young lady from the orphanage just graduated from fashion college!!! Yay Analis!!! Her final senior project was to design a collection for a fashion show! I was honored when she asked me to model one of the looks for her! We had SO MUCH fun.

Also, Manuela (mi Manuela) cooked up some of the best food you'll ever taste in your life for the goodbye party Caily had with the girls from the orphanage. It has been beautiful to watch Caily's involvement with these girls, the love she showed them, and the impact her time here will continue to have on their lives.

Please, pray with me for the girls of the orphanage that their lives are protected and that their futures are bright and full of hope.

I have been wondering if Paty and I could do another round of personal finance classes with some of the older girls. This is just an idea as of now, so please help me pray for this! Thanks!

creating, creating, created!

Painting, drawing, crafting, and cooking are the lovessss of my life!!! Thankfully the past two months I have had the space to create and use my gifts. I made a ratatouille with Andean potatoes, made a Halloween costume from scratch (shout out to Barbara for never buying me a Halloween costume and instead always using what we had), and crafted a Christmas garland with Kinney and Adileen. At the moment, I am also designing something for the climbing gym to use on their t-shirts. Life is beautiful, and art is the way I, Sarah, translate the beauty I see around me into new creations! yay!

BIRTHDAY TIME!!! So happy to celebrate life with the members of our church. Koki is an example of resilience, Venesa an example of dedication, and Paty an example of unconditional love.

speaking of Paty, we have continued to go on Tuesday nights to the group Feminas. Reading through the gospel of Matthew. As believers, it is our job not to judge, but to share our knowledge of Jesus and make available tools for our dear friends to continue growing closer to God. We are bridge builders between God and our loved ones. Paty is an example of unconditional love as she uses her job and all of her extra time to spread the love of God to a variety of communities. I love my friends!

friends!!! Liliana continues to be an extremely important relationship for me here in Arequipa. Guadalupe and I have been meeting and fasting on Fridays to stop and pray. Life can be extremely difficult. The continuous focus on growing our prayer life and trust in God brings peace to the chaos of this world. I was thankful to spend my last Tuesday morning at the climbing gym helping to set a route for the coming week. Alejandro, Chechi, Juanca, and Fabrizio are all dear friends who teach me about the importance of hard work and building community.

The last two months have been spaces of continued growth (praise God).

In this second week of advent, I focus on peace. Holy peace.

Peace that the Lord brings through people, His creation, and the new experiences of life.

Reading the Advent devotional by Practicing the Way that my mom sent me, (shoutout #2 Barb) I have learned that "Peace is slowing down"

An excerpt from today:

"Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama describes love as having a speed, and it's slow, not fast. In the same way, peace has a speed. It's a measured pace, hand-in-hand with Jesus, letting him lead and restore us."

"One reason we don't experience the peace of Jesus is because we don't move at the pace of Jesus. Dallas Willard said the best way to describe Jesus' posture was 'relaxed.' We need to slow down, often quite literally, to embrace his peace."

I thank God that in this new world and life in Peru, I have found relaxed peace through long conversations with friends, reading with loved ones, and walking the streets while looking around. My favorite thing about walking the streets of Arequipa is seeing everyone's beautiful and unique faces AND the awesome street art, AKA graffiti (I know......controversial...sorry, Nanny LOL). What beauty we have all around us! And what beauty I have seen here in good ol' Arequipa, Peru!

Thank you to my family back home.... ALL of my family, AKA everyone I know HA.

And thanks be to God who is all-powerful and can bring peace to us in this strange world.

A prayer from Practicing the Way:

"Father, you are my shepherd-

providing for all that I need,

bringing me rest,

quieting my heart.

No matter where I go,

you comfort me with your presence

and calm my fears with your peace.

When I start to worry,

when the valley is deep,

slow me down

so I can see your goodness.

Amen."

a link to the advent devo: https://practicingtheway.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Guides/Advent-Meditations-2024.pdf?utm_source=Practicing+the+Way&utm_campaign=5b5da948e4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_11_11_06_50_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-749ded0778-585599697

https://practicingtheway.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Guides/Advent-Meditations-2024.pdf?utm_source=Practicing+the+Way&utm_campaign=5b5da948e4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_11_11_06_50_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-749ded0778-585599697

Prayers for Mateo that he stays plugging along looking for work and continuing with his future plans.

Prayers for my best friend BaiLee.

Prayers for Caily as she returns home

Prayers for Guadalupe as she searches for a new place to live.

Prayers for Lili and her living situation as well.

ALWAYS prayers for my Spanish learning (I will never stop praying)

Prayers for my family

Prayers for the Daggetts

and I'm praying for Grandview! Y'all give me updates :)

PEACE,

Sarah