When Jaclyn and I decided to be missionaries, two years in a foreign country seemed like an eternity. That commitment soon got stretched to three. Surely three years would be enough to change the world, right? When the three year mark drew close, we felt like we were just beginning to hit our stride in ministry in Peru. So at that point, after much prayer and counsel, we decided that we would stay until sometime in 2019.
We’re glad we made that decision. Years three and four were when many spiritual breakthroughs took place. It seems though, that five years will have to be enough. We have made plans to move back to the U.S. in June 2019. There’s no doubt that the Daggetts will have many more very special ministry moments with friends and neighbors in the coming years, but our path will diverge from theirs and we are very sad to part company.
That said, we have missed many special moments with our families over the years and hope to make up for lost time. I know that being a short trip from grandparents will be an enormous blessing to August. We thank our parents for enduring being so far from their granddaughter for the first two and a half years of her life. Skype just isn’t the same as being able to hold her in your arms.
We plan to re-enter our former careers, Jaclyn a P.A., and I, a pharmacist, with five years of Christian missionary mindset and strategy to bring to bear on how we practice medicine. I hope to try my hand at academic pharmacy, combining mission principles, spiritual formation, and the healing arts. To that end, I plan to further my theological education at a very special program for medical professionals at Duke University. That means that the next home for the Blairs will be in North Carolina.
Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us and donated to us over the years. There are some really special things happening here in Arequipa, Peru. Many people are reconciling with their Creator through Jesus and are gathering together in small communities to continue that process of reconciliation and bring others on board with the good news.
