The last three months have been intense. In particular, Katie has been doing really special work. In October she went to the Connections conference in Brazil, visited our house church’s missionary in a mountain community of Apurimac, and worked in a medical campaign in Cusco. Between those things we hosted an alumni group as part of Harding’s celebration of 100 years. All of that led into an incredible November. She got to go to two of four sessions of a personal finance course that Paty did with a group called Féminas, a group of women with tough lives, most of whom are sex workers. Katie and Paty have been building relationships with them over the last couple years, and at the end of the personal finance class the women suggested a Bible study as a next step. See more below in the article about CUDA and please pray for that opportunity!
A year ago, Katie started reading a book called Reading the Bible with the Damned, recommended by our dear friend (and long-distance co-worker) Jonathan Hanegan. Over that time, God has been working on Katie’s heart and inspiring a vision of sharing faith with marginalized people in ways that have challenged her. Through our friend Cata that was our connection to the above community, Katie also made a connection to Arequipa’s women’s prison, where there are 183 women currently incarcerated. And so Katie started a Bible study in the women’s prison with about 45 of the women there. Katie designed and led the 6-week study, and just finished a few days ago. Adileen, Kinney, and I are all incredibly proud of Katie and just how special this ministry is.
Our house church has grown, with a three new families participating pretty regularly. Katie, Caily, and Sarah have been leading an awesome kids’ class, and Paty and I have led a series on the book of Acts. The Advent season has been special for focusing our life of faith on remembering the coming of God in Jesus and reflecting on hope, joy, peace, and love in the wait of Jesus to come again and make all things new. I recently did a funeral for the father of one of our members, getting to speak a word of faith and comfort into a whole family in mourning.
At the end of September, I finished a course that I taught for a La Hispañola Theological Training Institute in the Dominican Republic, and in November taught a two-week series on the Mission of God for La Libertad church in Arequipa. I’ve concentrated on spiritual mentoring with the CUDA team as well during this season, and have done lots of writing and have had lots of meetings in order to close out our 2023 year of community development and set up 2024.
Adileen and Kinney just finished the school year yesterday! They have loved their school. Adileen has had friends for a long time, but this was the first year that we really saw Kinney make special friendships. I saw it in action for the first time at one of his classmates’ birthday. It was like I was seeing a whole new Kinney. That led us to moving up a birthday party for Kinney, and in November we celebrated (a couple months early) with a few of his friends, renting a big inflatable slide and making pizzas with his friends.
Time in the US
I write all of this today from an airplane, flying from Arequipa to Lima to Atlanta to Huntsville, AL. We are so excited to get to spend some time with family into the new year, and will then be with the Central church in Little Rock from January 7-14 (Cedar Lane, we hope to come your way in 2025!) Katie and I will get to share together about our work at Central on January 7, and hope that if you’re in the area you’ll join us.
Thank you. We know that many of you pray for us often, and even practice the spiritual discipline of newsletter reading by praying as you read for the people and opportunities and ministries. Many of you also contribute financially so that Central and Cedar Lane churches can support us, or contribute directly to our work through supporting CUDA. Again, thank you. We’re a bit weary, but look forward to a time of rest and family.
Our new address is:
Urb. Palacio II, I-35
Sachaca, Arequipa, Peru
With love,
The Daggetts in Arequipa
