Fifteen years ago (this summer), a research team led by Bill and Holly Richardson came to help us collect data around our neighborhood of Miraflores in Arequipa, Peru. Our little family moved to Peru in 2008 with the Smith Family. We moved with our almost 2-year-olds. We were coming up on one year of living in Arequipa, and I was about to pop with our first little Peruvian-born baby. It was a joy to host this eager group of possible missionaries. Do you recognize anyone in the research team photo?
That research led to helping us make some decisions about launching our very first project: Community Libraries. That project would evolve into an organization we now call CUDA and morph into the largest branch of our CUDA projects: Living Libraries. It’s extraordinary that we can visit Jeremy and Katie Daggett’s home in Peru in 2024 in conjunction with our trip to celebrate the growth of Living Libraries. This program grew from a simple research trip they took as college students in 2009. Little did we know that they would host us in their Peruvian home 15 years later!
Currently, I serve as the chairwoman for the board of CUDA. I am on the subcommittee for the Living Libraries program. It is an honor to be asked to make the trip to Peru this summer to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our first group of graduating teachers from the program. It is also an honor to send our 17-year-old daughter to live in Peru for three weeks with the Daggett Family. Jeremy and Katie stayed with us in 2013 when they checked out the city to come live for 2014. All three of our children spoke fluent Spanish, but Jeremy would “teach” them to say words like “Hola.” It made my girls giggle, and we still joke about that. How precious to hear my teenage daughter “teach” the Daggett’s daughter, Adileen, to say “Hola” on this recent trip. Ha!
Our trip was so much more than I expected. We had visited in 2016, the year after moving, but I was not expecting the emotion and sense of awe and thankfulness I felt on this return visit. Jeremy and Katie serve as rockstar volunteers for CUDA (Jeremy is also a board member, and it is a huge blessing to have him there in person). The new Executive Director is Paty Montoya. Paty has been with the organization since our days with CUDA, and she is one of the strongest leaders in the church there. Paty works closely with Jeremy on CUDA-related matters and church work. She also leads Bible studies and classes with Katie. Some of these studies are done through CUDA contacts; others are done through their work in the church. That is one of the most special relationships I witnessed in our time there. We saw what God was doing in Paty’s life when we met her in 2008, and it is truly remarkable to see how God has continued to transform and use her in the ministry of His Kingdom (through CUDA and the house church) in these last ten years. I love that Jeremy and Katie have a close-knit bond with her.
This year marks ten years of the Daggetts working in Arequipa. What an absolute joy to spend time with them in a city that we called home for almost seven years. I have many reflections from our week spent in Arequipa. I created five different posts on Facebook to journal through some of the memories and reflections I experienced on this trip. I want to share an excerpt from one of my posts dedicated solely to the Daggett Family:
Jeremy and Katie have both devoted themselves to CUDA projects and partnering alongside Peruvians to bring justice, well-being, and joy in the city. They’ve made incredible connections stateside and in Arequipa to help support the work. Their contacts in their spheres of influence are amazing to hear about. They are the directors of HULA (Harding University in Latin America) every spring, which feels like a full-circle moment for us. Greg and I met during the first HULA semester (when it was in Chile). This couple is incredible, and it gives us such joy that they could house and mentor Ana during her time there this summer.
Congratulations to Jeremy and Katie on their tenth anniversary as workers for the Kingdom in Arequipa, Peru. I wish all of their supporters could visit the beautiful city surrounded by volcanoes and witness his mighty work and how he has blessed this family as participants in His mission there. Sowers of the Kingdom don’t always get to see what comes from a planted seed, but I feel like Greg and I were truly blessed to see so many seeds that have been watered and cared for over the last fifteen years. I am so thankful for the Daggetts and their sacrifice to live far from their blood family to answer the calling to serve in Peru.
