2025 Church Retreat - The Coast (Mollendo)
As is the case with a lot of things in Peru, our church retreat started off being planned months ahead of time, and was only finalized in the hours prior to departure. We’re so thankful for the 21 people who were able to spend three days and two nights down on the coast. We stayed at a guesthouse that belongs to Paty’s family who is from Mollendo. That had an extra layer of specialness baked in because Paty and Lola are longtime hosts of the church, and getting to see them in their “happy space” where they grew up was special.
A New Table
A few months ago we finally got a dining room table! This is big because we hadn’t had a dining room table since 2019! The last apartment we lived in didn't have room for a table; and then it took us a year after moving into our house to find one we liked. To us the table is a sacred place. And we want our table to be a place where anyone is welcome and those that come to it feel loved. We wanted to have a blessing table.
“As in Heaven, so in Arequipa...”: What ministry looks like, September 2025
We’re fresh off a sabbatical month of August where our kids skipped school and we got to see a lot of incredible people in the US as well as spend special time with family. We arrived back to Arequipa refreshed and thankful for our home and work and are really excited about this season of ministry. We believe that God is always up to more than we realize and pray that God would lead us to participate in life, new creation, kingdom, salvation—which is breaking in all around us. We pray Jesus’s prayer in our context
“We pray for our cities, and the cities we are”
Buenos días from Hunter Hill! I love to get above the city, and this is one of my favorite spots to see the city from a different perspective. I didn’t get the chance to take HULA 2024 up here, so I decided to document it with pictures and words for them, and also for you. Some of you have been up here with me before, so for you I hope this is a helpful reminder of our shared prayer in Arequipa.
Mother’s Day, Our Kids, and Prayer Requests
My first Mother’s Day in Peru (as a mother, see the picture below), our neighbors, Pedro and Frecia, invited us to spend the day with them because they knew we didn’t have family here and wanted to share that with us. Because of the generosity we were shown that day, I wanted to pass it on. So, this Mother’s Day I wanted to have a full table and I knew if I cooked food, they would come. So I cooked a meal and we invited anyone that was a part of our church meeting to stay and eat with us. Those who don’t have a mother living or who don’t live near family ended up staying and eating and we shared the afternoon around the table.
The Nicest People I've Met in Peru I met in Prison
This fall I met with a good friend of mine who has connections to everyone in the city (it seems like) and she said, “Katie, I think we should do a Bible study at the women’s prison.” She also has a way of dragging me into all her plans…or God has a way of using her to push me out of my comfort zone.I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect but I agreed to do it. We went together to the prison to meet with the director of the prison and got things set up so that in November we began a six-week study with a group of 48 women.
Our Last Three Months of Ministry and Upcoming Time in the US
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!
Moving to a New Neighborhood
We moved! Our big news from the last few weeks is that we moved to a new neighborhood in the district of Sachaca. October was a whirlwind, and on the 31st, the same day that our kids got to trick-or-treat for the first time ever, we moved a couple miles away from where we’ve been for the last 8.5 years. The month and a half we’ve been here so far have been full of affirmation that we made the right decision, and I ask for your prayers as we start to share life and faith in a new part of the city.
Year in Peru by Caily Moore
I sit here in my favorite spot on the couch in my apartment overlooking the incredible and vast city lights, writing this and eating my dinner of bread and avocado at 10pm at night. I am alone but on a high from a great evening of climbing with friends and I am hit with waves of emotions as my mind is flooded with so many memories from this past year. There were difficult and challenging times but also new experiences and life giving moments.