The Peru-bound plant propagator
Green-fingered Sarah McArthur flies to Peru on Saturday with BMS World Mission. But what does growing beautiful rhododendrons have to do with mission?
'If you can teach people how to grow things, how to grow crops to feed themselves, you’ve got a way in to be able to talk to them about God,' says
Sarah. 'We’ll be teaching about seeding and weeding, like Jesus did in a lot of parables.'
Heading to Nauta, in the exotic Amazon rainforest, Sarah is going to be using her gardening skills to help the local community. She hopes to work with young people too. 'One of my passions is to teach kids gardening,' says Sarah. 'To teach them what it’s all about and how to grow things. And then as you teach them that, relating it to what God says in the Bible, that gives them skills that they can get jobs with in the future.'
Mission has been on Sarah’s heart for the last ten or so years. Born in Kuwait and moving around as a child, she feels that God gave her the desire to serve in other cultures when she was little.
'From a very early age God gave me a passion for different nationalities and for lots of different people,' she says. 'I think from a very early age God placed it on my heart, and over the last three years I’ve actually done something about it. And I’ve felt God’s confirmation that now is the time for me to use the skills that he’s given me.'
Excited to get to Peru, learn Spanish and start work with local people outside in the sunshine, Sarah’s journey with BMS is just beginning – or it will, after she’s successfully squashed two years’ worth of luggage into one bag!
Please pray for Sarah as she flies on Saturday, that her desire to use her practical skills to serve God will result in many changed lives in Peru.
This article first appeared on the website of BMS World Mission and is used with permission
Sarah Stone, 24/01/2014