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Catching up with Sara


Who are you?

My name is Sara Fonseca, I am from Costa Rica, where I currently live, Iā€™m now 28 years old although when I went on my gap year I was 24 years old šŸ˜Š

Short word on your time in Belgium?

I was in Belgium for the academic year 2014-2015. I lived at a girls household in the tower at Leo XIII and I loved it! The flat was a mess when we arrived, it needed paint and very deep cleaning but throughout the year we did a number of things to make the flat more hommie and the process was incredibly enriching (I also loved the results after almost one year of living there šŸ˜Š

6 girls in total lived in the flat throughout the year: Claire Vanderstuyft (Belgium), Petra Laagland (Holland) and I were there steady for the entire year. Sonia Niedopytalska (Poland) lived with us during the first semester and Katie Flynn and Eilith Graham (both from Scottland) lived there for the second semester. And if I remember correctly, the boys household was then occupied by Tony and Michael Vanderstuyft and not sure who else, but that year Spok, Nick, Simon, Corneel, Aagje, Nathalie, Muriel, Annemie and Klara where very close to the Pharos family (Iā€™m sure Iā€™m forgetting important names here!).

My service was to help Spok directing Pharos by organizing the activities on Monday (or delegating its organization and supervising it), I also led a small group and was in charge of making coffee stall happen (my least favourite part during the winter time as I always got too cold). My two favourite services (that didnā€™t feel like a service but as a complete gift) were to socialize with people from Leo who were not necessarily Christian and to spend time with families from community (which I absolutely loved and miss so very much to this day). I made really great friends through these two ā€œservicesā€ that remain close and dear to my heart to this day.

What is the best memory of your time in Belgium?

I have so many wonderful memories of my time in Leuven that itā€™s very hard to pick one. Some of the top memories are jogging around the Park Abbey, meeting Trui for coffee and pastoral sessions, movie nights on the roof of the flat when the weather allowed, the community weekend long retreat, and funny enough, coffee stalls are one my favourite memories as well. I could go on for a while so Iā€™m going to stop with these. šŸ˜Š

A little word on your life right now?

Iā€™m currently living in Costa Rica, I am an active community member and Iā€™m serving with the Young Professional outreach.

I work for a small Costa Rican company called ConversABLE which works with empathic communication processes using tools derived from the non-violent communication methodology created by phycologist Marshall Rosenberg. Aside from this main job, I also teach Project Management at a local University and do some freelance consulting projects mainly for startups and small companies (family owned and such).

I am single and own a wonderful dog called Luna šŸ˜Š

Do you have a message for the people of Jerusalem?

Just a big hello with a warm virtual hug!

What can we pray for?

ā€¢ For an entrepreneurial project Iā€™m trying to launch with my brother. That God may give us wisdom in our decision-making processes and in our relationship ā€¢ Pray for me, that my faith and trust in God may grow stronger and stronger every day and in the midst of everything I continue to be able to fix my eyes on Him

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