Canby Alliance Church will host international speaker and award-winning author Sarah Thebarge for two events this weekend.
Sarah was a physician’s assistant living in Portland when she had a chance encounter with a refugee family from Somalia. This family became an integral part of Sarah’s life as she also grew to be important to them. Language barriers didn’t stand in the way of their pizza dinners, fashion shows and friendship.
Sarah, who had recently moved from the East Coast and was recovering from her battle with breast cancer, experienced healing and renewed faith through the relationship with her new Somali friends.
She chronicled her experiences in a popular blog that eventually became her award-winning memoir, Invisible Girls. Her second book, Well, was also recently released. It focuses on her time practicing medicine in Togo in 2017. Sarah recently returned from South Sudan where she spent three months volunteering as a physician’s assistant.
When not writing books, she writes a blog, teaches nonfiction writing workshops, is a spokesperson for Compassion International and speaks at conferences, retreats and colleges. For more information, see her website at sarahthebarge.com.
Catch Sarah at 1 p.m. Saturday as part of the annual Ladies’ Tea held at CAC. Or join the church for Sunday worship at 9:30 a.m. Sarah will be speaking during the service and will hold a Q&A session afterward.