PARIS — The Rev. Sarah Shepley believes her recent mission trip to bring art to orphans in Ecuador was the convergence of her passions.

Shepley, of Paris, is a full-time artist and an ordained interfaith minister since 2011. She spent a little more than a month in Ecuador, bringing her arts ministry to orphans and to children in an after-school program in another city.

She returned stateside Feb. 4 with a rekindled passion to help others through art therapy in developing parts of the world.

“It felt like this confluence … of a sort of searching, to not just travel to these countries, but to really make an effort to learn the language and to really offer service,” Shepley said, noting her interfaith training was a big part of that.

“I feel like I am really honoring that philosophy … which honors the tradition of all faiths, including none,” she said. “So it’s being present to people (regardless) of any religious background or not. … For me, it is this incredible coming together for this arts ministry and my love of travel and learning the language.”

She spent two weeks at the Miguel Leon orphanage in Cuenca, Ecuador, working with mostly girls ranging in age from 3 to 16.

“The thing is, the girls have to leave when they’re 18 so they’re really trying to not only do really well in school but also develop skills they can use when they have to leave,” Shepley said. “Otherwise they turn to prostitution or become pregnant.”

She donated the remainder of her supplies to the orphanage.

“It just fueled my desire to return and offer art,” she said. “The kids are so hungry for it. They don’t really get much. In general, there isn’t much offered in the schools, but particularly where these kids are it’s very minimal. It’s very hard to get art supplies.”

She headed roughly five hours south to the town of Vilcabamba to relax and unwind. The night before she left, she found an article in the Vilcabamba News about an after-school program at the town’s community center.

“I … ended up doing some interpreting because the person who was teaching didn’t speak Spanish,” Shepley said. “I found that I made some really nice connections down there, too.”

The trip to Ecuador was roughly five years in the making. Last year, she continued learning Spanish and spent a year writing lesson plans in Spanish. She also traveled to Columbia with her daughter, Beryl, and visited an orphanage in Medellin.

“I looked around and realized there were no art supplies,” Shepley said. “It kind of lit a fire for me.”

She plans to return to the Miguel Leon orphanage next year and possibly other spots in Ecuador, including Vilcabamba. Shepley still has to work out the logistics, but she’s already gathering up her art supplies.

In the meantime, she will continue working on her Spanish, bringing bookmaking to the The Eddy School in Newry and the Center for Wisdom’s Women in Lewiston.

For more information about Shepley, visit shepleydesigns.com/index.html.

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The Rev. Sarah Shepley, left, of Paris, and Jessica, an orphan at Miguel Leon orphanage in Cuenca, Ecuador, became friends after Shepley brought her arts ministry to roughly 25 children, ages 3 to 16. 

Orphans at the Miguel Leon orphanage in Cuenca, Ecuador, make books and learn printmaking with supplies from the Rev. Sarah Shepley of Paris.

A child at the Miguel Leon orphanage in Ecuador works on a book using supplies provided by the Rev. Sarah Shepley of Paris.