Meet Maura Cathey. Maura and her husband run the bilingual Christian church here in Sayulita, which has been around for nearly ten years since 2008. Maura is the pastor’s wife and also runs Sayulita’s Christian school, which has been around for nearly eight years since 2010. Maura’s school teaches local children from our community. “We are a small school, but function as a real, developed school concerning rules, expectations, and activities, etc. We are not called ‘teachers’, but are more like ‘supervisors’ because we are all mostly concerned parents. I have experience in homeschooling my kids for many years, so that helps me in this position.” Over the years, Maura’s school has served over one hundred students. They usually have around a dozen students enrolled at a time.
Though their church, Maura and her husband contribute to the community in a variety of ways. Normally, these events or activities are not advertised or made a big deal of. This is just another example of the selflessness that Maura and her husband display—they do not help and volunteer for the recognition or fanfare, but because they truly care about helping our pueblo. Although the ways they help or the activities they do may be kept quiet, the impact they have on our community is tremendous.
Maura and her husband get involved in the community in different ways, such as organizing fundraisers or donations, finding ways to help people in need, or getting involved in community activities where they can. For example, last Friday Maura’s church had a “Noche Mexicana” which was open to the public, where they ate delicious Mexican food and celebrated simply being a connected, united community here in Sayulita. Furthermore, once a year, Maura and her husband help put on an event called VBS which is held each July. This past July they had over one hundred kids that came. VBS is a week-long event filled with all sorts of fun activities for kids, such as dancing, making crafts, playing and learning games, having and making snacks, etc. This week-long event is completely free and open to the whole community of Sayulita!
“I love doing what I do! My passion is to share what I know, help those in need, and train others in how to do a better job at parenting or teaching their kids or in school. Most importantly, I enjoy getting to share my beliefs with others—never as an imposition, but in a patient way for those who want to know about it. My passion is to tell others where I get my passion from, and how I’ve found my peace and joy.”
Thank you to Maura, her husband, and the work that they do through their church to help our community of Sayulita to be a better, more connected, loving place. They are what being a Pueblo Magico is all about.
Written By: Aanya Sheikh-Taheri