Friday, January 23rd

After breakfast this morning, we said “Hasta luego” to some of our Chilean friends. Five of the missionaries from Santiago had to drive home after spending the week working with us. They have an 8 hour drive to get there and we will see them again when we fly to Santiago tomorrow morning.
In our attempt to put the finishing touches on our projects, we’ve removed the frames around the cement that was poured, picked up lots of scrap wood and steel and are hammering or screwing in place any pieces that we haven’t put up yet.
Following Mapuche tradition, the Chilean’s slaughtered a sheep outside the church. Pastor Scott gave a short message prior discussing scripture from Isaiah 53. Our friends here will use the sacrifice to provide a large meal for us as we close in on our last night in Lautauro.

Thursday, January 22nd

With our time here coming to an end, we are all anxious to step up the pace and complete as many projects as we can for the Chileans. There are so many needs that we won’t be able to get to this year, but we have done a great job accomplishing just as many. Most of the men/boys spent a large part of today mixing and pouring approximately 6,000 pounds of cement to go over the new drainage pipes. Rick and Ron continued to work on welding for the bleachers and John C. started to install walls in both the bathrooms to allow privacy for the shower areas. Mika and Rebecca were invited to go to one of the women’s home Bible study groups where the women shared about their lives, studied Scripture and enjoyed food. It was a very moving experience for them to have fellowship with Christian Chilean women.

Update

Wednesday, January 21st


Another day full of work and we are making progress. Tomo and the youth finished the daunting task of painting the entire rear of the building. Then they were off to help a Mapuche women in the community. They got to weed all day and want to thank their parents for teaching them how to weed with such diligence and skill. Everyone else continued with cutting, welding, and painting steel. We dug out a ditch under the rear gate and inserted two large pipes for better drainage during rain. We’ve started building and putting up benches in the shower rooms. The goal for this church is to also serve as a community center where people will come to play sports but also be introduced to the Lord. Hopefully they will want to come back on Sunday for worship.

Tuesday

January 19th

Today it was back to work all day at the church grounds. We arrived from our separate houses at 9:00 a.m. for breakfast. Then we work all morning, eat “almuerzo” at 2pm, and work until our final meal at 8pm.



There are several projects that we are working on. Tomo and the youth finished staining one side of the building and are now painting the back. Some of us are busy with welding steel and cutting wood to make more bleachers.



Some of have been digging holes and a trench, framing it with wood, and filling it with wheelbarrel after wheelbarrel of cement. The end goal of this project is an electric gate at the front of the church.



And still others are busy painting steel, drilling holes, cutting wood, and of course, playing with the Chilean kids.




Tuesday, January 20th

Work, work, work. We’re starting to see that some of our projects are getting closer to the end today. The youth are almost done painting the outside. All the wood stairs have been cut. The cement for the front gate is almost cured. The brand new steel gate is currently being welded into a traditional Mapuche symbol and the guys have started working on putting up posts for a fence that will eventually go around the church’s entire perimeter.

Cultural Differences

Yup. Things sure do operate differently here.

Hello!

On behalf of the team, I'd like to let you know that everyone is doing well. Each of us are in great health, we are getting a lot accomplished, and the Chilean people have been nothing short of great.

Upon arriving in Lautauro in the afternoon, we had lunch and were soon put to work!

On Sunday, we performed our 'Everything' skit (I hope someone got the video, and I'll upload it...) and Wallace preached on Colossians 3 with Doug (Diego) translating. The Mapuche people came after service, and we were able to purchase there hand crafted goods. In the afternoon, we had a party at the park where we had lunch and there were 3 baptisms in the river. It was powerful. We concluded the day playing soccer (gringos v. Chileanos), and am proud to say that we came up victorious!

We miss each of you back home - please keep us in your prayers: safety, health, and for strong and lasting relationships to build. Blog you later!