One Body, Many Parts

 Update from Gus in the South of Chile:
 
The same team that worked on the Libertad church last week is now with me in Lautaro, a city about 8 hours south of Santiago.  The IberoAmerican church here has a great vision to reach its community through very practical ways, including a huge focus on the indigenous people group of this region (the Mapuches), who are rejected or shunned by many churches in the area. They also have great discipleship and training for believers, with a good focus on preparing for missions work.  Our main project this week is to prepare the ground and lay the foundation for the grade-school that the church is constructing with the support of like-minded churches and the help of short-term teams!

Something we've been talking about a lot this week is how we are a multicultural group, with different backgrounds and different giftings, but we are all members of the same Body serving together right now, each with different functions.  Christ is our Head and we all do our part to keep moving forward in the work He gives us each to do.  This school project is just beginning and will take the work of many more teams coming to give their time, energy and resources over the next several months.  But when it is done, this school will bless over 600 children and their families and allow this church to continue being a witness to the Gospel of Jesus in new, practical ways for the people of Lautaro!

Repairing a wall... changing lives!

Update from Gus:

Hi Friends!  Thank you for your prayers!  We just finished up the first work week with the short-term team that’s here.  They did a bunch of patching jobs, primarily fixing up one of the walls of the Sunday school classroom at the church called “Libertad”, because it was leaking really bad and flooding the room during the rainy season. (Not a very inviting situation to have little kids in!)  So, the team worked hard and it’s looking great now, as you can see in the photos below! 

This church was the first one in our movement here in Chile and has special meaning for me personally.  You see, I was 15 years old, living on the street, a depressed drug addict, and ended up going to a concert at this church even though I’d sworn I’d never set foot in a church again.  But God had a plan, and none of my party plans for that night worked out, so I ended up going to this church, hearing great music, and listening to a testimony from an American guy whose life sounded strangely like mine, except that now he had hope because Jesus had changed him.  And on that night, God touched my heart and I felt compelled to make the biggest decision of my life and give everything to Him.  It was a long process after that, and many more miracles, but that night at that church is what God used to start my conscious walk with Him.

So, this team may have “only” been working on fixing a leaking wall for most of this week… but God knows what little boys and girls are going to be in that room over this next winter, warm and dry, hearing about Jesus’ real, personal love for them for the first time!  No job is too small or unimportant with a God that changes the ordinary into extraordinary and the common into supernatural!