May Construction and Repairs!

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers for all of the construction and repair work here in Lautaro last week with the team from ICI Los Heroes (from Santiago)! It was a super productive week, exceeding expectations with fantastic progress, so here´s a detailed explanation of the different projects that were worked on, with lots of photos!

The gym roof has been leaking in several spots, so the broken polycarbonate sheets were replaced with new zinc ones:

There was a Mediterranean-style fake wall and hidden gutter along a big portion of the roof, which was not conducive to the very rainy weather and all the leaves that fall here, leading to clogging and then ceilings leaking. So, the fake walls were removed, the roofs extended, and now it all drains properly:

This open point right next to our Sunday school classroom has been a constant issue because of safety concerns as well as weather issues (rain, wind, etc.). But after hard work this week, it is now closed off as a wall, as well as the second-story wall directly above it!

At the other end of that same back hallway (where future classrooms /workshop rooms will be), it was also completely open, making it a safety issue and allowing all the winter cold to constantly blow down the hallway towards our main church meeting room. This side couldn´t be completely closed off though, since we need access to stairs and the water tanks, so a quality gate-door was built!

The long, dark, uninviting main hallway leading from the gym to the church meeting room, looks sooo much better since a ceiling and lights were installed, making it much more warm and welcoming:

Two trees that were dangerously tall and creaking right next to the building, as well as contributing tons of leaves to the roof situation, were cut down, one completely and the other partially. And the well that we use for all of our water at church got some much needed TLC when the pump stopped working one day:

While the men primarily were busy on all those projects, the women mainly kept busy buying groceries, cooking & cleaning, taking snacks around, making sure everyone had sustenance needed to keep working! Thankfully the broken kitchen sink was replaced with a double sink and we were able to purchase a couple new pots, serving bowls, baking dishes and other much-needed kitchen utensils: 

We realize this seems like a photo dump, but we really wanted to convey just how MUCH got accomplished, thank You Lord!! And we are so grateful for these friends that came from Santiago who generously gave their time and energy to serve so selflessly here! It was such an encouragement, and is so exciting to look toward what else God has in store!!

- Please be praying for another team coming May 29th - June 4th, this time made up of college students from Arizona! We will be focusing mostly on painting the gym and hallways that week, a few other repairs, as well as outreach and relationship-building activities! 

- And we appreciate your prayers for the special Mother´s Day service this Sunday! May God bring those who need to hear about His love and truth! (Oh, and we will write more in our next update about local friends and what God has been doing in their lives!)

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support for our family and the ministry here in Lautaro!

In His Love,

Gus & Karissa

Jeremy, Liz, Cristina and Diego