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

Our Busy Summer is Almost Over!

Dear Partners,

Wow, it’s March already! January and February seemed to pass by in a whirlwind! Here’s an overview of the main happenings here:

Monse, Kendi and Hannah came to serve as interns in Lautaro for a month, (mid-Jan to mid-Feb). Among many other things, it was so helpful to have them teach the Sunday School class during the five Sundays they were here and take turns serving on the worship team too!

We also had a very special visit for a few days mid-January from Gus’ sister Lori, her husband Daniel and their baby Anderson! 

On Jan. 21^st, several of us from Lautaro went to Melipeuco to put on a Worship Workshop that morning and then a special Worship Service that evening! It was a very encouraging time of fellowship and learning together with our brothers and sisters in Melipeuco!

Most of our energy the last couple weeks of January went into preparing for ICI Lautaro’s 1^st Bilingual Kids’ Camp, with the help of the interns! There were 22 kiddos in attendance, almost half of which were not from the church! Some of the new kids were friends or neighbors of church members, but most had no connection and had just received a physical invitation or seen one on social media. We ended the camp with a closing awards ceremony, inviting their families and friends. The response was excellent and all the kids want to participate again next year! One new family of six attended church a couple weeks after the camp finished and said they would be back to church in March!

In mid-February we drove up to Santiago to be with family there to celebrate Gus’ brother Kyle’s wedding! It was a beautiful ceremony and fun reception, and just so special to spend time with friends and family there over those few days!

That Sunday we were able to attend the Oriente church in Maipu, which Karissa and the kiddos hadn’t visited in over 3 years! It was such a blessing to see brothers and sisters there, including two young guys getting baptized... And as an added bonus, Gus got to play drums!

That following week, we had a 5-day family vacation at the beach! It was our first immediate family vacation in five years, so we got some good r&r and had a blast together!

In not-so-fun news, in the middle of January our Mitsubishi’s turbo quit, so the car has been at the mechanic ever since. Thanks to generous one-time gifts from a couple of you, the turbo is now being repaired! By next week we should know if there are any other issues that need fixing before we can get the car back. We are grateful for your financial help, your prayers, and also for having been gifted that “backup car” last year that has again been our only running vehicle for over a month now.

(The 5-passenger Kia with no a/c that we squished in to get to Santiago and back!)

On a very intense note, a situation that’s been going on since the end of January at a regional level is burning of fields. Not the normal yearly field-burning after harvest that sometimes has gotten out of control in this agricultural area, but rather purposefully destructive and coordinated fires being started all over for political or ideological reasons. Unfortunately, government response has been lacking, only a couple of arrests have been made, and fires continue to spring up in areas all around towns and cities here in the south.  All firefighters in Chile are volunteers and are very overworked and exhausted right now. Along that same line, there are some local rural shops or plots of land that are again being threatened by violent groups (with the excuse of trying to “reclaim” them for indigenous families)...  

(a huge fire on Feb 4th about 7 miles from our home)

(How the situation looked in these 3 regions the first week of Feb.)

Prayer Requests for March:

-         Please pray for safety, real solutions, and peace for this region. We know that ultimately, only Jesus can truly heal and bring peace to hearts that are divided and antagonistic like this.

-         Pray that our car’s turbo would be fixed in the best possible way and that any other mechanical issues would be repaired, so we can have a dependable vehicle again!

-         This Saturday, Rubén (one of the leaders at ICI Lautaro) and his wife, Clara, are going to celebrate their “church” wedding! They were legally married years ago, but only ever had a civil ceremony, never a religious one. Rubén has finally taken to heart the advice from Gus and others in leadership over the years, so he and Clara decided to use this as an opportunity to reach out to non-believers in their family and friend circle, as well as be an example to current church members as well! Please pray for that special day, that God would be glorified and that He would bless this couple as they seek to honor Him.

-         This Sunday evening, a short-term team from California will fly into Temuco, so Gus, his dad and a couple other guys will pick them up from the airport and drive straight up to Ralco to work for a week there! Pray for God’s protection over travels and the work in Ralco!

-         We will be starting up again with marriage counseling sessions that have been on hold over these summer months, so please pray for those to continue well, that these couples would progress well, and their marriages would be healed/strengthened.

-         In a couple weeks we will have a church planning meeting to organize this year now that summer is ending: starting up with home groups again, planning special event Sundays, sharing about short-term teams coming to Lautaro this year, talking about new ministry opportunities and goals... Please pray for good participation and energy from church members as we kick off this new season!

-         We will also be starting up another homeschool year as a family, so as always we really appreciate your prayers as we balance ministry, school and family life!

 

“See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and stream in the wasteland!”

(Isaiah 43:19)

Lautaro isn’t a physical wilderness or wasteland by any stretch of the imagination! But we could definitely use some rain these days to put out fires or wet the dry grass and chaff so new fire-lighting attempts can't spread... However, more importantly, there is a spiritual, emotional and socio-political wilderness here in the south of Chile that fervently needs quenching... We know the only Living Water who can satisfy that deep need and are so blessed & honored to be serving in this place, sharing His hope!  

Thank you for your support in so many ways, for standing in the gap, for giving generously, for writing words of encouragement, helping us in this Kingdom work!

In Jesus' Love,

Gus & Karissa

Jeremy, Liz, Cristina and Diego