Snowball Effect!

 Dear Partners,

We are just a couple weeks away from the official start of winter here in the southern hemisphere as many of you up north are fast approaching summer! 

In spite of the cold and rain, there has been a lot going on here in Lautaro! Thank you so much for praying for the work last week with the short-term team from Flagstaff, AZ (and a few friends returning from ICI Los Heroes in Santiago too)! It was a super busy week for everyone, but these 15 university students and three leaders did fantastic work with great attitudes and left a lasting impression on us as a couple, our kiddos and our brothers & sisters at ICI Lautaro. We were very blessed by them through the physical work they helped with as well as their words of encouragement and smiles!

(University students from "The Corner" in Flagstaff, AZ)

(Claudio Miranda, Claudio Castro and Cristian from Los Heroes)

(We were thrilled and blessed to have Papo come with the team this time!)

One of the big challenges in hosting such a big team (and having 7 on the team staying in our home!) is our current car situation: Yep, the Mitsubishi is still at the mechanic. However, our neighbor don Oscar graciously lent us his car again for the week the team was here, so we were able to move people around as needed! And now this week we finally have a diagnosis for the car problems and a quote, totaling about $3,150 USD, toward which we have $2,300 saved. Please help us pray for the remaining $850 needed to fix the car! 

Now, back to the work with the team: First off, so much painting! The gym walls, bleachers, hallways by the church meeting room and the Sunday school room, and part of the wall outside all got fresh coats of paint that make them look so much lighter, brighter and bigger:

Outside, the structure for the water tower got sanded and painted, and lots of branches from the trees downed a few weeks ago were cut, dragged and stacked!

I took groups of team members to three different grade schools that happily accepted an English Workshop we offered! This was such a cool opportunity to get out in the community representing the church, spend time with lots of kids and connecting with some of the teachers at their schools! Each of the schools then posted about the workshops to their Facebook pages, and the feedback has been so encouraging!

There were at least 30 of us for every meal at church all week, so lots of food and good kitchen help!!

It was a quick week, but there was time on Saturday to spend time with friends from ICI Lautaro that hadn’t been able to come during the week. Some sports, a yummy lunch and evening church service, with lots of conversations and fun mixed in!

As we told the team as the week was ending, this has felt like the beginning of a snowball effect: all of this hard effort in a good direction will inspire (and has already inspired) others to join in on what God is doing in this place and beyond! Our Lord is the One who redeems, shines light into darkness, and brings life even out of a tomb: there is literally nothing impossible for Him!! We know and believe this without a doubt, and a week like this felt like a fundamental step in growth & projection for the ICI Lautaro Church and Community Center Project... 

All that to say, we are so very grateful for this partnership with ICI Los Heroes and now with our new friends from Flagstaff, Arizona, who we hope to see back in Lautaro again very soon, Lord willing! 😊

During this next month, please pray for:

• Two different families with teenagers dealing with severe depression.... May God continue to work in their lives and use us to speak His Truth and Love!
• A special Father's Day service! May friends use this special occasion to invite important people in their lives to church, perhaps for the first time! 
• The ICI Lautaro church, for continued growth, maturity and passion.
• The short-term team from Yuma preparing to come down to Southern Chile the last week of June! They'll be up in Ralco the first week and then down here in Lautaro starting July 1st. We're looking forward to seeing them and working alongside Yuma in Lautaro again!
• The remaining $850 needed to fix the car, and that it would be repaired well and asap. 
• Our health as a family, as there are lots of colds and bugs going around right now.

Thank you so much for your faithful prayers, encouragement and financial support, all of which allow us to serve here in Lautaro. We are privileged and humbled as a family to be in this partnership with you and pray that God continue to provide for each of your needs according to His Word. 

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." ((Ephesians 3:20-21)

In His Love,

Gus & Karissa, Jeremy, Liz, Cristina & Diego

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