Greetings from a very tired Chile Mission team.
We were up early for a nice breakfast and a short meeting to plan our day. Most of us took the city bus to the worksite while a couple of the team members took a taxi filled with all our work tools. We arrived at 9 a.m. and were soon busy at work.
We hope to put on a second floor to the Church in San Fernando. Right now it's an attic space. This means the entire ceiling needs to be torn down and to make sure the floor boards fit, the roof will be "jacked up" during the construction process. But today would be a day to tear things down.
We learned the ceiling was put up several ways. There is a wooden frame, and attached to most of the joists is sheetrock. This isn't however the kind of sheetrock we would find at the local Home Depot. It's more like a particle board. It doesn't break off easily, and it creates a lot of dust when broken apart. Another area of the ceiling is covered with thin boards, 1"x3" which are slotted to help them stay together. That's all great when the idea is to keep them together. To get them to split apart was much more difficult. Nevertheless it was a "fun" morning. "Crowbar" Kay Kelly, and "Basher" Bob Lassalle were able to come up with a system and much of the ceiling was down by noon.
While Kay and Bob were doing their thing, several team members were able to get into the crawl space and start whacking down the ceiling from above. While the "sheetrock" was coming down with a crowbar and sledgehammer, Carleen Woods, Susan Patterson and Chris Archer were hammering at all the sheet rock. This of course was making a major mess all which is necessary to the process. Bill Bailey came up with a make shift broom made out of joists to clear the big stuff while Ann Allen, Julie Bailey and Pastor Daniel then took the boards and pulled the nails out. This was not only for safety, but most of the framing boards and the 1"x3" were carefully pulled down and will be used later. We were all amazed at the process, and how much we were able to accomplish. We broke for lunch around 12:30.
We are very blessed to be served by a local restaurant. The cook is making meal which traditional Chilean families would eat. We understand soup is a staple, all kinds. Yesterday we were treated to "Conzuelva" a soup ladened with vegatables; corn with the cob, zuchinni and potatoes along side a chicken leg. It was very tasty especially after the long day. Today's lunch was a bowl of Asparagus soup and a plate of spaghetti. On mission trips we try to lose weight with all the physical labor, but I don't think that is going to happen. The food is very good.
While most of us were at the job site, Construction Leader Vicky Roussel and Carl Sandlin went to get supplies. What happend was one of those "God" things which certainly was unexpected. It seems at the hardware store, the manager named John heard about the project and stopped everything to help. He assited Vicky and Carl with getting the best banking exchange rate, the best rate for lumber etc. He even drove Vicky and Carl back to the site and set up the delivery schedule. John had been an exchange student in Springfield, Missouri while he was in high school. He had visited Texas, although he admits it was Dallas not Houston. As a Christian he was delighted we were assisting people in the area, and even stopped by the Hotel this evening to make sure everything was doing well. He let it be known should anything be a problem while we are here, to give him a call at the office and he would be at our aid.
Following lunch we headed back to the worksite continuing the tasks of the morning, and adding a new one as well. Carl Sandlin was able to purchase two hydraulic jacks. They would be used to lift the roof so in the future we will be able to put the decking down on the "second floor." The entire workday ended at six when we headed back to the restaurant for another homecooked meal, pork chops with mashed potatoes. We had our dinner and devotion and relaxed for a half hour enjoying the fellowship.
The day however didn't end there. Upon returning to the Hotel we knew more work would be needed. Besides heading to the church for the construction project, tomorrow is VBS, and plenty of work had to be done to get ready. It was wonderful to sit in the Hotel hallway cutting up paper plates and making "sheep" for tomorrow's lesson. Everyone lent a hand from making sheep tongues to cutting out shapes to insert pictures. It should be another wonderful day tomorrow.
We were up early for a nice breakfast and a short meeting to plan our day. Most of us took the city bus to the worksite while a couple of the team members took a taxi filled with all our work tools. We arrived at 9 a.m. and were soon busy at work.
We hope to put on a second floor to the Church in San Fernando. Right now it's an attic space. This means the entire ceiling needs to be torn down and to make sure the floor boards fit, the roof will be "jacked up" during the construction process. But today would be a day to tear things down.
We learned the ceiling was put up several ways. There is a wooden frame, and attached to most of the joists is sheetrock. This isn't however the kind of sheetrock we would find at the local Home Depot. It's more like a particle board. It doesn't break off easily, and it creates a lot of dust when broken apart. Another area of the ceiling is covered with thin boards, 1"x3" which are slotted to help them stay together. That's all great when the idea is to keep them together. To get them to split apart was much more difficult. Nevertheless it was a "fun" morning. "Crowbar" Kay Kelly, and "Basher" Bob Lassalle were able to come up with a system and much of the ceiling was down by noon.
While Kay and Bob were doing their thing, several team members were able to get into the crawl space and start whacking down the ceiling from above. While the "sheetrock" was coming down with a crowbar and sledgehammer, Carleen Woods, Susan Patterson and Chris Archer were hammering at all the sheet rock. This of course was making a major mess all which is necessary to the process. Bill Bailey came up with a make shift broom made out of joists to clear the big stuff while Ann Allen, Julie Bailey and Pastor Daniel then took the boards and pulled the nails out. This was not only for safety, but most of the framing boards and the 1"x3" were carefully pulled down and will be used later. We were all amazed at the process, and how much we were able to accomplish. We broke for lunch around 12:30.
We are very blessed to be served by a local restaurant. The cook is making meal which traditional Chilean families would eat. We understand soup is a staple, all kinds. Yesterday we were treated to "Conzuelva" a soup ladened with vegatables; corn with the cob, zuchinni and potatoes along side a chicken leg. It was very tasty especially after the long day. Today's lunch was a bowl of Asparagus soup and a plate of spaghetti. On mission trips we try to lose weight with all the physical labor, but I don't think that is going to happen. The food is very good.
While most of us were at the job site, Construction Leader Vicky Roussel and Carl Sandlin went to get supplies. What happend was one of those "God" things which certainly was unexpected. It seems at the hardware store, the manager named John heard about the project and stopped everything to help. He assited Vicky and Carl with getting the best banking exchange rate, the best rate for lumber etc. He even drove Vicky and Carl back to the site and set up the delivery schedule. John had been an exchange student in Springfield, Missouri while he was in high school. He had visited Texas, although he admits it was Dallas not Houston. As a Christian he was delighted we were assisting people in the area, and even stopped by the Hotel this evening to make sure everything was doing well. He let it be known should anything be a problem while we are here, to give him a call at the office and he would be at our aid.
Following lunch we headed back to the worksite continuing the tasks of the morning, and adding a new one as well. Carl Sandlin was able to purchase two hydraulic jacks. They would be used to lift the roof so in the future we will be able to put the decking down on the "second floor." The entire workday ended at six when we headed back to the restaurant for another homecooked meal, pork chops with mashed potatoes. We had our dinner and devotion and relaxed for a half hour enjoying the fellowship.
The day however didn't end there. Upon returning to the Hotel we knew more work would be needed. Besides heading to the church for the construction project, tomorrow is VBS, and plenty of work had to be done to get ready. It was wonderful to sit in the Hotel hallway cutting up paper plates and making "sheep" for tomorrow's lesson. Everyone lent a hand from making sheep tongues to cutting out shapes to insert pictures. It should be another wonderful day tomorrow.
Glad to know you are all safe and hard at work! Keep it up!
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