My daughter Krista and I flew to Santiago Chile with the CWE team to begin construction on a new church building. We had each been here before in 2005, but not at the same time. Here is a photo of Krista as we are leaving the airport in Santiago.

 

We boarded a small bus and headed to a camp not too far away. The camp is run by "Youth with a Mission" Here is the building in which we stayed.

Here is a view of a several of the buildings on the site. The white one on the left is where we had our meals and shared each evening together, it's a few hundred feet from where we were sleeping,.

We had arrived Sunday morning, unpacked, ate a meal then that evening we went to church. This is where the church has been meeting. The new building will be a welcome addition. The woman on the left is Crystal Salsman, she along with her husband Brian and their three teenage children are missionaries here.

During the service that evening, we discovered that a member of this church had been praying for each member of our CWE team. I was honored to know that someone had been thinking about me ahead of time. Here is the member that had been praying for me. Each one of us was presented with a small gift from the person that had been praying for us.

After church that night, we headed back to the camp for another meal. Here is Krista beautifying the room.

and an evening shot up the street.

Early the next morning we headed over to the project site and began work on the new Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The woman is this photo is called "Hermana Maria Mendez" she is 93 years old, and this church was started in her home years ago. Many of the ladies from the church accompanied her to the site to witness the first block being set. Here she is with Ray setting the first block.

...then to work we went.

When the ladies brought us our lunch, I snapped a photo with my daughter.

Here are all the ladies that went. Lucy, Krista, Julie, and Debbie.

That evening while back at the camp, Krista and I did a little exploring, it was getting dark so there are not many photos, just these. Here you can see snow up in the mountains. It is the first week of April and Autumn has just begun.

And here are some Chiles picked from a field and spread out on the ground.

Tuesday morning we picked up where we had left off.

Here are Eddie, Bruce, Brandon, and a Chilean who's name I don't recall preparing the wall for the bond beam that will ultimately be the structural protection from the frequent earthquake tremors.

When Krista came out at lunchtime I let her try spreading some mortar on a block.

She later took a shot of Brandon and I working together on a wall.

That night during our devotion time, Krista and I were picked to participate in an illustration, here we are in our fireman outfits.

The next morning it was back to work at the church building. Here is Jeff scraping the top of the wall to ensure a proper fit for the trusses. Jeff is also our safety man, he leads by example.

We also had some time for fun, here is Rod taking on one of the hired workers in an arm wrestling match.

That evening Krista and Brandon posed for a photo with the Salsman kids, left to right is Caleb, Brandon, Krista, Kelcy, Isaiah and Zack. Zack is not a Salsman but a family friend that is down for a 6 month stay.

That night we had a blast playing spoons, I don't have any photos, but do have lots of fond memories. That night was a lot of fun.

The following day, Thursday, Brandon and I concentrated on getting all the concrete poured into the walls. Here we are with Juan, he helped get the buckets of concrete up to us.

Krista also came up to see the view.

and then eat with her dear ol' dad.

We completed all the masonry work then posed for a photo, the CWE team and the hired workers.

Then goofed off with Brandon, Daniel, Dante and Loreto.

Thursday night we stayed up late playing spoons again, and again it was a lot of fun.

Friday morning we arose early, a few of the guys went down to the job site to install the door frames and tidy up a few things. I stayed back with the rest. Krista and I took one last walk around the camp and here are a few of the sights we saw.

Later that morning we drove out to a place called San Cristobal where there stands a stature of Mary the mother of Jesus. From the hilltop I took this photo across the city. The city is nestled among the Andes mountains, you can barely see them in the distance due to the incredible amount of smog. I was told that breathing that smog on a daily basis is equivalent to smoking six cigarettes a day. I had a scratchy feeling in my throat much of that day.

We left the park and went to a restaurant near the ABWE seminary. There we met up with Christian, we met him the last time we were here in 2005, he is now the pastor of the church we built in 2005.

Here is a photo of the building built in '05.

The last thing we did before heading to the airport was to go souvenir shopping. Here are Brandon, Kelcy, Krista and I after an hour and a half of walking around.

It was a great trip and I can't wait for the next one.

Kevin

Home