Eleanor has been helping Patti in the kitchen for breakfast.  They have been doing a great job making a hearty meal for the team and the girls at the House of Hope.  Speaking of Patti, she was washing some straggler dishes on Tuesday night and a glass broke while she was washing it.  She ended up cutting the bottom portion of her pinky.  Kathy Cerda, who is studying nursing, was able to help.  We determined that it looked like she would need stitches.  When Willie and Patti arrived at the clinic, it was packed with people, but Praise God that they did not have to wait very long.  Patti ended up needing 4 stitches.

mini bulldozer/backhoe

chopping away at the roots of the trees

Kerry, our el jeffe, worked us very hard on Tuesday.  Kerry rented a mini bulldozer/backhoe to help with the removal of the trees where the new wall will be going.  The rental company supplied a driver for the backhoe.  He helped dig out the dirt and roots around the trees.  Because there were roots of the tree on the adjacent property, we had to use manual labor to pull the trees down.  Juan, Jose helped chop away at the roots and several of the team (Kerry, Willie, Diane, Debby, Marco) helped pull on the rope to cause the trees to fall.  The next step in the process was using the Sawzall and ax to chop the limbs off the trees and chop the trunks into smaller pieces.  A big thanks to the NW Lumber company for providing the Sawzall blades.  Later in the morning  2 trucks arrived with 1,100 cinder blocks – each block weighing 40 pounds.  John S., Juan and Jose quickly hopped on the bed of the truck and began handing the blocks to the rest of the team.  It went by quickly with so many helping hands.  Strength training at its best!

2 trucks arrived with 1,100 cinder blocks

We had a relaxing evening at the House of Hope eating dinner and enjoying fellowship with the girls.  For the evening entertainment, the girls and Jacob danced using the Dance Wii DVD.  The girls twisted a few arms of the team and had us out on the dance floor for a few of the songs – those team members will remain anonymous (Diane, Tom, Bob M., John S. and Eleanor).  We had a blast dancing to The Monster Mash and Viva Las Vegas.  I think we worked off the delicious custard that Patti had made for dessert!

Wednesday morning, Debby led a devotion on God growing us through trials and how God doesn’t give all of us the exact same trial to go through.  We then listened to a Christian contemporary song “Blessings”, which fit right in with the devotional.  After the devotion we spent time in prayer praying for continued safety and protection for the team as we continue our work on the wall and other requests that were mentioned.

Once at the worksite, Debby, Eleanor and Diane continued their work in House #4 scrapping many pictures of Justin Bieber off one of the bedroom walls.   We have found that the girls liked to use finger nail polish to attach pictures to the wall – using whatever color was available.  The men were ready to being work on building the wall.  John S. and Marco began to mix the cement.  We are working on an existing portion of the wall where we did not have to dig a ditch.  Juan and Willie were in charge of putting the cement on the wall and making sure each cinder block is level.  Bob H. and Dick brought small rocks over that go inside the two holes of the cinder block.  We had two interns come and help today.  They were a great addition to the team helping move cinderblocks closer to the location of where we were building the wall today.

Today was a big day in that Kelley brought two people from different non-profit organizations who have an interest in helping contribute to the upkeep of the girls homes.  Tom also had people from a newspaper, “I Love Chile” come for a tour of the Hogar and House of Hope.  They are planning on writing a 2 page article for the paper which will be read by Chileans inside and out of Chile.

Tonight Debby, Eleanor and Diane will be sharing in 3 of the girls homes at the Hogar.  Thursday after we finish up at the worksite and get cleaned up, we will be going into Santiago for dinner.  This will be the first time the team has had an opportunity to be outside the Hogar and House of Hope.

We are excited to see the variety of ways God is bringing organizations and people into the path of the Hogar.  Please pray that the non-profit organizations will get the appropriate approval to donate to the needs of the Hogar and that the newspaper article will touch the hearts of Chileans in other countries who will feel lead to get involved in the Hogar or House of Hope.

If you would like to donate to help with building the wall, please follow this link:  Donate

In Christ,
Diane