Like a dog with a bone.

Our last week dawned echoing with an appeal on Sunday night for the help and service of the congregation. The aim, we were told, was to get the new church ready for a service this coming Sunday. With the roof barely half finished and the back wall almost non-existent, the siding hardly begun and some necessary materials lacking, we thought this was an ambitious call to make. And maybe it was, but we certainly weren’t counting on the power of a Shared Goal or a Gracious God. 

The maestros.

Monday morning greetings.

At the top of this photo you will see a Chileano join. Dad had never seen one before, but now that he knows how to make one I think he'll use it again.

On Monday we nailed on the vertical bracing  in-between the horizontal beams for the roof.

building the back wall.

On Tuesday Madd gave up all pretension of study and decided to spend the week working at the church. She and I cleaned up multiple piles of saw-dust and wood off-cuts, which spring up like weeds wherever our work stations are. I left her organizing piles of junk to go help Dad and the other guys at the front of the church. Before we could do anything we had to take down the front fence and dispose of a large pile of off-cuts in order to make room for the scaffolding. Some of the other brothers continued working to close the back wall in at the same time. We finished nailing siding on the front that day. To prevent the building from looking like it had a bad haircut, we then shaved all the angles and edges that interrupted the outside line of the building. All except for one corner, which somehow escaped the saw that day!

Can you see it?

this is relatively clean for once...

The side view.

 That evening we visited the Juan-Carlos family for fifteen minutes, but it turned into more than a couple of hours before we began walking home again. Juan-Carlos' surgery was put off until early May; they were glad as it meant we could spend more time together in our last week.

In Chile white people are called Gringos, which is often used in a derogatory way. So just for the record,this is our Gringo shot!

- and this is the normal one.

The next day we turned up late at work because Dad had an idea. At the time we were slightly skeptical of it, and as time moved on our appreciation didn't grow very quickly! Keep an ear open to find out what it was, because for now - good bye!