Update from GBGM MIssionary John Elmore
Here is an update from GBGM MIssionary John Elmore:
I was going to write this newsletter informing you of all the good work that was done by VIM teams over the last eight months. Due to the recent Earthquake. I think this will be better.
Earthquake Chile
Friends, Thank you for all your letters and prayers…First off Cristina and I are fine. The area we are in is about two hours west of the main earthquake activity. The City of Angol where we live and work was hit with a 8.9. Many building were damaged beyond repair. Most of the buildings that suffered the most structural damage were buildings made of adobe. Also a lot of very old brick buildings.El Vergel Agricultural School, where I presently work, suffered damage as well. The Hostal, which is the original farmhouse that is still used by the school as a Kind of Hotel, was severely damaged. The teams that will come this year will be working on this building. The other damage that was significant was to the School Church, which is another old, beautiful building. The Social Hall where a lot of you worked this past year also will need some work.
A lot of this work will need to be done to the outside as well as the inside. Here in Chile it is approaching fall. Very soon it will start raining. For that reason it is urgent to fix the outside of these buildings. When the groups start coming in July, we can work on the inside.
As I am writing this letter March 6,2010 six days after the earthquake. We have had at least three shakes per day. Everyone keeps expecting a bigger one. It makes it hard to work, but everyone is doing their part in continuing their lives and repairing damages where they can. The accessibility to Internet for me here has been sparse. The first few days after the first Quake, we had no electricity or communication with the outside. We had no water. Things are slowly on the repair. Yesterday I was able to go to the hardware store, and purchase some supplies. Today after a 6.8 Quake this morning they are only permitting one person in the store at a time. So it is not over here. I believe it is going to be a while before things return to normal.
Children’s Home
Here in Angol The Methodist Church supports a Children’s home. It is a Place where kids from age 6months to eighteen years old, come to live. They are sent there by the courts, due to problems in their homes, sexual abuse, alcoholism drugs or the parents just can’t afford to have them. A few members of my church and I spend a lot of time with them, having cookouts, and taking them to parks. We try to give them the love and attention they so desperately need. A few of us from the church go there every week and do a devotional with them. We take our guitars and sing with them.Over the last eight months every VIM group that has come to work at El Vergel Agricultural School Have had the experience of being with the Kids in there home. They have made a huge impression on these kids. All the groups have donated something to the Home, new furniture for the area where when the parents come to visit so they can visit comfortable. A refrigerator, Metal lockers with locks so that the older kids can have there own things. One group from Alabama had five ladies over there every day, painting beautiful murals on the walls, and also painting other walls. The place looks and feels completely different than the way it did when I first visited. Now the bad news.
The buildings walls are adobe. During the early Sunday morning hours of the 28th of February, the kids got out of their beds and were rushed outside into the yard. They could not return to there temporary home that night or even now. Their house, there home has been condemned. Early on Sunday morning the kids were taken along with some mattresses to Our Church building. That is where they are now and probably will be there until we can find them a new home. Over the last week we moved all their things from the home into the Church. I spent the last two days with the group that was with me, putting together bunk beds, and sorting clothes, turning the upstairs classrooms into dorm rooms.
The decision by the Board is to try and build them a new home. We are working on finding a piece of land somewhere in town. It is possible that the owners of the Old home that has been condemned will sell us the property; we could possibly build something new in the same location.
Reflection
When I talk to churches and VIM groups that come and work with me. I remind them that the physical work that is done is secondary. The most important work is that the relationships in Christ that are developed. The relationship between you and God that is strengthened. The relationship between two different cultures. I don’t want to say that the work is not important,. But the relationships in Christ are eternal. Buildings fall down, and we have just seen a prime example, of what a five-minute earth shake will do here in Chile as well in Haiti. So while we dig foundations, and footings and raise walls of a new building. Maybe God is building something stronger and everlasting in us.
Out of the rubble and when the dust settles, the presence of God is seen, through the helping hands of many that come to the immediate rescue in prayer.Request
If you would like to help financially with either of these projects,The repair work on the Agricultural School, which would include work on The Hostel- The Church – and the Social Hall/ Gymnasium.
Funds to help us build a new Children’s home. Just a note- the department from where the children come through and are monitored, has offered to help also with some construction funds for the rebuilding.
This is the advance Number
General Construction in Chile # 3020485
Write on the check where you want these funds to go.
1. El vergel Agricutural School
or
2. Childrens Transitional Home
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