Not all the fires have been bad ones, however. To my great pleasure, upon arriving I found that five men of our Chilean church have been working hard to clear the land of weeds and useless trees. The men have burned literally tons of brush, having cut down 70 trees. We will have lots of firewood to sell for the benefit of the church, which has provided so much help. Again I say, the students and families of Colegio Cristiano Conosur are going to have a beautiful tranquil campus where they can excel.
I've had the pleasure of working alongside the men a couple of days. Last Tuesday we had lunch in a "picada camionera" a rickety shed on the side of the road with outdoor tables where truckers stop to eat. The food was great and cheap, and the flies and local dog Fifi came at no extra cost! Afterward, we had a big watermelon. The watermelon in Chile is the best I have ever tasted, and I consider myself a connoisseur (Conosur?) of watermelon.
We are within days of beginning the restoration of the 5800-sqft house that will be the administrative offices and community center for the new school. The house has lots of windows. The bad news is that the best estimate for windows in the house came to $48,000, or almost half the entire budget of $110,000 for remodeling the house.
The good news is that 15 minutes ago, I completed the deal to buy all the windows AND doors, AND hardware, AND just about everything else that used to be in the house, for the sum of $13,600. What a blessing! The previous occupant of the house had removed all the windows, doors, banisters, railings, etc, and put them into storage. To those of you who knew of this problem, thanks for your prayers. There is a bunch of stuff we won't need, so it may be time to introduce the concept of the YARD SALE to Chile.
Everything in the house was top-quality. To give an example, our architect Andrés tells me that each of the 15 or so doorknobs in the house is worth $70 new. Please pray that we will come in under budget, using the excess funds as the seed for the bigger needs coming up.
The church will have a big barbecue on the school parcela on Saturday to celebrate the beginning of tangible work toward the school. The pool is almost ready to go, with new paint and, we hope, a new pump. The parrillas are prepared to receive the steaks and sausages. The tables are rented. It will be a great time of prayer and thanksgiving.
We are in good shape financially to do the restoration of the house, 100% supported by people like you. THANK YOU! We have a long way to go in raising the funds for the second phase, building the classes and infrastructure for K-5 students. We need $1.5 million to pull the trigger. We achieve this simply by 150 donations of $10,000 each. We have received several donations like that, so it's not crazy. Please join with us in prayer and fasting (if you feel so moved) to seek God's direction. Selfishly, I pray that God will move quickly, because we lose a year if we don't see the funds by end of US spring. But we are committed to allowing God to lead this project to an end that glorifies him in Chile and in your hearts.
James & Cheryl Green
