Last Weeks in Cajon

¡Hola mis amigos, espero que esten bien! Sorry it´s been a while since I last did one of these- the last few weeks have been really busy. I´m writing to you from a youth hostel in a very rainy Bariloche, Argentina, where we are spending a few days to rest before our new project begins in the centre of Temuco. We had to leave Chile to renew our visas, which is the main reason we came here, but it´s also really exciting seeing another country in South America. Hopefully it will stop raining today as half the team are bike riding and the other half (including me) horse riding :)

Our penultimate week in Cajon was probably the busiest weeks in terms of building, as we were laying bricks. It was quite dangerous when the walls got too high for us to reach, as the scaffolding was only a thin plank of wood resting on more wood. I quite liked risking my life though, and by the end of the week we had built one side of the church!

The last week wasn´t a building week as there was heavy rain and when it rains in Chile, everything stops. We did however ask if there was anything else we could do, and on Wednesday we went to a hospital with a woman who voluntarily visits patients who ordinarily would have no one to visit them. Also on Friday the pastor arranged for us to lead a children´s event, which was held in a field. Which I found quite funny as the forecast was for rain...but thankfully the rain held off for most of the time. We played some team games with them, and then Simon and I did a puppet show for them :) Not only was it fun for the kids, but the event also got the mothers chatting together, some of which had never met before. The pastor wants it to be the beginning of many events like this, as it would be a great opportunity for evangelism.
On Friday evening a youth group from the centre of Temuco came to our church and led a service. They were all really musical, and the highlight for me was definitely singing with them afterwards. I don´t think I´ve ever heard so many spontaneous harmonies sung at once ! :)

Our last weekend in Cajon involved many, many goodbyes. On Saturday the church threw us a surprise leaving party, with quite possibly the biggest barbecue I have ever seen in my life- sooo much meat! So on Sunday we decided to invite the pastor´s family round for a typical English lunch. There were more goodbyes at our last service Sunday evening, and it was then that it really hit me how much our presence meant to the church these past few months.

I´ve learnt so much from the people of Cajon, about their way of life, but perhaps more strikingly about their love for God, and for his people. We were just 10 strangers (some more strange than others) from England, but from the word go they have treated us like their own children. If we needed something, they´d get it for us, if there was even a mention of one of us being ill they would do their best to fix it and I don´t think we were ever hungry. It´s definitely an attitude I´ll be taking home with me.