COSTA RICA CLAIM TEAMS HELP BUILD NEW AUDITORIUM

By Mark Gage

This past February and May, four CLAIM teams traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica, to help BIMI missionaries Terry and Kay Jones with the building of an auditorium addition at Iglesia Bautista Betel (Bethel Baptist Church). When we arrived in February, much of the excavation work had been done. Our team of nine started by bending and tying steel re-bar for the poured footings and columns. By the end of the two weeks we had built all of the reinforcements, dug and poured the footings, ran an electrical conduit, and poured slabs for the auditorium and kitchen. We also helped lay the first several rows of concrete block. We went home tired, but filled with joy that we could have a part in serving the Lord. We were especially moved after visiting the national Catholic shrine in Cartega. We were able to have a firsthand view of how idolatry and tradition have held the Costa Rican people from the true Gospel of Christ.

I returned the first week of May with a group of sixteen from Parkview Baptist Church in Palm Coast, Florida. During mid-February and May the rest of the block walls had been laid and the steel roof structure and decking had been installed. The group from Parkview built and installed the walls and sheathing to enclose the upper portion of the building. They also built attic storage areas, finished the electrical work, and the ladies dug a long trench for plumbing and also helped in other areas as well. The group had the honor of attending the first service in the new auditorium. As they left after a week of hard work, a second group of four men from Temple Baptist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, arrived. The men built a nursery room and the sanctuary platform, finished pulling wires, and also did many other small jobs.

Since we left in mid-May, another CLAIM group has done painting and finish work. A small CLAIM group will be returning in early November to do the last finishing touches on the building. I praise the Lord for all of these hard working CLAIM volunteers! The people at Bethel Baptist will now have a new auditorium in which to grow.