The little house sits on a coffee plantation. My team and I have been working on restoring the ‘casita’ since we arrived in El Salvador. When we started, I was hesitant to even step in the house. It was dark, mold-protected and filled with crawling creatures. Yuck.
How to Restore an Abandoned Building
- Sweep everything in sight (I wanted to scream every time I saw a cockroach but rationale kicked in – duh, Charis, you’re outside)
- Remove weeds everywhere
- Collapse the roof
- Set fire to leaves and branches (along with the accidental burning of the 12 feet ravine filled with all kinds of garbage; whoops!)
- Scrub mold from walls (Betsy was quite the expert at this and I’m so glad she was)
- Mix plaster paint by hand in small batches (the orange buckets from Home Depot? One of those at a time)
- Paint 2-3 coats (6-8 inch brushes)
- Get rid of the tree trunk blocking the entrance (thank you Jarrad for teaching me how to use a machete!)
- Touch up unpainted areas
- Build frame for new roof (Justin and Jarrad assisted this project)
- Paint art on certain walls (I didn’t realize that Justin was quite the artist)
In the midst of manual labor, God showed up during my days. I discovered him in the cool breeze on a particularly hot day. I found him in our ministry host family when they worked with us side by side. The kids were on school vacation and they spent their days with us. I heard him whilst painting on top of an unstable ladder and he said, “Fear not.”
Yesterday was our last working day at the casita. It will serve as a bible school for the children in this community. It’s not perfect but God doesn’t need perfect; he wants obedience. He used seven imperfect individuals to help restore this school and it is beautiful. He wants to use you too. Will you let him?
