The Castillo community in Ecuador recently celebrated the construction of a new church building where children will receive a hot meal and classes at least once a week.

The building was constructed with help from Grace Community Church in Montrose, Colorado, USA. 

Community members received the team with open arms, and Castillo church members gave many words of encouragement to them when they arrived. Over and over the community thanked them for coming to build a church for their children. 

“Thank you for coming and building and giving our children a chance in life,” one of the mothers told the team.

Each day began with a prayer time with the volunteer team and the future church members before they began work on the building. The construction process moved rapidly and by the end of the week, the building had walls and a roof to provide protection from the rain during the Sunday afternoon church service.

The team held afternoon activities each day for the children despite the rain. During one afternoon, they were playing with a parachute and ended up making an umbrella out of it so they could sing songs and tell Bible stories until the rain stopped. On the last afternoon, a pastor presented the colors of salvation as the children made bracelets, and all 80 children asked Jesus into their hearts.

On Sundays, the children will come to the new building with their parents for teaching and a snack.

The Castillo church property was donated by the community and had been passed down from generations before. Castillo is a plant of the Guaranda Church of the Nazarene led by pastors Andres and Marcia.

--Church of the Nazarene South America