A couple of months ago, I started a project to restore some chairs that were just sitting around at the church. Most were just bare metal frames, while a few of them had shredded fabric with the stuffing hanging out.
The chairs that were in barely usable condition were setup in a makeshift classroom in one of the dorm rooms at the property that is mainly used by the pastors and students of the area’s Theological Training Institute.
Kelly and I decided to keep our little project under wraps and surprise them with the new chairs. We worked with the caretaker of the property to restore over 40 chairs and then one day we swapped out the old for the new.
We weren’t sure how the pastors would respond to our gift. We assumed that many wouldn’t like the bright colors or that they didn’t get a say in the project, but their response really surprised us as they thanked us repeatedly.
Alejandro, the caretaker on the property, recently broke his arm. The same arm that had sustained multiple injuries in a machete attack years before. Due to his former injury, he has struggled finding work and then when he broke his arm earlier this year, he was out of work again. For several days, Alejandro tirelessly worked on sanding, painting and moving the chairs with his one good arm. Working on this project gave him the confidence that he is able to go back to work again and has started looking for new opportunities.
