The Baptist mission Collín Alto, is located in the ninth region (Araucanía), and is made up of men and women from the Mapuche culture who traditionally have lived in a self sustainable village based system.

With the help offered from the Red del Camino para la Mision Integral – Chile, and gift in kind donations (woodworking tools) channeled from RdC friends from the North (Willow Creek Community Church) this small community of faith among the Mapuche has initiated a fine hardwood workshop to produce beautiful wood handcrafts to express creativity, generate income and produce hope to their community through these productive opportunities.

The collective effort on the part of the church community to acquire the hardwood and transform it into beautiful expressions of their art and culture has been inspiring. What was often considered left over material or scraps for firewood has been transformed into creative, unique and exclusive art and furniture.

The setting up and development of the woodworking shop wasn’t easy. First, we received the tools but because we didn’t have the necessary electrical transformers we had to wait for two months before the necessary funds were available. When we were able to purchase this needed equipment it was right at a time of year when many of the men from the village had to travel to the north of the country to work as temporary laborers picking fruit. A small group of us stayed behind this season to continue dreaming and creating new forms of production for our community that requires vision, patience, lots of effort and creativity…

We are standing at the door of doing just that and are thankful to God for the opportunity he has given us to create new forms of work that will provide for our families and the life of the community.

Leonardo Álvarez y Omar Cortés
Temuco-Chile