Lincolnton GA First Assembly MAPS Team Launches LARTC Construction
By Rod and Sherry Boyd

What a joy to host the Lincolnton GA First Assembly MAPS Construction Team in mid-February. The 24-member team arrived on Saturday night on a direct flight from Atlanta. After a short team orientation meeting on Sunday morning, the team headed out to the Jehovah Jireh Good Shepherd School in Pedregal. Our readers may recall that six different MAPS teams assisted with the construction of a four-story school building on the busy Via Tocumen out near the airport. The team ministered during children’s church and blessed the kids with candy and prizes.

After lunch and changing clothes, the team visited the worksite to begin organizing their tools and plans. Jamie Cox is the MAPS team coordinator for Lincolnton and led this mixed team of men, women and four high school youth. About half of the team, including the youth, were on their first trip. The other half were very experienced, with some members having been on 15 or more missions trips.

The team was quite surprised to see the amount of work that had been accomplished before they arrived and that everything was ready for them to begin work. Of course, the team had no idea of how much work had gone into preparing for their visit! We are very proud of our general contractor, Jose Quintana, who in five short months oversaw:

• Construction of a twin culvert system to cross the creek and 100-yard extension of the road leading to the building site

• Clearing, topographical surveying and leveling of the two-plus acre property

• Excavation and construction of the anti-seismic foundation beams and fifteen ten-foot square column footings

• Raising 15 10-foot I-beam columns and three enormous 105-foot heavy duty cross beams

• Welding I-beam cross member I-beams as a base for the metal decking, used for the second-story floor.

When finished, the first-phase building will be a 105 x 50 feet, two-story structure, providing over 5,000 square feet of classroom, library, production, bathroom and hallway space on the ground floor and the same amount of space on the second floor for office, administration, bathroom and hallway.

Work began early Monday morning. Each member found their place sifting sand, mixing mortar and concrete, carrying block, and laying block, which was the focus of this team. The group tackled first the long 105-foot outside wall. We’ve had dozens of teams of the years, but very few if any have been able to lay block as fast as this team! The team worked so well together, a tribute to good preparation and a willing missionary spirit.

In just four days of work, the team was able to bring all of the interior walls and three sides of the exterior walls up to bond beam height. One exterior wall was left open to facilitate pouring the concrete floor, a project for the coming days. One of the team members captured the progress of the team in time-lapse photography. This inspiring video is available on our website at: https://vimeo.com/156087499.  Members of the team made us a 2 Timothy 2:2 wire sculpture that will occupy a prominent place in our offices.  Thank you!

With the mission accomplished, the team enjoyed their last day touring the Panama Canal and sites around Panama City. The team also experience very bad Friday afternoon traffic returning to the hotel. Their anticipated rest time at the hotel was replaced by nearly two hours on the bus of bumper-to-bumper traffic.

After dinner, the team attended a farewell service at the Getsemani Church. Our readers may recall that this has been one of our featured school projects. There is a very special relationship between the Getsemani church and the Latin America Resource and Training Center. We have asked Pastor Otilio and the church to be our covering. This will become even more important in the future. We will call upon church members to become part of the staff in days to come.

As we arrived to the school, Pastor Otilio shared with the team how God has blessed the school. The service that followed was very special for the team. The team was able to thank the ladies of the church and school that prepared the mid-morning fruit snack and lunches for the team on the construction site. As a fitting conclusion to the message, we invited all of the children in the church to come to the altar with their parents. Members of the Lincolnton team came behind them and prayed for them. The team then distributed treat bags to each of the kids.

An offering was received to help pour concrete in the courtyard of the school. Church members and our team willingly gave to this need. Pastor Otilio came by our office a couple days ago to share about the miracle of God’s provision for the concrete and reported that the courtyard concrete project was completed a couple days before classes began!

Thank you Lincolnton First Assembly MAPS Team for coming to Panama, for your hard work on the Center and for blessing so many children and adults with your gifts and testimony. Please come back soon!

The Portland Christian Center MAPS Team will be arriving soon. Since the Lincolnton team left, the bond beams have been finished and blocking above the bond beams completed. The second story floor has been poured. Fifteen square metal posts have been erected and the roof trusses have been welded into place. Special foam-filled zinc roofing sheets will be placed and the stairwell finished this week. The first-story floor may also be poured before the Portland team arrives.

Our goal is to move our office to the new building before the end of the years. There is so much work that still needs to be completed! We are believing God for $75,000.00 in special offerings for this project by July 1st. for electrical (cable, transformer, wiring), septic, plumbing, finish work and furnishings. And this is just the first phase of construction! Please join us in praying in funds and teams for the Latin America Resource and Training Center. Please visit www.lartc.net and www.boyds.org for updated reports and information. Thank you for standing with us!