BACKING UP BELIEFS; CHURCH TEAM LEAVES FRIDAY TO BUILD CLASSROOMS IN CHILE.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

A grandmother, two aerospace engineers, a fireman and a physical therapist will travel thousands of miles to Chile to saw wood and pound nails to benefit schoolchildren.

Christian Church of Thousand Oaks is sending an 18-member construction team to Maipu, Chile, a suburb of Santiago, to help build classrooms for primary children. The group is scheduled to leave Friday and return Aug. 30.

``I want them to have the facility they need,'' said Margaret Ahlberg, 71, a grandmother and retired Pepperdine University librarian. ``I felt I wanted to get acquainted with the mission field and meet the people of Chile, and we have something in common as Christians.''

Ahlberg, a member of the church since 1963, has packed winter clothing, an electronic Spanish translator from Radio Shack, Jelly Bellies, handmade coasters and postcards of Thousand Oaks.

The nondenominational congregation of 600 members also raised $7,500 to buy construction materials in Chile and purchased several hundred dollars worth of saws, hammers, pliers and other hand tools that will be left behind in Chile, said Associate Pastor Arlen Pounds.

``The Chilean government is concerned about making sure everybody gets a good education,'' Pounds said. ``There'a not enough classroom space, so it's allowing churches to provide the classrooms.

``It's our duty to help out when we can,'' Pounds said. ``Our church gives 12 percent of our income to missions, and so it's following up our money with actual labor.''

The team will work alongside independent missionary Doug Kallestad, who requested the help. Kallestad has been supported financially and with prayers by the Thousand Oaks church for many years.

Pounds said a church team from Yuma, Ariz., set up the frame and laid the concrete for the classrooms a couple of weeks ago. The Thousand Oaks team will finish the rooms.

``We go down, and they hand us a hammer,'' said Pounds, who is going on the trip. ``No one is in construction, but we all do things around the house.''

The Rev. Joe Markum, four church elders, three high school students, a college student, some housewives and a nurse also are going. The nurse, a sister of a church member, is flying in from Ohio to join the team to provide clinical aid in Chile. The team members are paying their own way and will stay with host families while in South America.

``Our pastor put out the word and said, `Hey, we got a task that's a lot more difficult than dropping a little offering in the collection plate,' '' said Jim Powers, a battalion chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Powers, a church member since 1981, has gone to Mexico for the past five or six years to build homes with a missionary group but said he is far from being a contractor. Putting up walls and hanging doors and windows are far simpler than, say, remodeling a kitchen, he said.

``It's going to to be an immediate impact to the people in Santiago,'' said Powers. ``They needed classrooms, and we've got the ability to do it.''

Powers, who is using his vacation time for the work trip, is excited about going.

``I've gotten out a little cassette tape on conversational Spanish, and other than that, I'm focusing on what I'm going to do down there as far as being a representative of the United States and being a representative of our Christian Church,'' he said. ``I just really pray that I will be an instrument and I will be a representative of Jesus Christ and, hopefully, impact some lives that way.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (Color) The Rev. Joe Markum of Christian Church of Thousand Oaks is leading an 18-member team to Maipu, Chile, to build classrooms.

(2--Color) The Rev. Joe Markum packs hundreds of dollars of hand tools to take to Chile.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News