The Volunteer Fall 2011

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

FA M I LY P R O J E C T

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MALAWI

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O N E - DAY C H U R C H

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Lucia attended the Summer Family Project with her husband, and two children.

First time Maranatha volunteers – they were excited but a little nervous.

Construction, painting, medical clinics and service projects with the local community brought out the best in their family. They can’t wait to get back to work next summer.

IT TAKES FAITH B Y C a r r i e P u r k e yp i l e

What makes for an amazing family vacation? Lucia Michel thinks it has a lot to do with working alongside each other, with a similar goal. Lucia and her husband Alan took their two children, Rebeca, 13, and Erick, 11 on their first mission adventure this summer. “We didn’t know what to expect,” says Lucia, “but our kids enjoyed it so much, we are signing up for next year!”

Photo by Ernie Medina

As the Michel family shared their plans, excitement grew. Lucia’s boss decided to come too, and she brought her grandson and nephew along. Other families from different states also joined up with the group to form the Summer Family Project, in Choluteca, Honduras.

Photo opposite page by Brenda Weiss

Young Rebeca learned a hands‑on lesson about sharing. Seeing the need, she started to give away some of her own things. She was also impressed to see a 12-year old girl leading out in children’s Sabbath classes. Young people stepping up to serve a need – what better example could she have received?

Family projects are an increasingly popular option as Maranatha volunteers involve family members of all ages in a project of service together.

Ernie Medina is an enthusiastic volunteer who attended his first Maranatha project as a college student, more than two decades ago. He and his family just finished their second project as a family, and they can’t say enough good things about the experience. But Ernie recognizes the challenges.

“I believe it takes quite a bit more faith for a family to go. But I still tell them, ‘If God wants you to go, then financial challenges are nothing for Him!’ Especially when you see the impact it has on our kids who go. It’s definitely worth it!”

dreaming about going next year!” says Lucia.

Families have two opportunities for service in the next few months.

Join the Christmas Family Project in Nicaragua, December 21-January 2, or plan for the Summer Family Project in June of 2012. Check the project calendar at Maranatha.org for updated information or to request an application.

Once they’ve experienced a project, kids are usually willing to make some sacrifices too. Many families return year after year. “My kids are Photo by Brenda Weiss

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HOW DID I GET HERE? B Y C ARRIE P URKE Y P ILE

In the past 43 years, Maranatha volunteers have built thousands of buildings that have helped form and shape lives. Sometimes we are privileged to catch a glimpse of what those projects have meant for people. This story tracks a poor El Salvadorean boy from his own childhood in a Maranatha-built facility, into his first experience serving as a volunteer alongside the volunteers who changed his life path forever. Meet Manfredo.

While he was growing up, Manfredo’s parents struggled to provide for their children. When Manfredo was nine the family agreed to send he and his younger brother to live and attend school at Hogar Escuela Adventista in San Juan Opico, El Salvador. Maranatha volunteers built the orphanage and managed its operation for many years before International Children’s Care assumed operation in 2005.

Manfredo’s new life included food, clothes, healthcare and education, while living with other children and volunteer house parents, who cared for the kids as their own.

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Still, his rough past took a toll. One day at worship, a new missionary couple was presented. Manfredo remembers rolling his eyes. Little did he know he was looking at the couple who would change his life.

Randy and Marta Meyer worked at the school for two years, and little by little broke down the walls to Manfredo’s heart. “He was 14 going on 65,” says Marta. “A bitter, angry old man.”

When Manfredo told Marta that he wanted to be baptized, she was thrilled. She tried several times to set up Bible studies with a pastor or other staff member at the school,

but it never happened. Frustrated with the delay, Randy and Marta purchased a religious book that would help prepare him for baptism, and they studied together.

“I think that ever since those Friday nights together we started to have the relationship of mother and son,” says Manfredo. “I began to trust her and started building an affection for both of them.”

Even after the Meyer family returned to the United States, and Manfredo began college in a neighboring country, they stayed in close contact.

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Photo by Maranatha Field Team

Serving at the school in El Salvador was not the Meyer family’s last foray into mission work. Not long ago, the debut of the One-Day Church caught Randy’s eye and the couple decided to save up and sponsor one. Randy shared his excitement about the project with his boss. The excitement and their plans grew, until the dental group sold most of their practice locations to start two non-profit organizations. Their first venture included sponsoring an entire container of 37 One-Day Churches in Malawi, and sending a group to build them.

The Meyer family invited Manfredo, now a university student in Argentina, to attend the project with them. Before beginning his trip Manfredo thought back on all the missionaries he had seen come to serve the children at his school. “I wanted to help in some way, too. I thought I could start with this trip. I thought, if this trip became reality it would be like an opportunity, the

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will of God to start my preparation for a future of helping many more people.”

to me that don’t just happen to any person. I always ask, ‘why me?’ It could have been another child. But no, it was me.

After visa problems, and a two‑week delay, he finally arrived in Malawi for the last week of the project.

He jumped right in, helping fellow volunteers on construction, and visiting patients at a local hospital.

“The people of (Malawi) really impressed me, their great heart,” muses Manfredo. “As missionaries we have a great work because there are many people who need our help.”

When Manfredo was a boy, missionaries often brought new soccer balls to the school, and played long hours with the children. Now Manfredo was the man, bringing brand new soccer balls to share, and playing with the village children.

Seeing Manfredo in action was incredible for Marta. “It brings us joy not only that he is giving back, but that he is enjoying being in God’s service. We just pray to be able to bring as many people as possible on Maranatha projects. ”

“Arriving in Malawi, I felt as though it were the will of God,” says Manfredo.

“How did a young man – who ten years ago had hardly anything – arrive in Africa to help people?

The selfless giving of Maranatha volunteers and donors to the project in El Salvador made the difference in Manfredo’s life, and the lives of many other children. That good will is now being paid forward to the world.

“As my life passes, I see that God has something, or a bright future for me. So many things have happened

Photos provided by International Caring Hands.

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WALLS AROUND MALAWI

Photo by Tom Lloyd

Photo by Dick Duerksen

B Y D I C K D UERK S E N

“This is the hardest job I have ever had,” said Richard Massi, one of Maranatha’s Malawian team members and driver of the truck named Seth. “Every Sunday morning each of our four teams load the steel for four One-Day Churches onto our trucks and then head out for a week of adventure.”

Every minute in Malawi is an adventure, especially if you’re traveling on one of the stony trails that lead through the mountains to Seventh-day Adventist congregations who are praying for a church.

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“We made 10,000 bricks down by the river,” one church elder told us.

“Then we fired them in a large brick kiln, and waited for the sound of the Maranatha trucks. The bricks are ready and our people are ready.”

The 25 original members of the Njereza congregation, in the hot Shire valley, have completed the walls to their One-Day Church, added some wooden benches, and grown the church to 35.

In the mountains west of Blantyre, we visited a congregation who has just received their new steel structure.

Photo by Tom Lloyd

In the short time Maranatha crews have been in Malawi, 605 One-Day Churches have been completed, while 200 are still in transit or on a truck heading into the bush. It has taken less time than we had expected, but longer than the anxious congregations had hoped.

“First we were under a tree,” Elijah told us, “then we built a small brick building with stone pews. But the rains made it so no one would come to church. So we praised God when we heard Maranatha was bringing us a steel roof.”

This congregation needed more than just the One-Day Church steel.

They needed land, a space large enough for the church, a place for the children, and for a brick bathroom. The hillside plot beside their brick-and-thatch church was available, but the owner wanted 165,000 Kwachas.

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“That’s $1,000 US dollars,” Elijah exclaimed. “Far more than our small group of families could raise. But then we had an idea.”

The church leaders agreed on a creative fund-raising idea and sent a couple of the women to market to buy 12 chickens. Those chickens were divided among the 12 church families and all of the chicken profits were given to the church to help pay for the land. Add up the eggs, chickens, some extra maize, and lots of member sacrifice, and 6 months later the Namatunu congregation purchased the land and began making bricks for the walls of their new steel church.

Elijah stood on the hillside road and pointed to the One-Day Church on the prime land beside the village.

“Together with God, all things ARE possible!”

The hills south of Blantyre, toward the Seventh-day Adventist hospital and education center of Malamulo, are covered with the green of tea plantations. A plaque marks each of the fields, indicating when the tea plants were planted on this hill.

Though some of the plaques are dated 1964, 1963, and 1958, most of the fields were planted closer to the turn of the century in 1903, 1908, and 1912.

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Marta (who turned out to be the Dorcas leader) guided us to the church and even helped lead an impromptu choir number for us in the beautifully bricked church. It was, by far, the nicest building in the community.

It’s that way everywhere you visit in Malawi. One-Day Church steel buildings have been adopted, bricked, plastered, painted, and loved by their congregations. Often the windows have been designed to have a “cathedral” look. Always the ground around the church is swept and clean of all debris.

Late one Sabbath afternoon we filled a minibus with Maranatha

At Chivumbe the dust cloud following the bus brought a team of young soccer stars from their game onto the road. When we arrived at the church, we joined a group of members gathered for sundown worship. Some had arrived on their bicycles but most had walked to the local House of Light.

Traveling even farther down the road, we arrived at Namasechi just as the sun was dipping behind the giant baobab trees. There we met two members called by God to complete the walls of their new church.

“This is our church home,” they told us, “and we want it to show the world what a great God we serve.

That’s why we are giving it a good wall.”

Every day a new church appears, steeple poking up in the air, and in Malawi that is a call to action.

Eager brickmakers can hardly wait to start stacking the walls for a real church - that stands up to the heat and the rain. Malawi is the picture of One‑Day Church success.

Photo by Tom Lloyd

Photo by Tom Lloyd

Many of those congregations have already outgrown their new building, and have expanded the building with foyers, additional worship

Richard was right. “You can tell by the look in their eyes,” he says.

“They look kind, trustworthy, like Jesus.”

volunteers who were building the new school at Manja, and drove toward the sunset to visit two congregations located in small farming communities.

Photo by Dick Duerksen

Many plantation employees are members of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Their mud and thatch homes, nestled in clusters beside rugged red trails, stand near the trees where they first learned about Jesus from graduates of the training school at Malamulo. For scores of those communities, a brand new One-Day steel church gleams beside the old tree, a beacon of hope above the emerald tea.

space, and even new rooms.

Bounce down the road into one of these villages, especially in a pick-up that says “Maranatha” on the door, and everyone runs toward the church to greet you.

As we came close to one of those communities we discovered that our directions were a bit cloudy so we asked Richard, our driver, to ask directions. He stopped and looked around the dusty building for a wise woman. “There she is,” he said.

“She will be an Adventist.”

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ONE-DAY SCHOOL

Photo by Tom Lloyd

Some people say that money makes the world go ‘round. You may argue yes or no, but the lack of money was bringing things to a screeching halt for many families in and around Blantyre, Malawi.

Photo by Dick Duerksen

The Manja Adventist Church, in a suburb of Blantyre, has more than 700 active members. Many of those excited Christians are young people. The church has operated a school in the neighboring town of Soche for many years. But recently the small brick establishment had many more students than it could handle. Classrooms overflowed as the elementary attendance grew, and all four high school grades Photo by Tom Lloyd

met in a single room. The teachers kept giving classes, but the government recently stepped in and asked them to look for a new solution.

They needed something fast, and of good quality. It was the perfect situation to launch the One-Day School in Malawi. A group of volunteers arrived to a blank canvas of 12 cement slabs at the site for the new high school. Within days they had completed the assembly of nine classrooms, a bathroom, a library, and school offices.

“This place was a bush place and when we were first told that Maranatha was to put up their structure here, we thought maybe it would take years and maybe it would take two years or even

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maybe one year because we know to come up with a school is not an easy thing,” says Manja church elder Ernest Kaonga. “But what we’ve seen is that Maranatha, they have done it in weeks and now we’re having a whole school.”

Spreading to two campuses will allow both the elementary and high schools to grow, starting this January when classes begin.

Wyson Eliya, director of education for the South Malawi Field recognizes the opportunity. “Now we are ready. We can accommodate many students because we had no space at the previous place. Now after looking at this structure I think now is our opportunity to enroll many students.

As much as we can.”

The One-Day School can transform a community with immediate results.

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ONE-DAY CHURCH

BRAZIL Photo by Kyle Fiess

Since the One-Day Church program began, Maranatha and partner organizations have constructed 2,372 churches in more than 20 countries.

Botswana

Nicaragua

Maranatha is nearing completion of 74 One-Day Churches. Each local congregation will complete the floors and walls.

Maranatha is scouting locations for One-Day Churches in Nicaragua.

Volunteer involvement will begin with the Christmas Family Project in December, 2011.

Brazil Seventy-four churches are being constructed in Northeast Brazil, where Maranatha is assisting the Adventist Church in reaching all cities that do not have a Seventh-day Adventist presence.

India Maranatha continues to build churches in India, where the Adventist Church has requested 1,000 new churches for each of the next five years.

BOTSWANA Photo by Africa Field Team

Malawi More than 600 One-Day Churches have been constructed in Malawi.

The members have completed many of those with brick walls.

Approximately 200 churches remain to be built.

INDIA Photo by Kyle Fiess

Zimbabwe Since One-Day Churches were built in early 2011, church attendance has significantly improved in the Victoria Falls region. There has been an increase in number of baptisms and leaders have seen an increase in tithes and offerings.

MALAWI Photo by Tom Lloyd

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PROJECT CALENDAR

Beth-El Shalom Open Team

Jump Start

Thunderbird Academy Open Team

Roseville, California Tampa, Florida

LEADER: Steve Case

Phoenix, Arizona

LEADERS: Jeanie Tweedy & David Schwinn

January 7 - 8, 2012

LEADER: Ken Casper

Jan. 16 - Feb. 5, 2012

January 5 - 25, 2012

Volunteer Opportunities Are you ready to get out there and volunteer?

Nosoca Pines Ranch Open Team

Summer Family Project

Collegiate Project

Liberty Hill, South Carolina

Nicaragua

LEADER: Steve Case

LEADERS: Pattie Bishop & Roger Hatch

LEADER: Steve Case

July 15 - 30, 2012

April 18 - May 8, 2012

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Nicaragua

June 14 - 24, 2012

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Fjarli Family and Friends Open Team

Nicaragua Open Team

Sangareddy India Open Team

Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, India

Nicaragua

Sangareddy, Andhra Pradesh, India

LEADER: Bruce Fjarli

LEADERs: Merrill & Diane Zachary

LEADER: Karen Godfrey

Jan. 31 - Feb. 12, 2012

February 1 - 14, 2012

Feb. 15 - Mar. 1, 2012

Maranatha has opportunities for volunteers of all kinds to get involved in service around the world. What project looks most inviting to you? Whether you are heading off on your own to join up with a group of soon-to-be-friends, or taking your family along for the ride, we are happy to help you find just the right project to join. Visit our online Project Calendar at maranatha.org for the most up-to-date listing of projects. Then contact us by emailing volunteer@maranatha.org or call (916) 774-7700 to receive more information.

Ultimate Workout 22

Young Adult Project

Swaziland Open Team

Nicaragua

Nicaragua

LEADER: Steve Case

LEADER: Claudio Japas

Manzini, Swaziland

July 15 - 30, 2012

August 1 - 13, 2012

LEADER: Merrill Zachary

Dates to be determined

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TE A M P R O J E C T S

Group Projects July - September 2011

Honduras Camelback Adventist Church (Arizona) Corona Adventist Church (California) Ephesus Street Lights Adventist Church (New York)

Mexico Glendale Adventist Church (Arizona)

Portugal The Place Fellowship Adventist Church (California)

Photos by Eric Young

Big Mission, 10 Years Strong

“Our church had been involved in a lot of outreach activities prior to that first trip in 2000, such as stop smoking clinics, cooking schools, evangelism programs and things like that,” says Eric Young, a long time volunteer with the group. “We were looking for something a little different when my father (Bob Young) decided it was time for us to do a short-term mission trip of our own.”

The church group has since done mission work in Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, and most recently returned to Honduras.

The Berkshire team is larger than many groups, with 50‑60 volunteers.

They not only build a church, but also hold medical clinics, visit neighbors

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door-to-door, conduct evangelistic meetings, teach children songs and stories, and complete a project to help the local community. The group has also begun sponsoring Bible workers to work in the community ahead of time, to prepare for an evangelistic series, and fill the church with new believers right away.

“We have done all we could to bless this community—spiritually, physically, mentally and monetarily,” wrote Jennifer Young in March, team reporter for the annual project. “The touching of a hand speaks volumes.”

The Berkshire group keeps giving, every year, and they’ve found that giving is a two-way street.

“Participants on a mission trip learn how blessed we are at home when they have the experience of seeing how the rest of the world lives and how God is working outside of America,” says Eric. “We go to help others but the trip ends up changing our lives when we return.”

How do I Prepare to Take my Group on a Project?

1. First determine if you have enough interest to bring at least 15-20 volunteers.

2. Call Maranatha at (916) 774-7700 and speak to our Coordinator for Group Projects about getting started.

3. Begin recruiting participants and leadership.

4. Work with Maranatha to set a budget.

For more information call us at (916) 774-7700 or email groups@maranatha.org.

Photo opposite page by Tom Lloyd

Looking for an investment guaranteed to succeed? Consider venturing abroad. The Berkshire Mission group from Massachusetts, has been taking church members on volunteer projects for more than a decade.

Thank you for serving!

Throughout Malawi congregations are making mud bricks to complete the walls of their new One窶船ay Churches.

NEWS NOTES

Convention Highlights Online exciting new opportunities.

The good news is – the best content is now available as video online. Visit Maranatha.org/convention to watch these short highlight clips – featuring the best and brightest jewels from the weekend celebration.

Maranatha’s annual convention is a highlight for many, full of inspiring testimonies, encouraging updates, engaging visual reports, and

The next convention will be held in Roseville, California, just a few miles from Maranatha’s international headquarters. Plan to join us September 21-22, 2012.

Fjarli Adventist School Dedicated in Darsi, India Volunteer efforts over the past two years culminated in the joyful dedication of the Fjarli Adventist School in Darsi, India on November 13, 2011. The newly finished girls’ and boys’ dormitories allow children from isolated villages to receive the gift of a Christian education.

The campus already hosts 400 children, most of whom live on the campus during the school year.

The school will continue to grow each year up to its capacity of 1,200 students.

Laura Noble attended the Fjarli Adventist School dedication. “I really believe that for some of these kids, this is going to be the most important thing that happens to them in their whole life. Maybe because of these educational experiences, life will be less about getting stuff for ‘me’ and more about seeing the human race as a whole. They’ll see the world as God sees it. He has everything

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Read The Volunteer Online Visit maranatha.org New Maranatha App

and still views people as the most important.”

The Fjarli family and other volunteers have worked in the Darsi area over the past few years, planting and building churches in 100 nearby villages. They’ve now partnered with other donors to make this school a possibility for some of those village children.

“It’s a beautiful campus,” reports Laura.

Many of the buildings on campus, including classrooms and dormitories were built with variations of the One-Day School building and finished with quality materials.

Visit the App Store to download the free Maranatha App for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

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NEWS NOTES

Ultimate Workout’s 21st Successful Year only because I saw God, but I found other people my age who are looking for the same things in life. I really found a support group.”

Ultimate Workout is Maranatha’s annual mission project just for teenagers. The project is high impact and designed to promote spiritual, personal and social growth. It is one of the easiest places to see how Maranatha is building people.

“UW was two of the best weeks of my life,” reflects one teen. “Not

The group of 131 volunteers traveled to the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico.

The large group divided into six smaller sites and each of five groups lived right in the middle of the neighborhood where they built their church. The sixth group was a traveling medical team that visited several different sites providing medical and dental services to local patients in need.

Each year many teens find something really special. The total break from “normal” life, coupled with a God‑focused environment,

Maranatha to Build in Swaziland a tiny space. They would accept more students but have no place for them. The government is now insisting that they remedy the situation and provide a proper infrastructure for the school.

When Maranatha visited the southern African nation of Swaziland this summer, the need for a new school was more than apparent.

Almost every Adventist church has a feeding program or small school to try to care for the many orphaned children. One of these schools in the city of Manzini has nearly 300 students crammed into

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Local Adventists have been anxious to build a school fit for the needs of the area.

After extended searching the best land close to the city was a plot owned by the King of Swaziland. They submitted a request for the King to give the land to the school – and just recently that request has been granted. A volunteer project will be announced soon to build this much-anticipated school campus.

hard work, and extreme conditions leads to some big realizations for the young volunteers.

“My outlook on the world and how God works was totally changed. I see things in a very different light now,” says UW volunteer, Alexander Leonor.

Overwhelmingly – feedback from the Ultimate Workout is positive.

First-time volunteer Daniel Tentea unknowingly repeats the sentiment heard year after year from UW enthusiasts. “It was AMAZING and if given the chance to do it again, I would take it in less than a heartbeat!”

About Maranatha Maranatha spreads the Gospel throughout the world as it builds people through the construction of urgently needed buildings.

All notices of change of address should be sent to the Maranatha Volunteers International United States address.

Kyle Fiess, Editor kfiess@maranatha.org Carrie Purkeypile, Managing Editor cpurkeypile@maranatha.org Heather Bergren, Designer hbergren@maranatha.org United States Headquarters: Maranatha Volunteers International 990 Reserve Drive, Suite 100 Roseville, CA 95678 Phone: 916-774-7700 Fax: 916-774-7701 Website: maranatha.org In Canada: Maranatha Volunteers International Association 45175 Wells Road, Unit 20 Chilliwack, B.C. V2R 3K7 CANADA

Non-Profit U.S. Postage

PAID

Roseville, CA Permit No. 111 990 Reserve Drive, Suite 100 Roseville, CA 95678

A Community Star B Y D I C K D UERK S E N

He caught my eye and nodded.

A second later flames shot from between his hands as his hand‑made rocket flashed toward the sun, celebrating the opening of a new Seventh-day Adventist church.

I missed it. My camera silent and unseeing.

Then he caught my eye again, raised his second rocket, and joined me in timing the lighting and the launch.

His eyes never left mine as he did his work, a pyrotechnic routine he had practiced for years, a countdown he now Photo by Dick Duerksen trusted me to capture. I raised my camera, focused on the space between his raised hands, My Canon motor drive caught the and prepared to touch the shutter moment and before the explosion release. had faded the expert and a dozen of his friends surrounded me to That’s when the cheering began, evaluate the result. scores of onlookers, sensing that this had become a special moment, a He looked first, and gave me a time of celebrating the skills of their thumbs up that ignited the crowd. favorite rocket-maker, a split second Today was a day to celebrate the that could last forever. opening of a new Maranatha church.

And to showcase the skills of a Spark, burn, glow, release, smile. community star.

Cover Photo taken by Dick Duerksen in Malawi.

Maranatha Mission Stories is a weekly half-hour show featuring mission stories from around the world. The program highlights inspiring stories from communities that have been changed and personal testimonies from volunteers who have been touched by Maranatha.

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