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Volunteers helped to construct a new building and bathroom for the Abbebroukoi Seventh-day Adventist Church.
VOLUNTEERS SERVE IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE
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n January, a team of Maranatha volunteers headed to Côte d’Ivoire, in Africa, for a mission trip to build the Abbebroukoi Seventh-day Adventist Church. With only 18 people, the volunteer team was on the smaller side. But the group managed to finish all the block work for the church and a bathroom, leaving local crews with a completed structure to begin stuccoing and painting. The Abbebroukoi congregation formerly met in an unfinished structure that resembled a patio. The poor meeting space drew negative attention and made evangelism more challenging—especially considering the majority of the community is not Christian. It also left the members vulnerable to extreme weather, such as wind and rain.
6 | THE VOLUNTEER SPRING 2020
Throughout the trip, volunteers also enjoyed plentiful interactions with the locals. Each day, church members and community people alike gathered around the construction site to see the progress made by the participants. Beyond church construction, volunteers passed out educational items and toys to children in the neighborhood. In March, volunteers with the West Houston Seventh-day Adventist Church, in Texas, arrived in Côte d’Ivoire to build classrooms at Abbebroukoi, next to the church. The goal is to open a school in the neighborhood, which has few options for primary school.
There are less than 10,000 Adventist church members in Côte d’Ivoire. In 2019, Maranatha agreed to build churches and schools in response to a request from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in West Central Africa. The initial focus will be surrounding the largest city in the country, Abidjan. www.maranatha.org
