The Volunteer Issue 1 2022

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VOLUNTEER A Publication of Maranatha Volunteers International

I S SUE 1, 2022

THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

Maranatha’s incredible journey to find water and hope in Kenya

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VOLUNTEER

Julie Z. Lee Editor Heather Bergren Managing Editor/Designer Dustin Comm Writer

UNITED STATES HEADQUARTERS: Maranatha Volunteers International 990 Reserve Drive Suite 100 Roseville, CA 95678 Phone: (916) 774 7700 Website: www.maranatha.org Email: info@maranatha.org IN CANADA: Maranatha Volunteers International Association c/o V06494C PO Box 6494, Station Terminal Vancouver, BC V6B 6R3 CANADA All notices of change of address should be sent to the Maranatha Volunteers International United States address.

VENTANILLA, PERU Jose Deana (left) and Marlon Bieger haul cement to the site of the Los Milagros Seventh-day Adventist Church, where Maranatha is providing a new church for the congregation. Jose and Marlon are part of a 22-member team from Brazil that is pouring the foundation and floor for the building. The volunteers also erected the steel structure and installed the roof for Los Milagros before heading over to a neighboring Maranatha project, the Mi Peru C Church, to install the roof there. Along with construction, the volunteers organized a Vacation Bible School program and a health expo.

The Los Milagros congregation was started in the early 2000s, when a small group of Adventists moved to the area and began meeting in homes. They also started organizing

outreach and evangelism events in the neighborhood, eager to bring an Adventist presence to the area.

People were drawn to the church, and Los Milagros started growing. In 2007, after obtaining property, they constructed a simple sanctuary out of recycled wood, along with some Sabbath school classrooms. It was an affordable solution but not a lasting one as the structures started falling apart due to termites and general wear and tear.

In 2019, when Maranatha announced a new effort in Peru, Los Milagros was chosen to be one of the sites for a new church. Originally they were slated to receive a project in 2020 but then COVID hit and everything shut down in Peru. After two years of waiting, they are thrilled to finally see their new home come to fruition.

Photo by Elmer Barbosa

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

About the Cover: Two girls from the Daasanach tribe, in northern Kenya, head home after collecting water from a seep hole.

Soon, they’ll get to collect clean water from a new Maranatha well.

Read the story on page 8.

Photo by Nick Evenson

SHARING THE

Mission

MISSION TO MARS

By Marlon Ada Alboria

“Tell your men we are going to go to Mars,” Ronald Kedas, country director of Kenya, said when he gave me the final orientation on tackling a water well-drilling and church building project in Ileret, a village located in northern Kenya (see story on page 8). “That’s how you are to think when you prepare yourselves for the trip. No food. No source of clean water. No fuel stations.

No doctors and nurses. No electricity.

No auto spare and repair shops.

No nothing.”

It was my first time to leave his office feeling so heavy with responsibility.

High pressure was on. There were too many things to think about—materials, vehicles, spare parts, food, shelter, fuel, etc. The task was big, extraordinary, and meticulous. We sure needed divine guidance, and we asked for it daily in special prayers. “Lord, let us do our best.

May You do for us the rest,” we prayed.

Finally, the day came for the team to start the five-day journey for a 30-day effort. For me and for my team, we foresaw the trip as an adventure of a lifetime, and there was that excitement just like in any other adventure. But we were also aware of the risks and

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challenges. We braved it all because of what we all held in our hearts: we were to go to Ileret to do God’s work.

The Ileret project was God’s venture, and I personally felt His hand guiding us every step of the way. Prayer made us stronger and even more determined to go on, knowing it was the devil who tried too hard to keep us from pursuing Heaven’s project.

By God’s leading and grace, we reached Ileret. Well drilling and church building started right away, and we were met with the warmest of welcomes from the communities at every site.

We hit water at five sites and built six One‑Day Churches. Six of the crew even got baptized.

Now, looking back at the entirety of the program from beginning to end, I am sweetly smiling. I saw God’s purpose and His leading. I know I can trust Him more in difficult and challenging times.

The Ileret experience seems to have dipped me into a turbulent body of water to mark a sort of baptism. Praise the Lord, I came out of the water with a new spirit, a new outlook, and spiritually revived. I felt I have survived and passed a rigid “soldiers for Christ” training. It

also has brought me to deep thoughts on how God’s work demands from us a willingness to offer ourselves in selfsacrifice in order for the message of hope and salvation to reach what we know of as “the ends of the earth.” I found it quite hard to believe that there still are unreached areas in the world in this century. And I have seen, once more, that there’s still a lot of work to do in terms of sharing the Good News of Heaven to hasten God’s coming.

Maranatha! With that said, I reckon Maranatha Volunteers International, as an exceptionally organized family, faces a big responsibility, much more than a challenge, to continue providing ways and means to reach the “ends of the Earth” for everybody to know the Savior.

—Marlon Alboria is the well-drilling supervisor in Kenya.

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AROUND THE

World

A snapshot of volunteers and projects in the mission field.

BRAZIL Members of the Incra Seventh-day Adventist Church celebrate as drilling is completed on their new water well.

CÔTE D’IVOIRE The Guezem Seventh-day Adventist congregation now has a new One-Day Church!

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KENYA Students of the Upper Hill Secondary School rejoice after Maranatha hits clean water on campus. www.maranatha.org

CÔTE D’IVOIRE The Niangon Adventist Secondary School campus has received paint, and crews are now finishing plumbing and electrical before starting on campus landscaping.

KENYA In-country crews are nearly finished with a large sanctuary for the Advent Hope Seventhday Adventist Church. This building will accommodate up to 425 people when complete.

INDIA Members of the Karianendal Seventh-day Adventist Church stand next to the water tank fed by a Maranatha-drilled well. This site uses an electric pump to send water to a holding tank.

INDIA A 14-classroom Elementary Education Center rises on the campus of the Raymond Memorial Adventist School in the town of Falakata.

INDIA One of Maranatha’s in-country crews recently finished the Palode Seventh-day Adventist Church, which includes a bathroom. www.maranatha.org

PERU The roof and walls are up on a large Education and Evangelism Center building for the La Tinguiña Adventist School.

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News + H I G H L I G H T S

Students try out their new bunk beds inside the recently completed boys dormitory at the Pola Adventist School in India.

MARANATHA DEDICATES NEW DORM IN INDIA

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n January, Maranatha participated in the dedication of a new boys dormitory at the Pola Adventist School in India, located in the state of Jharkhand. Leaders from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in northern India watched the festivities via Zoom. President Vijay Pal Singh thanked Maranatha for the lives changed and commented that the transformation on the campus is hard to believe. For decades, this boarding school has faithfully served up to 150 students, but there was never room to expand due to a lack of space. So far, Maranatha’s in-country crew at Pola has constructed seven classrooms, restrooms, and a boys dorm, which includes a dean’s apartment, bathroom,

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and showers. Maranatha’s future projects include a new girls dorm and a cafeteria.

Previously, students lived in a much smaller space, without room to store their belongings. Instead, personal items were kept outside in trunks.

Now, students will have adequate living space and storage. The school installed a temporary partition so that the girls can also stay in the new dorm until theirs is complete. Church leadership is excited for the future because of Maranatha’s contributions; enrollment has already increased by 50 students at the start of the school year, even with sparse attendance due to concerns over the current coronavirus omicron variant. Officials expect another large

increase when all of the students return, based on a waiting list of more than 100 students.

Maranatha has had a continuous presence in India since 1998, establishing an office while building places of worship and education throughout the country. In 2022, Maranatha hopes to complete 30 churches, 250 water wells, and 3 school improvement projects.

www.maranatha.org

WORK CONTINUES ON ZAMBIA PROJECTS

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aranatha Volunteers International’s in-country team in Zambia has been making good progress on projects from schools to One-Day Churches. At the Emmanuel Adventist Secondary School in Chisamba, Central Province, three staff housing duplexes are now complete, and our crew is working on three more. Previously, without adequate housing on-campus, many staff had to live in a town three miles away and walk six miles round trip each day.

At the Liumba Hill Adventist School in Kalabo, Western Province, our team is finishing work on a laboratory building, bathrooms, and several structures that Maranatha

has renovated.

Paint is being applied, and the campus will soon be turned over to the school.

So far in 2022, seasonal rains have prevented water well drilling, with the rigs unable to pass through the bush. The rain has also delayed completion of dozens of One-Day Churches. But the One‑Day Church team has been working through the rain anyway, placing stakes for 46 One-Day Church sites. They will return to raise the structures after the rains cease.

Maranatha worked in Zambia from

2009-2015, completing hundreds of projects. In 2018, Maranatha returned to Zambia in response to a request for more churches, schools, and water wells across the country. In 2022, Maranatha hopes to build 120 One‑Day Churches, 250 water wells, and complete work on two schools.

VOLUNTEERS RETURN TO KULAQUA

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ince 2019, Maranatha Volunteers International has facilitated an annual project in Florida at Camp Kulaqua, considered the largest Seventh-day Adventist summer camp and retreat center in North America.

This year’s project at Kulaqua welcomed 27 volunteers working on a variety of tasks. One of the main jobs involved replacing old planks on a boardwalk and deck, which took longer than expected because there was more damage than first suspected. Volunteers also applied two coats of sky blue paint to the camp’s “lazy river” water attraction, constructed 51 wooden tables to be spread throughout the property, and helped paint new signage. www.maranatha.org

Nearly all of the volunteers had been on at least one project before, and the only firsttimer enjoyed his experience immensely. There were a handful of kids on the project, with the youngest being six years old.

All of the volunteers worked hard and enjoyed the experience with sunny, warm weather. “We had such a good crew here,” said project leader Betty Beattie-Chrispell. “It’s amazing how God leads just the right people here.”

Each year, Maranatha works with

organizations in the United States and Canada to provide volunteer labor for various construction or renovation projects at summer camps and retreat centers, schools, and churches.

Work ranges from renovations of existing buildings to new construction, and saves thousands of dollars in labor costs.

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TO THE Ends

of the Earth

Maranatha goes on a month-long expedition to find water for the Daasanach tribe in remote northern Kenya.

By Dustin Comm

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arth is a fickle place. It sustains the existence of billions of people, surrounding them with lush, green forests, fertile soil, and a temperate climate.

Our distance from the sun sets up just the right conditions for life to thrive. Yet, despite the nurture our world provides, you can also find spots here so extreme, so inhospitable, it might feel like you’ve been transported to another planet. One such place can be found in northern Kenya near the Ethiopian border, known as Ileret.

“I have been to a lot of places in the world, but I’d never seen anything quite like that,” said Don Noble, Maranatha President. “It made me think about what Jesus said, ‘I’ll be with you to the ends of the earth.’ I was pretty sure that we had arrived at the ends of the earth.”

What Noble saw in Ileret nearly defied description. Brown, barren landscape as far as the eye can see. Triple-digit heat.

Desolate, sandblown horizons. Dead animal carcasses everywhere. No water.

No signs of life. Yet, the indigenous Daasanach tribe made a life here, surviving on skills and knowledge passed down from generation to generation.

The most important skill of all being where and how to find water.

Although the region has a massive body of water in Lake Turkana, it is salty and dirty. Instead of making the all-day journey, the people have learned how to secure water closer to home by digging down into dry riverbeds, hoping that

“I have been to a lot of places in the world, but I’d never seen anything quite like that.”

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www.maranatha.org

A convoy of 11 vehicles creeps through the Chalbi Desert, in temperatures up to 107 °F, on its way to drill water wells and build One-Day Churches in Ileret. During certain stretches of the journey, there was no road at all. www.maranatha.org

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“If we go, make sure that we don’t forget anything.

We are leaving for another planet and we cannot come back to earth.”

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some water will seep up from the sand. This water is not particularly clean or sweet either, but it is the best option they have.

Dwaho is a 15-year old mother of one that lives in Ileret, in a village called Watalii. Her days are consumed with finding this precious resource for the family.

Her morning starts early. Her first task each morning is to prepare tea for the family. Then, she leaves her home and makes the long walk down to a riverbed. In her bare feet, she marches across the sand, sometimes stepping on sharp rocks or thorny ground shrubs without flinching. The task of collecting water usually falls to the women and girls of the village, who sometimes travel in groups for safety.

Dhawo and the other women climb down into a deep hole using a dead tree branch as a ladder. This can be challenging in itself—some of the basins are as deep as 20 feet. Luckily for Dhawo, her hollow has a pool of water at the bottom—she won’t have to scoop sand away to find water. Unfortunately, this water is completely muddy. A team approach is used as jugs and containers are passed down, and their heavy contents hoisted back up the sandy wall of the crater. Sometimes, even these holes dry up. At this point, the women must walk up to 10 miles round trip to collect water at Lake Turkana.

“You go early and come back late and you find that the little ones are already asleep because it takes so long,” said Dhawo. “When we have no choice, we have to take water from the lake, but it’s not good for us. It is dirty, it is salty, but we have no other options. We have to use it to survive.”

In 2016, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Central Africa sent a missionary to Ileret to minister to the Daasanach tribe, and as budding congregations formed, they needed protection from the scorching heat, beyond the scant shade of small acacia trees where they were meeting under each Sabbath.

Later that year, Maranatha’s One-Day Church crew made a five-day journey from the capital city of Nairobi to build four churches. While there, our team saw the desperate need for water.

“After our first visit here, every one of us was convicted that we had to do something,” said Noble. “We had to come back, and we began making plans right away to do that, [but] it’s very difficult, logistically. Everything has to be brought up here—your machinery, your trucks, your pipes, your fuel, your food, all the leadership people. If you forget something, you can’t run down to the store and pick it up.” www.maranatha.org

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Maranatha’s drilling supervisor in Kenya, Marlon Alboria, was heavily involved in the preparations for a return trip. Said Alboria, “Everybody was assigned to this task or that task, so we made sure nothing was forgotten. Our country director in Kenya, Ron [Kedas] said, ‘If we go, make sure that we don’t forget anything.

We are leaving for another planet and we cannot come back to earth.’”

On October 31, 2021, a convoy of 11 vehicles, including the drilling rig, support trucks, OneDay Church trucks, and a handful of accessory pickup trucks, rolled out of Maranatha’s headquarters near Nairobi. The crew had been anticipating this trek for a long time, and although excited, understood the reality that the challenge wasn’t just surviving their time in Ileret alone, it was making it there. The journey would take more than 600 miles, half of it on slow two-lane roads, the other half through the foreboding Chalbi Desert, with no roads at all.

Long-time Maranatha volunteer and supporter John Thomas, grew up and worked in Kenya. He recalled the mystique of northern Kenya—a place no one traveled to because of the desolation and harsh environment, yet it held an intrigue because of the unique people group that lived there. Now in retirement, Thomas relished the chance to finally make it there and joined Maranatha’s crew on the difficult drive to Ileret.

“It varies from sand to volcanic boulders that you have to negotiate around, replacing broken parts on routes, such as spring shackles, steering linkage, coolant systems on the trucks, fuel systems that had to be repaired,” said Thomas.

“It was just an ongoing adventure of how far can www.maranatha.org

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you get before you stop to do another repair, really caused by the roughness of the roads.”

The crew would drive as far as they could each day, in scorching temperatures well-over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Half of the vehicles didn’t have air conditioning. If there was a breakdown, everyone jumped into action to make the repair.

Every so often, the convoy would stop simply to rest, their sweat-soaked bodies having been tensed for hours at a time, holding on through rough terrain. At night, they camped in tents, trying to sleep as much as they could in the heat.

Each morning, after worship and breakfast, they pressed on.

On November 4, 2022, the team arrived in Ileret and set up camp near a village called Sericho. The next day, they got to work drilling the first well. Hopes were high that they would soon secure clean water, especially since the geological report showed possible water at a relatively shallow depth. As the work wore on, however, the team quickly realized they were operating in new territory.

First, the extreme temperatures started melting rubber hydraulic pipes on the drilling rig. The team had to halt the work during the day and shift to night drilling. Next, as they drilled through weak, sandy soil, they realized the hole was collapsing on itself. They added the arduous step of inserting a temporary casing to reinforce the hole. Although prolonging the process, the work continued until a shout rang out on the third day—they hit water for Sericho. The community, having never seen this much water, excitingly

A HARSH ENVIRONMENT:

1 Each day, 15-year old Dhawo walks to a dry riverbed to collect water.

2 Dhawo doesn’t have to dig into the sand for water, but the pool she fills her jugs from is entirely dirty.

3 In the extreme heat, rubber hydraulic pipes on the well rig started to melt while drilling in the village of Sericho.

4 After switching to night drilling to avoid the heat, the team finally hit water on the third day, which was quickly enjoyed by the entire village.

PHOTOS: (1) NICK EVENSON (2, 4) DUSTIN COMM (3) SAM KINUTHIA

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“Man says there’s no water here—God says there is water, and there was. And when you realize that you are living right in the middle of something, it’s just as powerful as any Biblical story...”

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pointed and smiled as they realized they would have a clean water source.

After installing the pump and pouring a concrete base, the team packed up and headed to Watalii, home to Dhawo. She and the rest of the village watched the drilling all day. “If we get clean water here at the village, it will help me,” said Dhawo. “My child and I will have better health with a well right near us, as will our sheep and cattle. We can also use it to plant vegetables so we can have food to eat.”

Dhawo’s dream for her baby’s future rested on the hopes that the drilling team would find water. But as drilling continued, those prospects grew uncertain; they encountered the same problem as Sericho: a collapsing hole. However, this time it was bigger and unsalvageable.

The team was sorely disappointed. Beyond their own investment from two days of physically demanding work in triple-digit heat, they looked into the villagers’ eyes and couldn’t bear the thought of leaving without delivering clean water. But drilling wells is expensive, and there were other villages that needed wells. Did it make sense to try again at Watalii in another spot?

The decision was made to attempt a new well about 100 feet from the initial one, this time painstakingly inserting temporary casing to protect the hole. As the hours went by, Maranatha workers could be seen huddled together in the shade of the trucks, praying for water. Yet, by 9 p.m., they still hadn’t found any.

Discouraged, the crew halted the work for the night, prayed over the situation once more, and went to bed.

Sometimes in the process of drilling, underground water is pushed out of a cavity, but if given time to “recharge,” it may fill back in with enough volume to be pumped out. The next morning, the crew checked by flushing the hole with compressed air. Still no water. With the village looking on, the team asked Maranatha’s experienced head driller, James Arot, to insert just one more rod and go a little deeper. He agreed. As it went into the earth, water finally came forth at Watalii.

“There were tears shed even by some of the Kenya Maranatha workers,” said Thomas. “Because this obviously now was a direct answer to prayer…The land is so barren, the rainfall is such a little amount that even a geology report says that they don’t know where the aquifers come from. The geological structure from the volcanic base layers do not facilitate underground rivers…[Something happened] that’s more than human technology to try and capture water in this barren place.”

“What they are doing has never been done,” said Dhawo. “Even the www.maranatha.org

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government has never done something like this before. This is the first time we are experiencing some change in our lives. We are so grateful for the water because it has made us feel taken care of.

Me and the entire village feel so good, and we’re so thankful to Maranatha.”

This entire experience—the journey to Ileret, getting to know the Daasanach people, the physical and spiritual engagement—had a profound impact on Maranatha’s Kenyan crew.

Despite the hardships, the team set a foundation of faith through prayer and worship each morning and evening. Over time, a few workers who were not Adventist expressed interest in joining the Church through baptism. Then during Sabbath morning worship, Alboria extended the invitation further, and several more responded. That afternoon, six workers were baptized by Thomas in the murky waters of Lake Turkana.

“It was beyond description for me, because I never anticipated these great people I’ve worked with for two weeks are the very ones I’ll be baptizing,” said Thomas. “It was just almost emotionally overwhelming.”

After a high Sabbath of baptisms and a church service in the new Nangole Seventh-day Adventist Church (completed only days before

by Maranatha’s One-Day Church team), the drilling crew set out to find water for the village of Elbogosh. Advanced technology like fracture trace analysis showed that there was no chance of finding water near the Elbogosh Church or village. An expert analyst from the United States suggested we try nearer the riverbed instead.

However, this would still leave a very long walk to collect water, and flash floods here, though rare, www.maranatha.org

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haunt the Daasanach consciousness. Villagers can remember walls of water from years past that swept relatives, animals, and other wells away.

They asked us to drill near the church. In the end, despite the prediction of the expert, Noble knew that we had to drill at the church, where it would be a clear sign of God’s provision.

Villagers watched each day as the drilling rig roared to life, broadcasting a din of potential transformation to the area. People from all over made their way through the bush to see the spectacle and waited for hours on end. On the second day of drilling, despite the deflating geological report, the team found water.

“Man says there’s no water here—God says there is water, and there was,” said Noble. “And when you realize that you are living right in the middle of something, it’s just as powerful as any Biblical story…you’re living right in the middle of it, and the fact that we get to participate in it, we get to watch it, and we get to even make decisions about it. We pray to God and He does something about the prayer, and it’s real—you can’t help but be humbled.”

Though there would be water for Elbogosh, similar to much of the groundwater near Lake Turkana, it tasted salty. It was a vast improvement in cleanliness and accessibility, and would be welcomed for bathing, hygiene, cooking, and even for watering animals. However, there was a certain degree of disappointment that it wasn’t completely sweet.

Elbogosh was the first site Noble visited when he initially came to Ileret years before—he desperately wanted sweet water for the people.

He knew this clean water would be tremendously

THE COST OF FAILURE:

1 In the village of Watalii, Maranatha’s experienced head driller, James Arot, navigates weak soil that can easily collapse on the hole he drills, rendering it unusable.

2 After the initial hole collapsed, the team agonized over whether to try again, ultimately deciding to attempt a new well about 100 feet away.

3 Four days of drilling and prayer finally resulted in clean water for Watalii.

4 Villagers like Dhawo no longer need to fetch muddy water from far away.

PHOTOS: (1, 3-4) DUSTIN COMM (2) NICK EVENSON

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“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

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helpful either way, but after seeing the first miracle at Elbogosh, he was open to an alternative ending. “This is not without impact, even if it stays salty,” said Noble.

“But you can read in the Bible, you see that God can change the salty water to sweet if that’s His will. But it’s got to be done for His glory, and then it’s obvious that He did it. That’s what I think, and I don’t know if that’ll happen or how it will happen—it’s an ongoing story.”

The next morning, Noble received word that the water spewing out of the Elbogosh hole turned sweet, and stayed sweet. Like the bitter water the Israelites encountered in the wilderness of Shur in Exodus 15, God had worked a miracle once more. Elbogosh would have clean, pure, sweet water.

With extra materials left over, Maranatha’s team went on to drill three more wells in the area, although one of them came up dry. In all, God blessed this forlorned land with clean water in five locations, each near a One-Day Church built by Maranatha. Each site not only providing a physical resource the Daasanach desperately need, but unveiling a spiritual desire too.

Each Sabbath in Ileret now, as people make their way to these wells, they overhear singing and preaching coming from the Adventist churches. As they fill their jugs, they learn about a God who loves them, and a Savior who died for them. The same Savior that empowered his followers in Acts 1:8 to share this Gospel message across the entire world, even to the most inhospitable, unreachable places like Ileret, Kenya: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

He was true to His promise—through the Spirit’s leading, Maranatha had made it to the ends of the earth. A 30-day expedition into one of the harshest spots on the globe that resulted in new adversities and challenges, but ultimately provided growth, perseverance, and a witness to what God can do no matter where we are called.

Watch a Maranatha Mission Stories episode about this project at maranatha.org/ileret

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MIRACLES IN THE DESERT:

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1 Nakuleya is a 14‑year old girl who lives in the village of Elbogosh. Each day she must walk 1.3 miles round trip to fetch water.

Sometimes, she must make the hike up to five times—a total of 6.5 miles in one day.

2 Despite a fracture trace analysis that showed virtually no chance of hitting water, the crew found water—however, it was salty.

3 Hours after finding salty water, the Elbogosh villagers rejoice at the news that the water turned sweet.

4 Maranatha’s drilling team and support staff celebrate hitting sweet water at Elbogosh, something the expert said was very unlikely.

5 The entire experience in Ileret had a profound impact on the growing faith of Maranatha’s crew who were not Adventist— culminating in the baptism of six workers in Lake Turkana.

6 In total, five new water wells are bringing clean water to thousands of Daasanach people.

7 As the Daasanach enjoy this new physical water, entire villages are also receiving spiritual water at Adventist churches.

PHOTOS: (1, 3-7) DUSTIN COMM (2) NICK EVENSON

www.maranatha.org

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A CHRISTMAS

Mission

Families find holiday blessings in Kenya

By Julie Z. Lee Photos provided by staff and volunteers

In December, 66 volunteers spent their Christmas serving on Maranatha Volunteers International’s Family Project. This year, the mission trip took place at the Kajiado Adventist School and Rescue Center, in Kenya. Participants, ranging in age from 6 to 75, helped to build a new girls dormitory on campus. Volunteers also led out in different outreach activities, including a week of prayer program for the students on campus and a dental clinic. Here are highlights from an incredible holiday of bonding between the volunteers and students at Kajiado.

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www.maranatha.org

ABOUT KAJIADO ADVENTIST SCHOOL AND RESCUE CENTER Established more than 20 years ago, Kajiado rescues girls from the illegal Maasai tradition of child marriage and female genital mutilation. The school has helped more than 2,000 students, and it is currently home to more than 200 kids. Since 2018, Maranatha has been renovating and expanding the campus through the help of donors and volunteers.

www.maranatha.org

CONSTRUCTION

Volunteers constructed a new dormitory and started work on the adjacent bathroom and shower facility. The dorm was outfitted with bunk beds, new mattresses, and beautiful bedding. Prior to Maranatha’s involvement, two to three girls had to share a twin bed, which had only a foam pad and thin blankets. Joy Naserian, who has been at the rescue center for five years, remembers the first time she slept in her own bed. “It was so nice and it felt wonderful because at least now we could have the duvets to cover ourselves so we could not feel the cold… When we used to sleep two to three people on one bed it was so congested that you cannot find any space.”

DENTAL CLINIC

Mike and Emily Giddings, a dentist and dental hygienist, from California, organized a dental outreach for the girls in one of the classrooms on campus. While it has been a tradition for the Giddings to run a clinic on every mission trip, this time the experience was different because of the girls’ histories. “In other countries, we’ve had patients come in who are of similar age groups, and they usually arrive with their parents. The parent is able to provide the emotional support for the patient to have the work done. In Kajiado, these children don’t have that support,” says Mike. “Coming from traumatic experiences, I think it’s [been] harder for the girls to open up,” says Emily. “A lot of the girls are very scared.” Carefully and compassionately, the Giddings saw more than 50 students.

CHRISTMAS TRIP

As a Christmas gift for the students, the volunteers sponsored a trip to Amboseli National Park for the Kajiado students. When Maranatha shared the news, the girls shrieked with delight as they had never been on a field trip or a safari. On the day of the excursion, the girls loaded into 29 safari vehicles at the crack of dawn. At the park, they marveled at hippos, flamingos, elephants, and even lions. For lunch, they were treated to a special picnic, also donated by the volunteers. “The memory I’ll always remember is you Maranatha group who just took your money, your wealth, all just to make us be in such a fantastic place where we never dreamt of being here,” says Rosemary Wanjiru. But the joy wasn’t contained only to the girls. Bobbie Vedvick, a volunteer who donated to the safari, says, “Hearing them be happy and grateful–I just bought the best present in the world. That’s my Christmas present.”

18 | THE VOLUNTEER I S S U E 1, 2022

www.maranatha.org

CHILDREN’S DAY CAMP

As is tradition with Maranatha’s family projects, younger kids were invited to join cultural activities and outreach as part of their mission experience. Melissa Howell, a family pastor from California, organized the volunteers in leading a Week of Prayer program for the Kajiado students. The kids also got to learn local culture–such as beading and shopping at a marketplace.

Says 11-year old Luca Mariano, “I learned how to place mortar and how to put down bricks. I learned how to make chapati and ugali. I kind of learned how to carve soapstone and how to sand and smooth it. I learned a lot in Kenya.”

A HIGH SABBATH

On Sabbath, the volunteers traveled to worship with a Maasai Seventh-day Adventist congregation in the community of Lenchani. Everyone was welcomed with a jubilant ceremony of singing and dancing. Then, the volunteers gave a special worship with each family sharing a part of the Christmas story through music, poetry, or acting. Afterwards, Maranatha presented the congregation with hundreds of pounds of beans and rice–a gift from a volunteer.

From the worship, volunteers headed back to Kajiado to witness the baptism of six students. (See page 23).

That night, Maranatha staff threw a big Christmas party for the school, complete with a Christmas tree and festive decorations. It was a wonderful day of fellowship and community.

CREATING BONDS

While most of the girls at Kajiado have living parents, many of them have not been able to return home, due to the circumstances over which they came to the rescue center. Running away from tradition means that you’ve been disowned and the girls are essentially orphans. This has created a void in the girls’ lives–one that volunteers help to fill by building relationships with the students. “Interacting with these girls has been my favorite piece. They’re excited….

They want to hold your hand. They want you to remember their name, so that they feel special. They feel remembered,” says Emily Aronson. The volunteers are cherished by the girls, who say they love to see the groups arrive and cry when they leave. “I just want to tell them that we love you very much. You are like a family to us and you’ll always be with us,” says Everyn Lanket.

www.maranatha.org

T H E V O L U N T E E R ISSUE 1, 2022 | 1 9

HOW YOU’VE

Helped

A look at how your support is making a real difference for communities around the world.

LARATA, KENYA

AFTER After the first two attempts came up dry, Maranatha hit water on the third try, bringing fresh water directly to people who no longer have to dig for clean water.

BEFORE Women from the Samburu tribe had to walk long distances to scrape water out of a dry riverbed.

BUILDING YOUR

Legacy

As a Maranatha board member, Peter Thomas has seen the tremendous impact of Maranatha churches, schools, and water wells around the world. He’s also witnessed heartbreaking conditions prior to Maranatha’s involvement.

Several years ago, Thomas was with Maranatha leadership in Ileret, Kenya, where Maranatha recently provided water for five villages of the Daasanach tribe. The desolation and desperation he saw were overwhelming.

“I had a feeling that I needed to do something to help these people,” says Thomas. “Yes, Maranatha was going to do something. I was going to try to do something. But I really wanted to be more than just a board member or somebody that was involved in the planning—I wanted to actually participate in raising some of the funds.”

Using a short film produced by his son and his son’s business partner, Thomas showed a group of business associates and friends what the struggle for water looks like for many people in Kenya. He then asked them to get involved by contributing

to Maranatha’s well-drilling efforts. In all, Thomas inspired 19 people to raise $104,895, and in November 2021, he came back to Ileret to see the well-drilling in person.

“That really makes it even more special to me to come back now and know, yeah, I put a group of people together that actually funded some of these wells. It really takes on ownership, so to speak, of what that well is. Hopefully, in two or three years, I can come back, and we can see the difference that those wells have made to these people’s lives.”

PROJECTS THAT NEED YOUR HELP This year, Maranatha is working in 8 countries to provide churches, schools, and water wells to communities in need. Here are a few programs that urgently need your prayers and financial support.

CÔTE D’IVOIRE ONE-DAY CHURCHES

After starting work in Côte d’Ivoire in 2019 to build churches, schools, and water wells, Maranatha will be winding down in this central African country. This year, Maranatha is planning to drill 10 water wells and finish up the secondary school campus in Niangon.

You can sponsor a water well for $10,000 or make a donation of any size toward the water program or toward schools in Côte d’Ivoire

KENYA ONE-DAY CHURCHES

As Maranatha starts our seventh consecutive year in Kenya, our plan is to build 140 One-Day Churches! If you would like to support this effort, you can sponsor an entire One-Day Church for $7,500 or sponsor a share for $1,500. You can also make a general donation in any amount for Kenya One-Day Churches.

INDIA CHURCHES

There are hundreds of congregations in India in need of a decent place of worship as too many are meeting in dilapidated structures or people’s homes. Over the past two decades, we’ve made significant progress on this front, but India still needs our help. Churches in India are $30,000, and they include a floor, walls, windows, doors, roof, and portico. You can fund an entire church or you can make a donation in any amount for India churches.

www.maranatha.org

Countries

I N 202 2

Here’s where Maranatha is working this year.

BRAZIL CÔTE D’IVOIRE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC INDIA KENYA PERU UNITED STATES ZAMBIA

CHURCHES SCHOOLS WATER WELLS CAMPS

P ROJ ECT

Check out our upcoming opportunities here or go to maranatha.org for the most updated list.

Please note, projects are subject to schedule adjustments due to restrictions or complications that may arise from COVID.

Calendar

DATE

PROJECT NAME

PLACE

LEADERS

SCOPE

Apr. 7 - 21, 2022

Camp Leoni Meadows Project

CALIFORNIA, USA

Ed Jensen, Jim Mills

Camp renovations

May 18 - Jun. 2, 2022

Project Patch Project

IDAHO, USA

Doug and Melody Wheeler, Jon Yarlott

Painting, renovations

May 26 - Jun. 7, 2022

Kenya Project

KAJIADO, KENYA

Loretta Spivey, Danny Poljak

School construction

Jun. 6 - 27, 2022

Mount Pisgah Academy Project

NORTH CAROLINA, USA

Jeanice Riles, Ernie Riles

Painting, renovations

Jun. 7 - 21, 2022

Milo Adventist Academy Project

OREGON, USA

Ed Jensen, Darryl Michel

Renovations and painting

Jun. 16 - 26, 2022

Family Project Peru

AREQUIPA, PERU

Steve Case, Danny Poljak

Church construction, outreach

Jul. 3 - 10, 2022

Union Springs Academy Project

NEW YORK, USA

Evelyn Close

Renovations and painting

Jul. 12 - 26, 2022

Pine Tree Academy Project

MAINE, USA

Jeanice Riles, Ernie Riles

Construction, renovations

Jul. 20 - 31, 2022

Ultimate Workout 32

TACNA, PERU

Rebekah Widmer, Dan Klein

Church construction, outreach

Jul. 24 - 31, 2022

Young Adult Project 2022

OREGON, USA

Angela and Kris Frauenfelder

Campus renovations

Jul. 28 - Aug. 11, 2022

Norridgewock Church and Riverview School Project

MAINE, USA

Jeanice Riles, Ernie Riles

Painting, renovations

Oct. 20 - 30, 2022

India Project

POLA, INDIA

George Carpenter, Jon Harvey

Construction, outreach

Go to maranatha.org to see all the volunteer opportunities being offered, including full projects and mission trips being coordinated by church or school groups.

Thank You

FOR SERVING

PERU

The following Group Project Teams served during the months of January through March.

Brazil Team | Brazil Chehalis Church and Friends Team | Washington Palisades Christian Academy | Washington Mission IS Possible Group Team | Texas

22 | THE VOLUNTEER I S S U E 1, 2022

KENYA

PG Insight Team | Brazil

www.maranatha.org

KAJIADO, KENYA Lydia Naini emerges triumphant from the cool waters of a makeshift baptismal tank on the Kajiado campus as friends cheer. She was part of a small group of girls who gave their hearts to Jesus through baptism on Christmas, December 25, 2021.

Volunteers from the Christmas Family Project witnessed the ceremony after working on building a new dormitory during the week.

Melissa Howell, a volunteer and pastor from California, says, “I was fighting tears the whole time as these young people–who have seen so much and experienced so much hardship and endured so much sorrow–with joy on their faces give their lives wholeheartedly to Jesus… It was a moment where I was so aware of how far the effects of Maranatha’s ministry is reaching. How many children are being affected by this work in this country? It’s beautiful. It’s overwhelming. It just fills your heart to overflowing.”

Photo by Julie Lee www.maranatha.org

T H E V O L U N T E E R ISSUE 1, 2022 | 2 3

Non-Profit U.S. Postage

PAID

Roseville, CA Permit No. 111

990 Reserve Drive, Suite 100 Roseville, CA 95678

Travel into the mission field and see how God is leading ordinary people to make an extraordinary difference in communities around the world with our television program, Maranatha Mission Stories.

The $10 Church Easy. Effective. Eternal.

Who knew that $10 could build a church?

Here’s how it works:

1 You commit to giving $10 a month to Maranatha.

2 We combine everyone’s monthly donations into one gift.

3 The monthly gift is enough to sponsor the construction of a church!

The more people who give, the more churches we can build.

Join this community of donors, today! www.tendollarchurch.org

HOW TO WATCH BROADCAST CHANNELS (all times PT)

3ABN Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, 2:00 p.m.

Hope Channel Wednesday, 3:30 p.m.

Friday, 8:30 a.m.

Sunday, 8:30 p.m.

ON DEMAND

The Maranatha Channel App Download our app at the App Store and Google Play. watch.maranatha.org View all episodes online at Maranatha’s video website. Find segments by using our “Search” function.

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