The Volunteer Issue 4 2022

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

Aldo Joel Perez, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cuba, spoke at the 2022 Mission: Maranatha event in Sacramento, California, in September. Translated by Kenneth Weiss, Maranatha’s chief operations officer, Perez shared stories from the lives of Seventh-day Adventist Cubans, including the challenges they are facing. The country is currently experiencing massive shortages in basic resources, such as food, medicine, and gasoline. In some places, there is no electricity. Times are tough, and Adventists are hanging on to hope through Jesus Christ, and membership actually seems to be growing.

Perez was one of the many speakers at this year’s convention, the first in-person convention since 2019. In addition to Cuba, Maranatha welcomed church leadership from Peru, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and Kenya. Hundreds of people gathered to reconnect with fellow volunteers, learn the needs of the many places where Maranatha is working, and hear testimonies from people who have had their lives touched by missions.

If you missed the event in person, you can watch the program at watch.maranatha.org

VOLUNTEER the

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.

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

About the Cover: Nayshaney Bernardina, age 17, works at the Santa Rita church site in Peru during the Ultimate Workout. Nayshaney, who is from the Netherlands, was one of 25 volunteers who flew in from outside the United States to join the project.

Julie

Photo by Christina Lloyd

Photo by Tom Lloyd

SHARING THE

Mission

ONE NAME ON MY ROSTER

By Rebekah Widmer

In 2007, I was an awkward 16-yearold nervously boarding a bus with 30 complete strangers in Ecuador. When we reached Babahoyo, I remember setting up my tent in the courtyard of a small elementary school where, for the next ten days, our group would be building a new church as part of Ultimate Workout, Maranatha’s mission trip for teens. The first few days were challenging as I stepped out of my comfort zone, made new friends, and learned new construction skills. But by the end of the trip I was thriving and looking forward to coming back the following year. Thinking back to my first Maranatha project, I never could have imagined the impact that Ultimate Workout would have on my life or how I’d be involved in shaping the future of the project now, fifteen years later. Today, I am the international volunteer manager at Maranatha, and my work day consists of planning mission trips for hundreds of volunteers each year, including the teens who serve on Ultimate Workout.

People often ask me what’s my favorite part of my job. Is it the beautiful places I get to visit? Is it the new stamps in my passport? Is it interacting with the students at the schools we build? I always reply with the same response. It’s working with

first-time volunteers. It’s answering questions about fundraising or what construction tools they should take. It’s assuring a mother that we’ll do our best to take care of her son. It’s leading a project and seeing people experience life outside of North America for the first time. It’s seeing an awkward 16-year-old, like I once was, board a bus full of strangers and, over the course of ten days, watching her transform spiritually, socially, and emotionally, and ultimately call those strangers “family.” No project has more first-time volunteers than Ultimate Workout, and that is probably why it will always hold a special place in my heart.

When registrations start coming in, I read each person’s name, and those names become a huge part of my life for several months as I prepare for the project. Phone calls. Emails. Reports. Rosters. Each name representing a teenager who will experience Ultimate Workout. Some are scared. Some are excited. All are in for the experience of a lifetime.

But one of those names is extra special. Although, I don’t know which one it is, I know that one of those names is the reason I have been entrusted with the responsibility of leading Ultimate Workout for another year.

It may sound odd since some years I have more than 150 volunteers, but I believe that God places me on Ultimate Workout each year for one person in particular. Over the course of the project, God usually reveals to me who that is. It may be:

• A teen struggling with things at home and needs a listening ear.

• A young staff member with whom I can share my own experience as a young leader.

• A volunteer with a disability who needs creative solutions so they can make it through the project.

• A teen who is misunderstood at home and finds acceptance through my life story.

As a teen on Ultimate Workout, I found acceptance, a listening ear, and mentorship. And now, I get to see God use me, year after year, in the lives of the volunteers that I get to serve alongside. I hope that one day I’ll serve with you, your son, niece, granddaughter, or another teen in your life.

—Rebekah Widmer is the international volunteer manager for Maranatha Volunteers International

AROUND

THE

World

A snapshot of volunteers and projects in the mission field.

UNITED STATES

Volunteers stand on the new roof they helped to install at the Fairfield Seventh-day Adventist Church in Washington.

BRAZIL

Members of the Agrisa Seventh-day Adventist Church pose with their new Maranatha water well and tank.

ZAMBIA

A strong One-Day Church now protects the Musamba Seventh-day Adventist congregation, which can build up the walls using local materials.

INDIA

PERU

Maranatha crews are nearly complete with a large Education and Evangelism Center that is a dream come true for this community.

ZAMBIA

Clean, accessible water is now available at the Cottage Seventh-day Adventist Church.

INDIA

The Beeravolu Seventh-day Adventist Church has a new Maranatha water well.

KENYA

The community surrounding the Manguli Seventh-day Adventist Church now has clean water they can collect anytime for free.

UNITED STATES

Volunteers helped to construct eight single family homes for the Uchee Pines Institute, an Adventist center for health education and lifestyle change.

Elaine Youngblood was among the very first volunteers to return to India since the start of the COVID pandemic, serving at the Pola Adventist School.

In October, Maranatha’s first volunteers in India since the start of the COVID pandemic returned to the country, working at the Pola Adventist School to build a new cafeteria building.

RETURNING TO INDIA

In February 2020, a group of Maranatha volunteers worked in the Indian state of Meghalaya, building classrooms at the Jingshai Mihngi Adventist School, not knowing that they would be the last volunteers to work in India for quite some time. The COVID pandemic prevented Maranatha from hosting any volunteer mission trips in India for the next two and a half years. More than two years later, on October 20, 2022, volunteers returned to this Asian subcontinent once more, this time to construct the walls of a cafeteria building at the Pola Adventist School. Maranatha has been working on this campus since 2017, building a church, dormitories, bathrooms, and classroom blocks, and drilling a water well. Besides laying bricks for the new cafeteria, which will include a kitchen, volunteers on

this project also led out in children’s programs with local students.

Although Maranatha’s in-country team successfully pushed the mission forward throughout the pandemic, there was a sense of isolation from the greater mission of Maranatha. Now, with volunteers from around the world coming back, Maranatha’s crew in India feels reconnected. “To have volunteers, it adds so much perspective to our work now,” said Vinish Wilson, Maranatha’s country director for India. “There’s something special about getting volunteers back in the country. I saw the joy on the faces of the children when the volunteers entered the school gate. Now, they can relate these buildings with the sacrifice and efforts of people making their dream a reality.”

In addition to Pola, Maranatha crews have also been working on

large, multi-classroom buildings at the Lasalgaon and Raymond Memorial School campuses. There are also teams working on churches, with 30 planned for the year, and also drilling wells in multiple states across India. In 2022, we have provided clean, accessible water for 203 communities. We are also doing maintenance on existing wells in need of repairs.

Maranatha has had a continuous presence in India since 1998, establishing an office while building places of worship and education throughout the country. In 2019, Maranatha started drilling water wells in areas in need of clean water. Maranatha has constructed more than 2,400 structures in India.

SUSTAINING THE MISSION IN ZAMBIA

Maranatha Volunteers International’s in-country team in Zambia has been busy providing urgently needed structures and drilling water wells. So far in 2022, our One-Day Church crew has constructed 59 churches across the country. They recently raised one for the Yambani congregation, which previously met under a tree.

Another crew has started a large project at the Bethsaida Church. This church was destroyed by a January storm that resulted in multiple deaths. Maranatha asked donors to help fund a sanctuary that can seat the 500-member congregation, as well as six Sabbath School classrooms and bathroom buildings. More than 900 donors gave to this campaign, and our team has already poured the

foundations for all of these buildings.

Maranatha also completed a campus overhaul at the Emmanuel Adventist Secondary School, building a girls’ dorm and bathroom, adding six new classrooms, and six staff housing duplexes. The team made improvements to the school’s water source and supplied it to the boys’ side of campus as well. At the Liumba Hill Adventist School, Maranatha has added a laboratory building, bathrooms, and renovated several structures across the campus. Workers will soon begin the final addition: a girls dormitory.

MARANATHA RECOGNIZED IN INTER-AMERICA

Maranatha Volunteers International was honored for the impact the ministry has had in the Inter-American Division during its Grand Centennial Celebration, on October 29, 2022, in the Dominican Republic. Since 1969, when Maranatha organized the first mission trip to the Bahamas, more than 40,000 volunteers have helped to build up the Seventh-day Adventist Church across the Inter-American Division.

The spectrum of Maranatha’s work in this region includes key projects that proved to be major milestones in the organization’s growth. In 1980, volunteers constructed 110 houses on the island of Dominica and 160 houses in the Dominican Republic following the devastation of Hurricane David.

In 1992, Maranatha organized multiple projects in one place for the first time, building 25 churches in the Dominican Republic in 70 days. In 1996 in Panama, Maranatha constructed its first large, multi-classroom building, known as an “Education and Evangelism Center,” in partnership with the Commonweal Foundation. Overall, Maranatha has built more than 1,600 churches, 1,200 school classrooms, and 270 houses across 29 InterAmerican Division countries.

“Over the years, Maranatha has partnered with the Inter-American Division to construct a large number of projects with the intent of helping the Church grow,” said Maranatha

Maranatha continues to make clean water a priority in Zambia. In 2022, Maranatha has drilled 270 water wells, and operated a maintenance program for existing wells in the country.

president, Don Noble. “We will continue to work together to advance God’s cause in this large division into the future.”

More than 6,000 church leaders and members gathered in the Dominican Republic for the special anniversary’s final event, which also celebrated the division’s coordinated efforts in evangelism, education, and community outreach. Thousands watched the program online, which was live streamed from the East Central University’s Sports Arena in San Pedro de Macoris.

HUNGRY FOR Connection

By Dustin Comm

For three decades, Maranatha’s annual mission trip for teenagers, Ultimate Workout (UW), has been the perfect proving ground for young people looking to test their physical and spiritual muscles with their peers. It’s an international adventure that takes young people out of their comfort zone together, like only overseas service can. Then, the COVID pandemic hit, ending the 30-year run of international UW projects. After hosting a virtual event in 2020 and a stateside project in Arizona in 2021, leaders shifted their focus to the return of an international project in Tacna, Peru, in 2022. Conditions in Peru were improving, but would teens and parents be ready for overseas travel? Would anyone sign up? Leadership didn’t know what to expect.

“We had an overwhelming response with lots of people joining,” says Maranatha’s international volunteer manager, Rebekah Widmer. “We even had to go to a waitlist very early in the registration process because we just had too many students joining.”

So many teens signed up for the project in Tacna, Peru, that project leadership had to search for another site where the additional kids could serve.

Finally, after a three-year break in overseas projects, in July 2022, 148 UW volunteers, from six countries, landed in Peru. It was clear from the beginning that teens were hungry for a connection with peers that had been so lacking in the past several years. They also yearned to seek God together. Daily worship services, led by recent UW

graduate, Cameron Sanders, provided an opportunity for authentic worship and dialogue. “The goal was to truly give them an opportunity to experience God in the flesh, for the words to become flesh for them,” says Sanders. “There is a sincerity in the worship here, there is a sincerity in the experiences, and they started to experience it for themselves, the first day when they got here.”

Through music, spoken word, and prayer, participants were eager to share in an aspect of worship that had been missing from their lives throughout the pandemic, especially for teens without other young people in their congregations back home.

“We had an overwhelming response with lots of people joining. We even had to go to a waitlist.”

How Maranatha’s annual project for high schoolers provided a much-needed outlet, grounded in service.

With a theme reminding teens that God is “A Man of His Word,” and an atmosphere free of judgment, many volunteers shared their personal testimonies, which had a powerful effect on all.

“You hear the things that you need to hear, you hear the things that you don’t want to hear, and you grow from it,” says second-time volunteer Haley Davis. “I’ve seen God reach out in so many different ways to so many of my friends here at UW, and it’s amazing, because you cannot deny the work that God is doing here.”

Between morning and evening worship, volunteers headed to their respective job sites around Tacna. Three teams primarily focused on construction by building two churches, applying a new coat of paint to an existing Maranatha church, reroofing a community member’s home,

and constructing a bathroom structure for an elderly man. A fourth team focused on health, seeing 468 medical patients, providing 62 dental consultations, and passing out 270 pairs of reading glasses. Other outreach activities included passing out food door to door, picking up trash, distributing books, and helping to advertise future evangelistic campaigns for local Seventh-day Adventist churches.

“Everyone knows that we’re all in it together; everyone is very much on the same page in that regard,” says volunteer Arianne Milosavljevic. “No matter how strong someone’s faith is, no matter if someone is kind of wavering or not, everyone knows why we’re here, what we’re doing. We’re here to be helping other people.”

The daily work made an impact on the

READY FOR ACTION:

In July, 148 volunteers gathered in Tacna, Peru, eager to connect with the local community and each other.

PHOTO BY LEO MACIAS

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“We have 100 teenagers here that need to be built, that want to be built, and they’re anxious for a connection with Christ, they’re anxious for friends, for a community.”

communities the teens served, but there was also a shift in the volunteers’ lives as well. “I think that instead of me…helping them, a lot of us were touched by the people here and were impacted by them,” says Elli Funada. “A lot of them prayed for us. When we offer prayer, they’re like, ‘Oh, let me pray for you.’ And I think that just opened up something in my mind.”

The international UW experience proved to be a turning point at this crucial stage of life for teens. Twelve volunteers gave their lives to God in baptism at the end of the trip. Dozens of others felt a spiritual renewal through the combination of international travel, physical labor, social interaction, and intentional worship services, ultimately fulfilling the purpose of UW.

“I think working with the teens is an extra level of the Maranatha mission statement, which is building people,” says Widmer. “We have 100 teenagers here that need to be built,

that want to be built, and they’re anxious for a connection with Christ, they’re anxious for friends, for a community.”

In 2022, the successful international UW formula that had been absent for so long, was finally back, and it’s an experience that teens recommend for their peers. “You’re only in high school once,” says Milosavljevic. “You’re only this age once. You don’t ever get the opportunity again. I wish I’d come sooner, this is my last year I can be a participant….And you get to be of service to people, you’re not just touring something, you get to help others, they help you a lot more than you think and you get to draw closer to God.”

SERVICE:

1 A medical team, made up of health professionals and teen volunteers, saw 468 patients throughout the project.

2 Volunteers relished the chance to worship with their peers each day, listening to preaching, testimonies, and music.

3 Volunteers built up the block walls of two churches in the Tacna area during the mission trip.

4 Teens learned construction techniques and best-practices from experienced staff and Maranatha crew members.

5 Volunteers came from six countries, including Brooke Owino from Belgium.

6 Volunteers put together food packs to hand out to people in the community of Alto Tacna, where they were also building a church.

7 Teens not only constructed two churches during the mission trip, they got to know the congregations they served by worshiping together on Sabbath.

8 Twelve volunteers gave their lives to God in baptism at the end of the trip.

PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA LLOYD

AGAINST ALL ODDS

By Julie Z. Lee

Robert Grady, Jr., known to friends as Bob, has had an impressive career in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He started off as a pastor in California, then headed to Hawaii, before he was recruited to be a missionary in Singapore for the Southeast Asia Union and, eventually, the Far Eastern Division. He’s worked for the Washington Conference, the North America Division, and the General Conference of Seventhday Adventists. In his retirement, he has led 23 mission trips in 17 countries through Maranatha Volunteers International. His mission in life has always been “to do something significant for God’s cause” and to provide opportunities for others to do the same.

But Bob’s long resume is not what makes his story extraordinary. What makes Bob’s commitment all the more meaningful is the fact that he had to fight to have God in his life in the first place.

Bob’s story begins years and years before his birth, when his future father, Robert, was born into an Adventist family in Oklahoma, the only son of four children. As a young adult, Robert happened to have a negative interaction with Adventists and swore he would never have anything to do with them again. He kept to his word, even when he got married to Bob’s future mom, Jane. She wasn’t an Adventist nor a practicing Christian, but she was enamored with Robert’s family.

“She was around my dad’s family–all these Adventists–and my dad realized that if he kept her there, she would become an Adventist,” says Bob.

So Robert swept Jane out to California, far from the influences of his family, and settled into a freewheeling, party life in San Francisco. Eventually, the couple had their first child, Bob, and then his brother Lee.

One day, when Bob was a toddler and his father was at work, a colporteur knocked on their door. His mother invited her in, bought a book, then accepted an invitation for Bible studies. For the next few months, the colporteur returned to share lessons from the Bible. One day she began talking about the Sabbath.

“My mom said, ‘That’s really strange. My in-laws go to church on Saturday, too. They are Seventh-day Adventists.’ And this lady said, ‘I’m an Adventist too.’ And that’s when my mom gave her heart to the Lord,” remembers Bob.

Soon, Jane was taking the boys to the Fruitvale Seventh-day Adventist Church in Oakland, where they now lived. The congregation was warm and friendly, and the three Gradys fell in love with the church. Bob and Lee especially loved the kids, all of whom encouraged them to attend the school offered at the Fruitvale church. The brothers begged their mother to go, but there were two problems. The first was money; the family couldn’t afford a private education. The second was much more complicated.

“My dad had always made it very clear that he didn’t want us going to church schools,” says Bob. The chip on his father’s shoulder was large. Attending church was already a fearful challenge for the family, but going to a church school would have been a serious violation of their father’s demands.

When the Fruitvale members heard about the boys’ wishes, they gathered financial support to offer a scholarship. And that fall, just weeks before Bob was to start the fifth grade, their mother announced that they would be enrolling at the Adventist school. However, the kids were not to breathe a word of this to their father.

“Oh man, we were excited and thrilled! We were there with our friends, and the pastor of the church was none other than Eric B. Hare!” says Bob of their new life.

The secret plan went well for the first couple of

“My dad had always made it clear that he didn’t want us going to church schools.”

How Bob Grady fought to know and serve the Lord

weeks, but then Bob’s enthusiasm caused him to slip. “We were at the dinner table, and I came in and said, excited, ‘I just memorized Psalms 23 for class!’” says Bob. “My dad looked at me, and he said, ‘Where are you going to school?’”

Realizing his mistake, Bob tried to change the subject and asked his brother to pass the bread. But his father pressed on until the family confessed. Furious, his father ordered the children to return to the public school. If they didn’t obey, there would be severe consequences.

The next morning, Bob, Lee, their little sister Pat, and their mother had worship and prayer. Then, the boys stepped out of the house and onto the road. As they walked, they stared at the route ahead. If they were to turn left at the corner, they would be headed to the public school. If they kept straight, they would be at the bus stop that would take them to the church school.

“We got down to that corner and looked at each other. We knew what to do. We went straight on to the bus and went to the church school,” says Bob. “That night, my dad got home, took us to the bathroom, and let us have it.”

The next day, Bob and Lee returned to the church school once more. That night, their father beat them once more. This terrifying routine continued day after day. On the morning of the fifth day, the brothers noticed their father’s car following the bus to school. At the campus, he stormed into the boys’ classrooms, grabbed them by the collar, and hauled them to the public school, where they remained for the next four years.

By the time Bob was in his last year of junior high, public school was wearing thin. He had invitations to play on the varsity basketball team, but it was on Sabbath. Girls invited him to the prom, but it was on Sabbath. Temptation after temptation plagued him until finally Bob pleaded for a change.

“I said, ‘Mom, it’s too much. If I don’t go to church school next year, I don’t know how I can remain an Adventist,’” says Bob. “And she said, ‘No matter what–’”

Suddenly, Bob stops talking, his voice choking back tears. He starts, then stops again, struck with deep emotion. “She said, ‘No matter what, you will be in a church school next year.’”

“I know now, my whole future hung in the balance of that one determined statement of my mother,” says Bob.

That next fall, Bob and Lee enrolled at Golden Gate Academy, and their enraged father abandoned the family for the next several months. During that time, the church rallied around the Gradys, providing food baskets, support, and love. Three years later, Bob graduated from academy, then went on to Pacific Union College, La Sierra University, and Andrews University, where he studied to become a pastor.

GOD’S CAUSE:

1 Bob and Carrol Grady in Hawaii in the early 1960s, where Bob served as the departmental director in sabbath school, personal ministries and communications.

2 A celebratory picture of the SAGE group, which Bob started and ran for 26 years.

After spending decades in Southeast Asia, where Bob and his wife Carrol helped to plant and build nearly 300 churches, the couple eventually returned to the United States. After working at the General Conference, in Maryland, and Christian Record Services, in Nebraska, in

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY GRADY FAMILY

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the 1990s, the Gradys ended up in Washington state, where Bob took a job in the trust services department. It was here that he came upon what would become a new passion and chapter of his life.

As the trust services director, Bob took over a pre-existing program for seniors, where people occasionally got together for a meal but did little else. A mover and a shaker, Bob wanted to take the group to the next level. In 1994, with a team of friends, they reinvented the program as SAGE, Seniors in Action for God with Excellence, a ministry for people ages 50 and above.

“Our mission was to give service opportunities for people, who are now close to retirement or in retirement years, for the cause of God. They are so full of energy and life and still have money, and they still want to do something for God’s cause,” says Bob.

The formula worked. Hundreds of people signed up to join, and SAGE held monthly activities, ranging from Seattle Mariners baseball games to outreach events to weekend retreats. Then, a few years in, Bob started to think bigger.

“I had been around so many active people, especially senior people, through the years. [As a missionary] I’ve seen the work grow, and I wondered if these people would like to go out and do something very special and enhance the world of God. And that’s when I thought of Maranatha,” says Bob.

Bob contacted Maranatha about organizing a mission trip, and in January 1996, 93 SAGE members flew to El Salvador, to build a children’s home at an orphanage in San Juan Opico. The group had a fantastic time, and from that moment forward, Maranatha mission trips became a near-annual tradition for SAGE. Over the next 26 years, Bob led the group on a total of 23 Maranatha mission trips to places like Costa Rica, India, Mozambique, Brazil, and Peru.

“The best thing about leading projects is seeing what happens to the people. Their lives are changed. They come back more committed to the church. They want to share what they’ve been through, and to me, that’s where my reward is,” says Bob.

His most recent trip took SAGE to Kenya, where they worked at the Kajiado Adventist School and Rescue Center. For this project, 24 volunteers laid block for the new dean’s house on campus. They also coordinated a medical clinic for

“The best thing about leading projects is seeing what happens to the people. Their lives are changed.”

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nearly 900 patients, organized children’s ministry programs in multiple villages, and held an evangelism campaign that welcomed nearly 700 people and resulted in 84 baptisms.

As is tradition, at the end of the mission experience, the volunteers participated in a special dedication ceremony, where students at the center sang, danced, and thanked the volunteers for the continual improvement of their school. But this year there was a second ceremony–one that marked the end of a long tradition: Bob’s retirement from mission trips. Bob is a sprightly 90-year old. But Carrol, his spouse of 66 years, has been having health issues. Spending weeks away from her for travel is untenable; he needs to be home for his wife.

“My heart is sad, it really is,” admitted Bob of this milestone in his life. “I have so much in me yet, and I just love doing what I am doing. Right now, I’ve got to hang it up. God will provide something else for me to do.”

But this last mission trip had a silver lining–a bright spot to end on. After decades of taking volunteers on projects and watching people be changed by service, the experience in Kenya resulted in a transformation that is very close to Bob and Carrol’s heart.

“My oldest son, for the first time, went with me… And he has been totally blessed,” says Bob. “He’s been out of the church for a number of years. But at Kajiado, he gave a worship talk, and he told folks that he’s headed on the way back.

When he got up and made that statement, we were all thrilled.”

The spiritual journey of Bob’s son is an interesting twist in the plot of Bob’s life. As a boy, Bob’s father whipped him for going to church school and believing in God. Then, when Bob became a father himself, he watched his own son drift away from something that he had fought so hard to keep.

But God always finds a way to us, just as he did with Bob’s son.

And just as he did with Bob’s father.

Bob’s father died in 1980. A couple years prior, he had had a heart attack and survived. The near-death experience changed him. He began attending an evangelistic series and was moved to return to his beginnings as a Christian. To rediscover the miracle of God.

“He gave his heart to the Lord,” says Bob. “He had a real conversion experience.”

Not too long after, he was baptized by Lee and Bob, both pastors and missionaries, called by God to share the Light with everyone around them, everyone from strangers to friends to sons.

Even to long lost fathers, found again.

MISSION LIFE:

1 A photo of the Grady family, with his father Robert, mother Jane, Bob (right), his sister Pat, and his brother Lee.

2 Bob talks to children in New Guinea, where he visited while working for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the 1980s.

3 SAGE in Ecuador in 2007, where they constructed a new church for the Brisas Seventh-day Adventist congregation. SAGE has gone on 23 mission trips with Maranatha.

4 SAGE volunteers on the job site in Ecuador.

5 Bob’s retirement gift from the Pacific Northwest Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

PHOTOS

THE BIG DIG

How dinosaur bones are helping Christians talk about creation

By Julie Z. Lee

Aman, dressed in jeans, khaki shirt, and a wide-brimmed leather hat, is on his hands and knees. His head is bent over, focused on the ground before him. Holding an awl, he scrapes and scrapes. Next to him is a young woman, crouched over, watching as he digs.

“If this one lifts, you can wiggle this out, usually,” he says, moving around what appears to be a dirt-crusted rock.

“Do you use a dental pick when it’s close to the bottom? Or is a screwdriver okay?” the young woman asks.

He mutters under his breath about his preference of tools, noting that he doesn’t like awls for this purpose, then switches to a putty knife.

“When you’re trying to lift it, you use this thing. You can then cut in,” he says. “It’s starting to wiggle.” He gently moves the knife back and forth underneath the object until it loosens enough to separate from the sandstone.

“So I’m going to lift it up this way,” he says, placing both hands on either end of the long piece.

Then he lifts it toward his body, ever so carefully, revealing a totally intact dinosaur bone.

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assortment of wildlife creatures, brush, cactus, and ravines. Directions to the location entail counting cattle guards and admonishments to watch for cows that tend to wander into roads. The actual address is confidential as the owners are careful to protect what the property holds: thousands and thousands of dinosaur bones.

The property is located squarely in the middle of the Lance Formation, a U-shaped, elevated section of sandstone that swoops through northeastern Wyoming. According to a 1994 feature in the LA Times newspaper, the Lance Formation “runs 100 miles from Lance Creek in the south to the Montana border in the north and is 20 miles across at its widest point.” It is known for being, “one of the most fertile dinosaur fields on Earth.” And indeed, stories from the Hanson family confirm this. Glenn Hanson, whose father homesteaded the ranch in 1908, recalls traipsing all over the land and seeing bones everywhere. His daughter, Brenda Hanson Bollwerk, who lives on the ranch, also has fond memories of growing up on what is essentially a dinosaur graveyard.

The site of the man’s discovery is the Hanson Research Station, an 8,000 acre property located in eastern Wyoming. The land is 40-miles from the nearest town and mostly occupied by an

“It was a wonderful place to grow up. When we were little, we would be working cattle out here, and you look down and you see a vertebra this big around, you know–that’s a dinosaur,” says Bollwerk, holding her hands in a circle the size of a grapefruit. “On Sundays after Sunday dinner, we would take our friends, we would say,

“We started inviting people [to learn] about how these bones could be explained in a Christian perspective.”

‘Would you like to go up and pick up bones?’

They usually did. We would walk along the ridges, and they would pick up dinosaur bones, and we would give them to them for souvenirs of the day at the ranch.”

The proliferation of bones, the first of which were discovered in the area in 1888, made the ranch a goldmine for paleontologists. In 1990, a professor from the University of New Orleans approached the family about building a field station to excavate the site. But the Hansons weren’t eager to turn over the property to just any scientist. The Hansons wanted “scientists who would be willing to come out here and excavate our bones and teach not only the evolutionary viewpoint but the creation viewpoint too, and let people make up their own minds,” says Bollwerk.

That scientist came in the form of Arthur Chadwick, who was a professor of paleontology, geology, and biology at Southwestern Adventist University in Texas. He remembers being invited to the ranch in the mid-1990s and touring the property. “What happened was the ranch owner took me up on a ridge and said to get out of the truck. And I tried to get out on the ground, and there were dinosaur bones all over the ground, and I realized these bones are lost to science. We won’t understand anymore about dinosaurs from these bones, because they’re gone. So I said, ‘I’ve got to dedicate some of my life to trying to preserve this scientific data.’”

He returned to Southwestern and proposed an educational curriculum to be based out at the ranch. By 1997, they had their first class in Wyoming. By 2000, the Dinosaur Excavation and Taphonomic Research Project (called the Dinosaur Project for short) was in full swing with 25 students. The school built a small structure to serve as a base, and students camped outside. By 2019, they had 113 people participating in the dig, and they have excavated close to 35,000 individual fossils. Researchers have found more than a dozen different types of dinosaurs, including the tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops, raptors, and hadrosaurids.

“Dinosaurs as an entity are not really essential to any aspect of our belief system. But they have become very important, because they’ve been used by evolutionists to promote long ages and to try to get children locked in the idea of long ages and evolution. And this had to be answered. We had to come up with some way of talking about this issue for our young people, because they were just hearing what the secular paleontologists were saying and going with it,” says Chadwick. “We started inviting people here who might be encouraged by learning more about how these bones could be explained in a Christian perspective, in a biblical perspective. And that’s how we got started. And we have been very successful. We have people here from all over the world who have come to learn about

DIGGING HISTORY:

1 A participant on a summer dig carefully unearths a dinosaur bone.

2 The new field station is 8,000 square feet and will house space for a kitchen, dining room, classrooms, offices, and bathrooms.

this project and about these dinosaur bones as a venue for understanding the creation… So it’s a tool. Dinosaur bones are a tool that facilitate the understanding of creation.”

Then, in July 2019, a tornado whipped through eastern Wyoming, just after the summer session wrapped. The winds tore through the ranch and destroyed the field station, which had been used to develop curriculum, teach, and even cook food for the participants. Suddenly, Southwestern had no permanent place to host the annual digs.

And that was the juncture at which Maranatha got connected to dinosaurs.

churches, schools, retreat centers, and other Seventh-day Adventist facilities. He spoke with leadership at Maranatha, explaining the Dino Dig and why they needed a new building.

“We said we’re willing to listen, we’re willing to talk. And so we had a couple of different conversations. We came out here to the site. We met the different players, and we came to an agreement to be able to help,” says Kyle Fiess, vice president of volunteer projects.

In the end, Maranatha accepted the request and started plotting out a plan for a turn-key project.

Like so many projects around the world, the pandemic put a pause on the Dinosaur Project. But by 2021, as things were opening up, Southwestern was ready to restart the work. The problem was the lack of a field station.

“We were fortunate to bring in what are called man camps or trailers that you’d see in an oil field to get us through … and those trailers are pretty small for 100 people a day. And we only have a couple of bathrooms, so there’s lines to get in the bathroom, lines to take a shower,” says Jared Wood, a zoology professor at Southwestern, director of the Dinosaur Science Museum, and co-director of the Dinosaur Project. The space was also limited for cooking, food storage and prep, with walkietalkies propped on stoves and desks crammed into a corner. “There’s really no great space for dealing with the logistics of the project, data analysis, paperwork, and it’s just–you know, we’re getting by. But we really can’t work and be productive like we know we can be.”

The team began dreaming of a new field station with plenty of space for participants, leadership, planning, storage, and amenities. But they had trouble making the plans a reality.

“We hit a lot of dead ends after COVID affected the country, and we couldn’t find anyone to help us pull this massive project off. And then, Maranatha got involved,” says Wood.

One of the donors of the Dinosaur Project contacted Maranatha, knowing that the organization had an extensive North American Project Assistance program that coordinates construction and renovation projects for

The final design is a 8,000-square foot building with a large kitchen, a common area to serve as a dining room and classroom, offices, storage rooms for the artifacts and electronics, a garage for the vehicles, and plenty of toilets and showers. In August 2022, Maranatha broke ground on the project with a group of volunteers helping to excavate the site and pour the foundation. Since then, Maranatha has led two projects at the location.

David Woods, director of Maranatha Projects in North America and Zambia, has been overseeing the construction. He’s used to spending 2-3 weeks at project sites, but this one has been more extensive due to its remote location. Once he arrives, he usually stays for a while; the first effort lasted for a month, with volunteers coming in and out of the ranch to assist. The project has also had other issues, atypical to a project in the United States.

“Some of the challenges we’ve had were this building, being a very custom building with custom-sized timbers that we’ve had cut and sawed into size in Oregon. And then because of the rain in the spring…we couldn’t get into the forest to get the trees, which delayed us in getting timber,” says Woods. “The remoteness of this, I mean it’s almost an hour to get to town for anything. To buy fuel for the generator, it involves 15-miles on a gravel road across 15 cattle guards, and then you get out to the main road... the nearest big centers where we can get stuff is at least 2 hours away.”

But less than three months later, and with a relatively small group of volunteers, the building has taken shape. The white metal roof, held up by thick beams, points gracefully to the sky like a blunt arrow. The multi-purpose room is a spacious patio, opening onto a landscape dotted with sagebrush, cactus, and undulating grass.

“I think what’s most beautiful about the new field station is its being built to blend into

“It’s everything that we’ve ever wanted, and it’s coming true. I think these are answered prayers.”

the land, and the new eating space, classroom area will have a panoramic view of the ranch, which will double as an open air worship area,” says Wood. “So it’s everything that we’ve ever wanted and it’s coming true. I think these are answered prayers.”

While there is still much work to be done, the turnkey project will pause for the winter and resume in the spring, with the goal to open right in time for next summer’s dig.

“This space is going to be light years better and just a huge blessing to them,” says Woods. “I really look forward to coming back next year and seeing it in action.”

In the United States, as an organization that typically focuses on churches, schools, and camps, a field station to support the study of dinosaur bones seems like an outlier for Maranatha. But Fiess says the project fits right into the mission.

“Maranatha exists to spread the Gospel around the world, and this is a unique way to spread the Gospel. Through what’s happening here, we’re able to help propagate a message that helps people to understand how things might have taken place that are being found here,” says Fiess. “It’s unique, it’s different, but it’s something that we can help support through the ministry that we do through construction.”

As Wood says, the work at the Hanson Research Station is not only an educational effort but a ministry. “This is a place for people to come and learn that there are Christian scientists who are doing the absolute best they can do, and they still are maintaining their faith in God and what the Bible has to say about origins.”

And now, with an actual field station, the legacy and mission has a chance to grow.

Says Wood, “The impact that Maranatha is going to have on this program by helping us build this new field station–I don’t think it can be put into words. We didn’t know what was going to happen after we lost our building. Would this project end? We’re not ready to end–we still have hundreds and dare I say, maybe thousands of dinosaurs to find…. We still have answers to find the questions that we have as Christian scientists. And this will allow us to continue our work well into the future.”

HOUSE FOR BONES:

1 Dr. Wood gives a lecture in a tent set up on the property.

2 Volunteers came through the remote property over the course of several weeks to help with construction.

PHOTOS BY LOGAN CARTER

HOW YOU’VE Helped

METISHA , ZAMBIA

LEAVING YOUR Legacy

When commercial real estate developer, Kent Thompson, took his family on a vacation to a resort in Mexico, he didn’t realize it would trigger a long-term commitment to mission work with Maranatha. After going out into the local community near the resort, Kent and his wife Sarah saw firsthand the drastically dissimilar conditions that local residents were living in. “We decided we wouldn’t raise our kids going on spring break trips to first class accommodations,” recalls Kent.

Instead, the Thompsons took their kids on mission trips for spring break throughout their high school years, and the couple has continued serving for the past two decades. Today, their children are adults with their own kids, yet, the Thompsons still include the entire family in making decisions about where to serve and how to financially support the mission. As a part of their estate planning, these family meetings happen in different locations each year, and allow the family to continue serving together as life proceeds.

“We look at it as family leadership for the next generation,” explains Kent. “We’re modeling that relationship with God to

our children. We talk about the business, then each of the kids have something they want to do within their local churches, and there are some larger causes we’ll participate in. We like to do something substantial that is going to help a church or school.” Through their commercial real estate development business, when a property sells, the Thompsons choose to give 10% to missions they believe in like Maranatha.

Kent believes that supporting and serving with Maranatha is an experience that is worth the investment for the whole family. “I heard someone say years ago that [when you’re involved with missions], the probability of your kids or family members staying with the faith is about 90%,” says Kent. “The whole experience pulls your family together, and when you [volunteer], the people are so thankful for what you’re giving. It’s a safe way to go out and experience the growth of our faith—it’s more blessed to give than to receive.”

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

BEFORE The Metisha Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Zambia used to meet in this mud wall structure made of sticks and grasses.

AFTER Maranatha constructed a strong One-Day Church frame that members can later build walls under with local materials.

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.

THE $10 CHURCH

Since it’s creation in 1988, members of The $10 Church program have funded more than 500 churches for congregations around the world. As the cost of construction goes up, we need more $10 donors to increase the impact of this simple program that asks people to give just $10 a month. The combined $10 donations go towards the completion of urgently needed churches around the world. If you aren’t already, please start giving to the $10 Church!

ONE-DAY CHURCHES

The One-Day Church has been a successful program for providing strong church frames and roofs for remote congregations, where traditional construction is difficult. However, interest in this program has waned; yet the need for One-Day Churches is constant. Please consider donating toward a One-Day Church. You can give any amount for the program, sponsor a share for $1,500, or sponsor an entire structure. Sponsorship cost varies by project.

CHURCHES

This year, we urgently need more support for church projects, and one way you can help is to give to churches in general. Make a donation of any amount to help us complete these important construction projects or call to ask about sponsoring an entire church; full sponsorship cost varies by country.

Give online at maranatha.org/donate or call (916) 774-7700 to speak to a representative or to make a donation.

PROJECT Calendar

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.

DATE PROJECT NAME PLACE LEADERS SCOPE

Feb. 21 - Mar. 9, 2023

Mar. 1 - 15, 2023

Uchee Pines Project ALABAMA, USA Ernie and Jeanice Riles Finishes on Campus Homes

Niobrara County Dig Project WYOMING, USA David Woods Framing

Mar. 9 - 18, 2023 India Project POLA, INDIA Loretta Spivey, Lorin Rubbert School Construction, Painting, Outreach

Mar. 19 - 30, 2023 Monterey Bay Academy Project CALIFORNIA, USA TBD Renovations

Mar. 20 - April 7, 2023 Camp Hope Project BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA TBD Camp Renovations

Apr. 17 - May 7, 2023 Camp Wakonda Project WISCONSIN, USA Betty Beattie Camp Renovations

Spring 2023

Lewiston Adventist Church Project IDAHO, USA David Woods Church Repairs

Spring 2023 Kayenta Project ARIZONA, USA TBD Framing

Jun. 5 - 21, 2023 Milo Academy Project OREGON, USA Darrell Michael Campus Repairs and Painting

Jun. 14 - 27, 2023 Kenya Project KAJIADO, KENYA Loretta Spivey School Construction

Summer 2023 Project Patch IDAHO, USA TBD Campus Repairs

Jun. 22 - Jul. 2, 2023 Catalyst Collegiate young adult project PERU Joey and Jessica Osborne Church Construction, Outreach

Jun. 22 - Jul. 2, 2023 Family Project

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Steve Case, Danny Poljak Church Construction, Medical Clinics, Outreach

Jun. 29 - Jul. 11, 2023 Kenya Project KAJIADO, KENYA Karen Godfrey, Kenneth Weiss, Peter Thomas School Construction

Jul. 13 - 23, 2023

Ultimate Workout 33 Teens only project

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC TBD Church Construction, Medical Clinics, Outreach

Sep. 27 - Oct. 10, 2023 Kenya Project KIMOGORO, KENYA Vickie and Bernie Wiedmann School Construction

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.

FOR SERVING

The following Group Project Teams served during the months of October through December.

PERU Tryon Adventist Church Team | North Carolina

KASAMA, ZAMBIA

Shaloni Mwansa sits in front of her home, where she holds up the Bible she has just received, along with a month’s supply of food from Maranatha volunteers, who were in the remote village of Kasama to build the new Bethsaida Seventh-day Adventist Church. Earlier this year, the old structure collapsed during a rainstorm, killing five people inside and injuring others. Church leadership in Zambia asked for Maranatha’s

assistance in building a new and safer place of worship for the 500-member congregation. Maranatha helped to create a plan that not only included a new sanctuary but bathrooms and six classrooms that will eventually be used as an elementary school. More than 900 donors helped to fully fund the project, and 19 volunteers arrived in November to start construction.

Shaloni was one of many people injured in the tragedy. Now

crippled, she has been unable to work. Additionally, many people in the area are short on food. When the volunteers heard the plight of these people while there, they raised $950 to purchase maize meal, beans, oil, sugar, salt, soap, and Bibles in the local language. The local pastors and church members then delivered the food to 24 homes in the community. Some people were so happy they were dancing with joy.

Photo by Susan Woods

990 Reserve Drive, Suite 100 Roseville, CA 95678

You’re invited to an inspiring Sabbath event , celebrating the power of service and its impact around the world. Featuring stories of hope from the mission field, volunteer testimonies, and music Come celebrate missions and learn how you can be part of this amazing work to share the Gospel through service

Admission is free. maranatha.org/gomaranatha

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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.

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.

Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android TV

Download The Maranatha Channel to watch all current and archived episodes and other videos on demand.

YouTube Go to www.youtube.com/missionstories to watch. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and automatically receive updates.