During the month of May, supporting ministry Maranatha Volunteers International organized a volunteer project to construct a new church building for the El Puerto Seventh-day Adventist congregation in southern Peru.
The trip was open for anyone to join, and most volunteers didn’t know each other previously. But 27 new acquaintances from across the United States formed a unit of surprising cohesion and efficiency, trip organizers reported. “They finished laying the El Puerto Seventh-day Adventist Church’s block walls ahead of schedule, then painted the structure’s front exterior wall. Off the construction site, volunteer dentists treated 120 patients at a three-day dental clinic, and several volunteers visited a local Adventist school to help teach an English class and play games with students,” they said.
“Block laying often doesn’t go that fast. Those of us organizing the project were busy keeping the group busy,” explained Elmer Barbosa, Maranatha’s country director for Peru and Paraguay. “It’s clear that each of these volunteers came to work hard, and the results of their labor are proof enough of their success.”
The volunteers’ hard work transformed Sabbaths at the El Puerto church. It’s located on the beautiful western shore of Lake Titicaca in southern Peru, but the worshippers’ meeting place was less than ideal. The group branched off from the central church in their town 35 years ago, meeting in rented spaces ever since. But these became too small for the group of 105 members they’d grown into. The church finally saved up enough money to purchase land. But the construction of a building was expensive and unrealistic—until Maranatha volunteers stepped in to help.
Across the street from the El Puerto church building lived a woman who graciously offered her restroom for the volunteers’ use. It was on such visits throughout the project that volunteers noticed the peeling paint on her home’s exterior. So toward the project’s close the volunteers used their extra time and supplies to give her house a new coat of paint. “It was a gesture of gratitude,” Barbosa said. “The group wanted to express their appreciation for her kindness.”
From 2004 to 2006 more than 3,000 Maranatha volunteers landed in Peru, constructing nearly 100 churches and schools. In 2019 Maranatha returned at the request of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America. After a brief pause in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Maranatha’s in-country crews and volunteer groups resumed work in Peru. Recently the ministry reported how leaders of the Lake Union Conference of the Adventist Church in the U.S. went to serve in that same area in Peru. In 2024 several groups of volunteers served in the country, including a family project with 125 volunteers in Pucallpa, in northern Peru. The country was also the venue of the first Catalyst project, a Maranatha initiative that specifically caters to young people of ages 18-28.
The original version of this story was posted on the Maranatha Volunteers International news site. Maranatha Volunteers International is a nonprofit supporting ministry that is not operated by the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.