Our country director for Peru and Paraguay returns as the show’s first repeat guest after an abbreviated first appearance in Episode 5. Elmer shares how the work in the Amazon jungle region of Peru progressed since then, and talks about his new responsibility in also overseeing Maranatha’s work in Paraguay, including the anticipation of leading Maranatha’s teens-only mission trip, Ultimate Workout, in summer 2025.

Having established Maranatha’s efforts from scratch in four separate countries, Elmer explains how the organization first enters a country to start the work. He recalls his first years of service as a 20-year-old in Mozambique, including the construction of 1,000 churches, and the lifelong relationships he formed. He opens up about his journey in missions with his family, from spending time away from his new bride as a newlywed for two months in Angola, to his kids living in several countries already in their childhood. He concludes by sharing how Maranatha has impacted his life and what he’s learned about God through his 18 years of service with Maranatha.

TV episode on the work in Iquitos, Peru: https://watch.maranatha.org/videos/the-gospel-in-the-jungle
TV episode on the work in Paraguay: https://watch.maranatha.org/videos/mms11e43-1

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As Youth and Pathfinder Director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Northern California, Eddie has decades of experience taking youth on mission trips around the world. He recounts his first experiences with Maranatha, talks about the importance of doing a pre-trip site visit, and explains how he broke his neck in Costa Rica. He shares how he has grown as a leader, his goal for youth on these projects, and how he’s seen prayer literally influence events on his mission trips. Eddie shares his response when people question why the conference should do mission trips at all, and explains how a short-term mission trip can impact a community well beyond the project.

TV episode on the Kimogoro Adventist School (segment starts at 13:51): https://watch.maranatha.org/videos/mms11e30

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As Adventist Review’s senior news correspondent, Marcos has traveled the world covering stories for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and has the unique experience of coming to the mission of Maranatha via journalism. Early in his time at Adventist Review, he was asked to cover the dedication of a Maranatha-built sanctuary in Cuba. He went, and was impressed with the dedication of Maranatha volunteers, donors, and staff. Since then, he’s been on more assignments involving Maranatha, and talks about the excitement of gathering unexpected stories in the mission field, and how God brings specific people into his path to help tell each story.

Marcos reflects on his time at the Kajiado Adventist School and Rescue Center in Kenya, a long-term project for Maranatha from 2018-2024. He shares how he and his family were moved by their experience serving the Maasai girls there who had escaped child marriage and female genital mutilation. As a journalist, he talks about how hard it is to not let these stories impact you personally, and how his exposure to Maranatha has expanded his view of missions.

Marcos’ first experience with Maranatha at the dedication of the Cardenas Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cuba led to several articles for Adventist Review, two of which you can read below:
https://adventistreview.org/news/after-decades-of-prayer-adventists-dedicate-largest-church-ever-in-cuba/
https://adventistreview.org/news/we-want-jesus-to-come/

Watch the final TV episode featuring the Kajiado Adventist School and Rescue Center in Kenya, which includes the dedication of this campus Maranatha spent six years transforming: https://watch.maranatha.org/videos/mms11e50-1

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What is it like to produce a television program in another country? Maranatha’s media production manager Leo Macias and communication specialist Sidney Needles debrief their recent trip to India. Come behind the scenes and learn how TV is produced in the field, and hear about specific challenges these two faced while filming across multiple states in India. Sidney describes her role as a field producer, and Leo explains how professional camera equipment makes a difference in filming.

The two talk about their first stop in the state of Andhra Pradesh where they filmed a water well story. Sidney describes the challenge of conducting interviews through a translator, Leo explains the task of asking locals to authentically demonstrate their daily routines for filming, and spells out why the time of day can make a huge difference for shooting. Leo and Sidney also talk about the food they ate throughout the trip, what the bathroom situations were like, and describe the scene of two church dedications.

After Andhra Pradesh they traveled to the state of Mizoram and the Pine Hill Adventist School, where they interviewed students who escaped civil war in neighboring Myanmar. Leo and Sidney reflect on the reality of being mere miles from conflict, recount a trip close to the border to film a water well story, and discuss how they know TV trips are successful.

Here is a completed TV episode from the trip: https://watch.maranatha.org/maranatha-mission-stories/videos/mms11e61-1

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Maranatha’s chief operating officer talks about his earliest impressions of Cuba from the mid-90’s, how Maranatha got involved, some of the challenges of the Seventh-day Adventist Church there back then, and how Maranatha worked to construct or renovate more than 200 churches on the island over the years. He shares what it’s been like to build rapport and work with Cuba’s Minister of Religion long-term, the challenges of having periods of abundant government project approval, followed by seasons of restriction, and why Maranatha chose to stay committed to the country through it all.

Kenneth talks about the Adventist seminary constructed by Maranatha, and its impact on the Adventist Church in Cuba and beyond. The guys discuss the current state of the country post-COVID, and how the pandemic negatively affected everyday people and the Adventist Church, including the seminary. Kenneth explains how the idea to send critical aid to the people of Cuba was hatched, how it was pulled off using shipping containers. He talks about how passionate the church members are in Cuba, how influential Maranatha’s work has been to them, and the latest projects going on, including the first volunteer project in years.

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Long-time Maranatha mission trip leader, Loretta Spivey, shares her journey to the mission field, from becoming the first Seventh-day Adventist in her family as a result of a visit from a literature evangelist, to a year-long missionary assignment in Indonesia. She’s been heavily involved with Maranatha’s mission trip for high schoolers, Ultimate Workout, initially as a correspondent for Insight Magazine, a publication for Adventist youth, and later as a project leader. She explains why this project is so impactful for teens and talks about her goals for volunteers. She reflects on how she prepares the mission trip experience for the volunteers she’s leading, and some of her toughest challenges during projects.

Loretta also shares the scary experience of becoming paralyzed from the neck down through a condition called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, and her journey to healing.

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After serving as a Maranatha volunteer for years, Danny now works for Maranatha to ensure our buildings are constructed soundly. But his journey to Maranatha starts as a child in the former Yugoslavia, the son of a Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor there. He remembers international Church leaders passing through, talking about what God was doing around the world. As a kid, Danny wondered if he could travel and serve around the world one day too.

As a young man, Danny fulfilled mandatory military service where he learned explosives and demolition, an ironic job, as he’d spend the rest of his life building up structures instead of destroying them. He started his own construction company in his early twenties and got married, but the young couple had to abandon their new life, as Yugoslavia began to collapse into war. Danny started a new business in the United States doing mostly remodels, where he also had his daughter, and his life was on a nice trajectory.

Then a friend invited him on a Maranatha mission trip to India, an experience that would change his life forever. What started as one project turned into multiple each year, and soon he started taking his daughter on projects. Eventually he realized that there were more important things than earning a good living through his company. He subsequently listened to God’s call to use his skills and experience to work for Maranatha. Danny talks about behind-the-scenes work that goes into each building Maranatha constructs, from making updates to the plans to working with draftsmen and architects, and how Maranatha’s in-country construction crews get creative in overcoming unique challenges on the job site.

Watch Danny’s daughter’s testimony - https://watch.maranatha.org/videos/mk-poljak

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Maranatha’s medical services coordinator grew up as a missionary kid in Asia, and later took her own family into the mission field to serve in several countries around the globe. Over her lifetime she’s experienced a wide range of danger and harrowing situations, from wartime air raids to local violence, and even attempted break-ins and muggings. But she’s also seen how God has been faithful to her and her family as they have worked to expand God’s kingdom. There are three themes she’s found to be true in her life of service, and in this episode she talks about them. 1) “God keeps you safe wherever you are.” 2) “The mission is wherever God puts you.” 3) God equips you for what he calls you for.”

Susan shares her life journey through childhood living in Asia, having her first baby in Africa, losing a baby to a rare heart defect, and having two more kids that spent time in the mission field. She also reflects on how God gave her family the desires of their hearts when things didn’t make sense initially, and how she processed difficult moments over the years. She explains her current work for Maranatha as a medical services coordinator, and how a request for a medical clinic turned into a memorial to their late daughter.

“Rachelle’s Place of Healing” segment: https://watch.maranatha.org/videos/mms11e39-1 (go to 15:00 to watch that segment only)

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