Nicaragua: Maranatha builds Adventist school in Nueva Guinea

Students at the new Adventist school in Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua, pose for a picture during the opening of the school in February 2013. The brand new school was built thanks to work of more than 300 volunteers from Maranatha Volunteers International.Images by Boris Saavedra/Maranatha Volunteers International.

May 11, 2013 – Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua…Carrie Purkeypile/MVI/IAD

The Seventh-day Adventist community in Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua, is living the realization of their long-time dream: building a school for the community. Maranatha Volunteers International recently completed the construction of a large Education and Evangelism Center, and classes began earlier this year.

The new school building will also function as a facility to impact the community in Nueva Guinea, Nicaragua.

The school building has eight classrooms, an auditorium, and seats 320 students. In addition to being a school, the facility can be used as a church on Sabbath and as a meeting place for the community—a function that will serve the Nueva Guinea congregation well in their outreach plans, church leaders said.

The church in Nueva Guinea has a very specific vision for reaching the community. In addition to providing a quality Christian education for children, they are also focused on providing training and family education for parents. “No schools do that,” says Principal Brenda Espinoza. “You don’t see that here… We just want to help and support families so that the children can take values home with them.”

This focus on ministry was furthered by more than 300 foreign volunteers who visited Nicaragua over a nine-month period to build the large school. Each cement block and stroke of paint was applied by a Maranatha volunteer hoping to make a difference.

Anella Poljak, a young volunteer from California, was part of the effort. “I feel great because I get to come here to help the children of Nicaragua. Help build a school, help paint it, and help build a better future for the kids.”

“I want to give a special thanks to all those brothers and sisters throughout the years who have been organizing this,” says Claribel Castillo, an Adventist educator and the newly elected mayor of Nueva Guinea. “The Adventist school here in Nueva Guinea represents a great opportunity for the population, because we cannot lose sight of the fact that education is the motor that moves society. It is the engine of development.”

A primary schooler smiles at her new desk during the first day of school in Nueva Guinea’s Adventist School.

The school opened its doors with an inaugural ceremony and classes began immediately after, with 50 students. The new school becomes the 18th primary school among the 26 adventist primary and secondary schools in Nicaragua.

Clara Forbes, who lives in the Nueva Guinea area, brought her son to the school, though she admits she doesn’t know much about Seventh-day Adventists. “I brought my son here because it is closer, and because I liked the Christian education.”

Forbes thinks any parent would choose that option, if given the choice. “We have to instill in them all the values of Christianity so that they grow up wise and to be good men in the world.”

“We believe that with the Adventist school we will come to offer, firstly, quality education,” says Castillo. “Because the Adventist Church and Adventist schools are characterized by offering quality education. But also for offering those principles, those values, ethics, morals, and spirituality that you won’t find just anywhere.

Espinoza is grateful to be part of what she views as a miracle in process. “I admire what has happened and how God has worked it out. We have seen it palpably. I have 21 years of experience in this line of work, but I have never seen a place like this, that God has given for us to work in His cause.

“We really need a school like this, that has the mission and the vision that this school has.”

Maranatha Volunteers International, based in the United States, is a non-profit organization focused on providing urgently needed buildings around the world by using volunteers. Maranatha is based in California in the United States with staff in India, Africa, and Central and South America.