An Unexpected Reunion

For Karen Godfrey, vice president for advancement for Maranatha Volunteers International, who spends her day at the General Conference (GC) Session’s exhibit hall smiling, talking, and answering questions about Maranatha, Tuesday felt like any other day. On Tuesday Godfrey had just finished talking with a visitor when her colleague brought a photo to her.

“She told me the gentleman in the photo had just stopped by the booth, and he’d grown up in a Maranatha-built orphanage in El Salvador,” Godfrey shares. “When she told me his name was Manuel, I suddenly knew exactly whom she was talking about. It was Manuelito!”

In the mid-1990s Godfrey was involved with a Maranatha building project: a new home for a group of 13 orphans living in a too-small house on a school campus in El Salvador. At the time, no out-of-country adoptions were allowed in the country, so in anticipation of the number of orphans increasing, Maranatha was working with local entities to build them a larger space.

“Very soon after we started the project, a little boy about 2 years old arrived,” Godfrey remembers. “His name was Manuelito, and he was almost immediately everyone’s favorite. He was active and fun and just happy all the time.”

When the project was finished and Maranatha moved on, Godfrey never heard anything about the orphans in El Salvador. Until Tuesday, when Manuelito appeared at the Maranatha exhibit with his wife and daughter.

“It was just so fun and also emotional to see him again,” Godfrey says, grinning. “Over the years you think about kids like him and wonder how they’re doing and where they are now, but you almost never find out.”Manuel López–Manuelito to those who know him–is the fifth of nine brothers. Of the nine, he is the only one to have finished high school, completed college, and developed a relationship with Jesus.

“When I was little, the orphanage instilled in me a desire to help other people,” Manuelito says through a translator. “The impact that institution had on my life is simply unbelievable. Sometimes I try to imagine how my life would be had I not arrived at that place. When I look at where my life could have gone, I see that God really set me apart. I work for the church, I preach, and I’m serving the Lord. I really believe God led me to end up doing what I do.”

Manuelito is now a husband and father, working for the Honduras Union Mission, in charge of multimedia. He was also able to share information about another child who grew up in the orphanage with him, letting Godfrey know she was working at Universidad Linda Vista, an Adventist university in Mexico, and is happily married. He also shared that the group has been talking about a reunion at the site where the orphanage (which has since been closed) used to be—a family reunion back home.

For Godfrey and the Maranatha team, the unexpected reunion with Manuel was more than just a heartwarming moment—it was a rare glimpse into the long-term impact of their ministry. The GC Session, with its global draw and shared mission, created the one space where such a meeting could happen.

“You do this work because you believe in the mission,” Godfrey reflects. “But most of the time, you’re planting seeds and never get to see what grows from them. This week we got to see the fruit.”

In a crowded convention center thousands of miles from El Salvador, the story that began with a construction project three decades ago found its continuation. And for a ministry built on building futures, there’s no greater gift than witnessing one come full circle.

Becky St. Clair is a freelance writer living in California.