South America

S_Amer_Detail

Brazil

Brazil has the second largest Seventh-day Adventist membership in the world with more than one million members. But this number is about to grow and Brazil Adventist leadership is embarking on a massive effort to plant 1,000 new congregations in the eastern part of the country. The plan is to mobilize lay-missionaries to towns where there is no Adventist presence and then establish a congregation. As part of the big push, Brazil has asked for Maranatha’s help in building churches.

In April 2015, Maranatha launched a Portuguese-language version of Maranatha Mission Stories, Maranatha’s weekly television program focused on service and missions. Maranatha Histórias de Missão is broadcast on Novo Tempo, a Christian television and radio network headquartered in Brazil. The show has introduced a new audience to Maranatha’s work, generating national interest in mission trips. In August 2015, the first team of volunteers from Brazil went on a Maranatha mission trip. Since then, several more Brazilian teams have served on projects.

In 2015, Maranatha completed work on a large Education and Evangelism Center in northeastern Brazil and over the next several years constructed hundreds of One-Day Churches throughout the region.

Today, One-Day Churches continue to go up, and Maranatha is also providing clean, accessible water to parched communities in the dry northeastern region by drilling water wells Adventist churches.

Capital: Brasilia
Population: 220 million
Adventist membership: 1,764,770

Paraguay

Maranatha renovated a church building in Paraguay from 1988 to 1989 and built more church structures and classrooms from 2001 to 2002. This work helped lay the foundation for Paraguay’s Adventist Church expansion in recent years. The Church now has 15,000 members, but will struggle to grow further without reliable places of worship.

Paraguay’s capital city, Asunción, is home to several modern Adventist churches. But venture into the country’s rural areas, and the situation is bleak. Most smaller congregations rent houses to meet in because they can’t afford to construct church buildings of their own. These rental homes are hot. Oftentimes, members flee their stuffy meeting rooms to worship in the breeze outdoors.

Maranatha’s church structures will relieve church budgets of a rent bill. But they will also have better ventilation and roofs designed to insulate against the sun’s rays.

Capital: Asuncion
Population: 7 million
Adventist membership: 15,000

Related
Watch: Women of Faith
Read: Preparations in Paraguay

Peru

Twelve years after an effort in Peru that saw nearly 100 churches and schools constructed, Maranatha returned in 2019. For years, Seventh-day Adventist leadership in Peru has been asking Maranatha to come back. The initial effort in Peru was a success and helped to grow Adventist membership country-wide. With the influx of members, there has been a new need for more places of worship, as well as schools. Currently, Maranatha is constructing structures all over the country, with the help of hundreds more volunteers.

Capital: Lima
Population: 31,331,228
Adventist membership: 402,081

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