Locals at Maranatha construction sites worldwide have launched a global We Got This Campaign, urging missionaries to stay home.
The surprising action comes on the heels of a report of Maranatha mission construction projects in 2013. Analysts rate that the average completion record of church and school buildings by missionary teams was 9%.
“Construction work by short-term volunteers appears to suffer especially in the host countries with the best weather and food,” said analyst Melanie Blunt. “Site proximity to beaches has an especially terrible effect on productivity. Volunteers arrive all excited in, say, the Dominican Republic, but then seem genuinely shocked that they are required to do actual work.”
“Let’s not even get started on the technical knowledge of our volunteers,” said long-time volunteer mason, James Hatley, who averages three Maranatha trips per year. “On most of my trips, some locals and I have to tear down what has been built and rebuild it at night because our people were so busy yapping that they laid brick like 3-year-olds. I pray for patience on every trip.”
Chapters of the We Got This campaign have sprung up at almost every Maranatha construction site around the world. “We are very grateful for the good intentions of the volunteers that come to build churches and schools in our countries,” said We Got This World President, Joseph Santos. “But the money spent on these trips would go much further in simply funding local professional builders.”
LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW
