Inside Missions
An in-depth look at the people, cultures, and countries where Maranatha is working.
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Episodes
45 episodes
Episode 45 - Ultimate Workout 36 - Dominican Republic - Maranatha’s mission trip for high schoolers
We dive into the heart of Ultimate Workout (UW), Maranatha’s mission project for teens, fresh off the 36th iteration of the longstanding project. For more than three decades, UW has been a defining experience for high school volunteers. In this...
Episode 44 - Decades in the DR - Maranatha’s long history of working in the Dominican Republic
Explore Maranatha’s profound, decades-long history in the Dominican Republic. Tracing the journey from early post-Hurricane David relief in the 1980s to the pivotal "Santo Domingo ’92" project, the team discusses how a landmark mission involvin...
Episode 43 - Origins of Ultimate Workout - How Maranatha’s annual high school mission trip began
In this episode we uncover the origin story of one of Maranatha’s most iconic mission trips: our annual high school project, Ultimate Workout (UW). Long-time UW leader Steve Case and the visionary for the project, Chris Blake, join our VP of vo...
Episode 42 - A Decade in Kenya - Unique challenges, ethical questions when cultures collide, geographic diversity, strong tribal traditions, and a deeply welcoming culture. Why it’s been a favorite destination for volunteers for the past ten years.
Join us for a special episode of Inside Missions as we celebrate a significant milestone: 10 years of Maranatha Volunteers International’s work in Kenya. With more than 1,200 structures built, including churches and classrooms, and more than 2,...
Episode 41 - Maranatha Mythbusters - Volunteering - Does Maranatha only use volunteer labor? Do short term missions yield sustainable results? Are there any limits on who can volunteer? Do you have to live in rough conditions for a mission trip to count?
Staff from our volunteer department dismantle common misconceptions about volunteering with Maranatha, including four major myths. Does Maranatha only use volunteer labor? Do short term missions yield sustainable results? Are there any limits o...
Episode 40 - Miracles in the Mission Field - Skepticism, supernatural stories, and how western minds process the supernatural compared to global counterparts
Long-time Maranatha leader and adjunct professor at Andrews University, Dr. Steve Case, joins the show for a discussion on one of the most compelling and confounding topics about the mission field: miracles. The discussion is sparked by Maranat...
Episode 39 - Maranatha Mythbusters - Is Maranatha an Adventist Church entity or receive funding from the Church? Does Maranatha pick where we work? Do we only work overseas? Do we do disaster relief like ADRA or ACS?
Four vice presidents of Maranatha get together to talk about some of the most common myths they hear about the organization. They tackle some common general questions like “Is Maranatha an Adventist Church entity?” “Does Maranatha receive fundi...
Episode 38 - Mission Trip Leaders’ Playbook - Behind the scenes of short-term mission trip organization. From pre-trip planning, to the daily schedule, to the unseen challenges of a leader, this conversation reveals how mission trip coordinators do their
Volunteer leader Jennifer Trujillo joins the crew to share her experience leading short-term mission trips with Maranatha, fresh off a project in India. They talk about what drives their motivation to lead this time-consuming and challenging en...
Episode 37 - The Art of Storytelling in the Mission Field - Having a detailed plan but staying open to God’s lead, building rapport with interview subjects, how pre-trip preparation pays off, and one woman’s tearful reaction to visualizing her new church
Julie Lee and Sidney Needles share details of their recent trips to India and the Dominican Republic, and the stories they were sent to capture. Julie describes what travel is like in the northeast Indian state of Mizoram, including the excitin...
Episode 36 - Don and Laura Noble - Our most difficult projects ever, including a remote desert in Kenya and Communist Cuba, and Don’s first Maranatha project involving a plane crash, circumventing a war, and breaking down in the middle of the ocean.
Don and Laura Noble join the show to talk about some of the most problematic projects, countries, and situations we’ve had to deal with over the years, and why Maranatha chooses to push through these roadblocks, when it would be easier to just ...
Episode 35 - Teen Transformation on Ultimate Workout - Josue Quispe - Life change for youth, quitting his job for missions, and finding his wife on a mission trip
What started as a one-time translation job for a Maranatha volunteer project turned into a lifelong passion of service, and bringing others along for the ride. Josue got his first introduction to Maranatha on our teens-only mission trip, Ultima...
Episode 34 - Making Responsible Impact - Monty Jacobs - Ethical gift giving, serving on Maranatha’s board, and the importance of partnerships in local communities
Maranatha board member and Executive Director of Global Missions at AdventHealth, Monty Jacobs, joins the crew for a conversation about engaging volunteers in meaningful, ethical service. Monty talks about his first Maranatha mission trip exper...
Episode 33 - Career Path to Missions - Kenneth Weiss - Turning down a career in D.C. for Maranatha, the impact of Maranatha employment on our children, and our expanded worldview of what it means to be Adventist
Our chief operating officer joins the team for the first time in the show’s new format, sharing some of his personal journey to missions after 30 years working for Maranatha. Growing up in a missionary family, there was a certain expectation th...
Episode 32 - Serving in Africa - David Woods - Why he loves Africa, learning local languages, and miracle stories
Our country director for North America and Zambia makes his second appearance on the show, this time with our group of hosts in the new format. He shares stories from his time in Africa that he never told in Episode 1, explaining why he loves t...
Episode 31 - Mission Field TV. Our producers talk international media production, travel, finding stories, and conducting interviews through interpreters.
** NEW FORMAT! Going forward our TV producers will be regulars each episode, discussing a wide variety of topics related to missions, and sometimes bringing guests into the conversation.** What’s it like being a television producer...
Episode 30 - Erton Köhler - President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Erton Köhler joins us in-studio in one of his first long-form interviews since being elected during the General Conference Session in July 2025. Pastor Köhler talks about his journey...
Episode 29 - Elmer Barbosa - Jungle church construction, starting from scratch in a new country, and leading a large mission trip for teens
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...
Episode 28 - Eddie Heinrich - Breaking his neck on a mission trip and why he keeps taking youth on projects
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 impo...
Episode 27 - Marcos Paseggi - Adventist Review’s senior news correspondent on reporting on the mission around the world
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 Adven...
Episode 26 - Leo Macias and Sidney Needles - Debriefing a TV production trip to India
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 produ...
Episode 25 - Kenneth Weiss - The Mission in Communist Cuba
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...
Episode 24 - Loretta Spivey - “You’ll be in a wheelchair the rest of your life,” and leading thousands of teens on mission trips
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 assignm...
Episode 23 - Danny Poljak - Explosives, Escaping War, and Mission Field Construction
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 ...
Episode 22 - Susan Woods - Air raids, riding a refugee train, mission field pregnancies/raising kids
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 ha...
Episode 21 - Lisandro Staut - Troublemaker turned ministry leader talks overcoming labels, why he left a successful career path, and a criticism of short term missions
Maranatha’s vice president for volunteers explains his unlikely path to missions, from his reputation as a teen troublemaker to pursuing ministry—much to the surprise of those around him. He reflects on the labels others put on him, and a cruci...