18 God Does the Impossible

A new year was beginning with plans for the new school and bright expectations for this
new venture. In this part of the world the school year would begin about the first of April. That
would be the end of the rainy season, but they couldnt wait until then to start building. To have
a school that year they would have to go to work immediately, rain or no rain.
Most of the materials other than the lumber would have to come from Pucallpa. A place to
store those supplies until they could be put to use was the first problem Dale faced. In addition
to the building planned for housing teachers and students, they would also need a classroom
building, and he decided to start with that building. His strategy was to set up the twelve
supporting poles and then construct the tin roof. The walls could wait, but a roof was urgent.
They would then have a place to store their construction materials protected from the rain while
they worked on the other building.
At the end of his vacation Alcedo showed up ready for work as he had promised to do. The
first thing they needed to do was to compare their ideas for a school and settle on goals to aim
toward so that they would be working together in harmony. They agreed that they wanted to
provide a Christian education that would be available to the poorest as well as those who had
more money, but they didnt want it to be completely free, because usually that which costs
nothing is little appreciated. They concluded that as a bare minimum it should be fair to expect
the parents to provide enough to at least feed the children and the teachers.
To set a monthly fee in terms of Peruvian money posed a problem, because the country was
in the midst of economic difficulties that produced runaway inflation at an annual rate of nearly
one hundred percent. They needed something with a more stable value, so they chose to set the
fee at two grams of gold. There was still some gold in the river sands, and most of the people
were capable of panning for gold. Those who preferred to pay cash could do so by paying the
amount that the local bank would pay for that amount of gold on the day that payment was
made, and that would take care of the constant fluctuations in prices produced by inflation.
Those who had no money or gold could pay with a sack of rice if they preferred. Another option
would be to work out a custom deal to pay with other food items. And as a last resort for the
man who had no money, no gold, and no food that he could give, they would accept in lieu of
payment five days of work each month to help them raise food to feed the children. It was
obvious that the fees would not be enough to cover all the costs of operating a school, but they
would just trust the Lord to provide the rest.
They invited the interested people to come to a public meeting to hear an explanation of
plans for the school. The meeting was held about the middle of February, and about 40 people
showed up. They were pleased to see that many, because they had decided they would have to
limit the enrollment to no more than 40 students their first year. The meeting was held under the
roof of what was to become the classroom building, so that everyone could see that they were
serious about starting a school. The intense interest shown during the meeting was very
heartening. At the end of the meeting, however, when Dale asked for volunteers to help with the
construction work, only five hands went up, and that was disheartening. Alcedo started taking
applications, but incredibly a few parents maintained that they couldnt afford to send their
children to this school!
Everybody went to work with a will, but progress was painfully slow because so much time
was taken up just sawing logs into lumber and transporting supplies. When the month of April
arrived, the month when school should begin, the classroom building still had no walls, no floor,
no desks, no chairs, and no blackboards. The other building that was supposed to provide the
teachers living quarters and a dormitory for students had progressed to nothing more than a
wooden floor that was 30 inches above ground level. At that moment it appeared ridiculous to
even think they might have a school that year.
However, Alcedo had some wise counsel for the Duerksens. Before the other schools
around here open their doors for the new school year, we had better give the parents a definite
date when we will begin classes here at Maranatha. Otherwise everybody who has applied for
our school will give up on us and will enroll their children in other schools. We cant wait much
longer if we are going to have a school this year.
No doubt you are right about that, Dale responded, so lets go ahead and set a date.
How about the first Monday in the month of May? That will be kind of late, but hopefully not
too late, and that will give us a month of preparation yet. Then well have to start no matter
what. Well just have to do a lot of improvising and do what we can with what we have.
Everybody agreed to that, and now this definite target date produced a frenzy of activity.
We ought to include the first year of secondary school in addition to our primary school,
Alcedo recommended. There are no high schools around here, and I think there are quite a few
young people here on the Pachitea River who have nothing more than an elementary education
who would like to continue their studies. Maybe we could add one grade of secondary school
each year until eventually this school could become a complete high school.
Theres nothing wrong with having big dreams, was Dales response to this idea. You
are the principal, and if you think we can do it, Ill back you up. Lets go for it. Dale knew that
in Peru the elementary schools had only six grades, so the first year of secondary school would
actually be just the equivalent of seventh grade in his own country.
Alcedo immediately went to work on scheduling. He gave himself the biggest job. He
would teach all of the primary grades using a student helper, and as if that were not enough, he
would also teach some of the secondary subjects. His wife Rosita would help out by teaching
some of the classes in spite of the fact that she had a baby to take care of. Dale was assigned to
teach English, math, and manual arts.
When the word got out that the Maranatha School would be offering the first year of high
school, that produced an additional influx of applications, and soon they reached their maximum
of forty. A few days later an 18-year-old boy walked in on the path through the jungle and
announced that he wanted to sign up for the secondary course. He was very disappointed when
he learned that there was no room left for him. Please let me come, he pleaded. You can just
stick me in a corner somewhere. I dont care where you put me. Just let me come to your school.
I need some more education. Please let me come.
Although Patti was too busy in the clinic to help with the teaching load, she did help with
planning and with the screening of applicants. How can we turn down someone who is so
eager to learn? she said.
Probably not everyone who has signed up will actually show up, was Rositas
observation. Perhaps we could accept a few more than our quota.
Dale expressed his opinion too. I think thats a good idea. Ill vote for it if our principal is
in favor. And so it was that this young man became number 41 in their stack of accepted
applications.
 In places like the jungle where most of the people were very poor, there was very little use of
textbooks. Instead the students usually used blank notebooks. Chalk was cheap, so the teacher
would write on the blackboard the things the students needed to learn, and they would copy the
information in their notebooks to be studied later. The blackboard was indispensable, so Dale set
to work making one. He selected half a dozen of his straightest six-inch boards and carefully
planed and sanded them smooth. Then he put them together to form a chalkboard three feet
wide and six feet long. He painted this creation with two coats of a flat-finish black paint, and
although the narrow cracks between boards remained visible, it served its purpose quite
satisfactorily.
The next time Dale went to the city to get supplies, he went to a mattress shop to find out
what was available. Most of their mattresses consisted of nothing more than a sheet of foam
rubber enclosed in a cloth cover. Their cheapest mattress was a single-bed size that made use of a
one-inch foam pad. That wasnt much padding, but it would have to do for the students. Many
of them probably didnt have even that much to sleep on at home. He bought 40 of the thin
mattresses and arranged for transportation back to Maranatha.
By the end of the month the framing was done for the first floor walls of the dormitory
building, but they didnt have the lumber for siding yet. Time was running out, so they urgently
needed to apply some ingenuity to close off the rooms for privacy. They found the solution to
the problem in plastic sheeting. Local merchants carried rolls of blue plastic that was a meter
wide, and it was very low cost, so Dale bought 50 meters of the material to use as a temporary
covering of the walls. It went up fast and actually served the purpose very well. As soon as the
first apartment was enclosed, Alcedo and Rosita moved into their new home. Since there were
no other teachers yet, the other apartment would be the place for the girls to sleep. Since there
were no beds, they would just have to put their thin mattress pads on the floor.
What to do with the boys was a bigger problem to solve. Although they asked God for
wisdom at the beginning of every day, no inspiration came for several days. Then one day as
Dale was walking by the classroom building, he looked up at the roof, and the thought suddenly
struck him, There is some good usable space up there in the attic area that is well protected from rain.
Maybe we can put the boys up there. He quickly fetched a ladder and climbed up to take a closer
look. Yes, it did look feasible to put in some boards to make a temporary floor, and then the
space could be utilized. He climbed back down to get a few boards, and when they were in place
he tried it out to see how well he could maneuver through the area. Although the roof was too
low for him to stand upright, he could easily crawl through on hands and knees, and he could
even walk through by bending way over. Mattress pads could be put on both sides of the
walkway, and there would be adequate room for all the boys they expected to enroll. They now
had their solution. This attic space would be the provisional boys dormitory.
There was still one big hurdle in the way. Food Service. Who would be able and willing to
cook for all the children? They couldnt think of any suitable person, so all they could do was
remind the Lord of the promise, The work is of God, and He will furnish means and will send
helpers, true, earnest disciples, whose hands also will be filled with food for the starving
multitude.1 Just in time Lidvina, Juan Heidingers mother, felt impressed to offer her services.
The four Heidinger children, three girls and one boy, were planning to attend, so Grandmother
decided she would like to be close by to keep an eye on them. She set up her bed in the girls
dorm, and thus she virtually became the girls dean as well as the school cook.
They had no kitchen facilities yet, so Santiago took on the job of producing a temporary cook
shack. He made a lean-to with a thatched roof, and under the protection of the roof he made a
dirt mound with a fire pit on top. The sides of the fire pit supported a steel grate, and this

1
Desire of Ages, p. 370.
became their improvised wood-burning kitchen range.
The facilities were very primitive, but Alcedo and his helpers were ready to do what they
could with what they had. Sunday morning, May 3, the students began to arrive. As anticipated,
not all who had applied for admission actually showed up to register. They began classes
Monday morning with 24 primary grade students and 12 in the first grade of secondary. There
still were no desks or even chairs available, so they got the benches out of the little church to give
the students something to sit on.
Dale remembered that he had once seen a clever idea in a handymans magazine. It was a
bench with a backrest that was adjustable, and when it was turned to a horizontal position by
moving two bolts, the backrest became a narrow tabletop. Dale thought this could be an ideal
dual purpose piece of furniture for their school, a desk with attached seat for classes or a bench
with back rest for general assemblies. Relying on his memory he drew up plans for this desk,
and then he tried making one. It worked out just fine. Then he took the finished product and the
plans to his class in manual arts. He made another one while the students watched to see how he
did it, and then he assigned them the task of making their own while he supervised their work.
Soon all the students had these homemade desks that made it much easier to write in their
notebooks.
This school was definitely a mission school, and worship services were a prominent part of
the educational activities. Although the majority of the students had no Adventist background,
they eagerly listened to religious instruction, and how they loved to sing! Their joyful praises to
God vied with the birds at the breaking of dawn each morning. Patti commented, I dont need
an alarm clock anymore, because I always hear the children singing when it is time to get up.
The admissions committee had accepted one little girl rather reluctantly, because she came
from a home that didnt appear to be at all religious. Her father maintained two homes, one in
Puerto Inca and one in Pucallpa, with a wife in each one! Somewhere in his ancestry there must
have been a Britisher, because his last name was Jones, definitely not a Spanish surname. Seor
Jones was a very successful businessman who owned the tugboat that towed log rafts to the
sawmills in Pucallpa. He also owned a store in Puerto Inca and the large cattle ranch directly
across the river from Maranatha. One Friday afternoon he came to take his daughter home for
the weekend, but she refused to go with him. She wanted to stay at school so that she could
attend Sabbath School the next morning. And one day when her teacher assigned the writing of
essays, this little girl chose to write about the pig. Her essay declared, We Adventists dont eat
pig, because its an unclean animal. Obviously she was already beginning to identify herself
with Adventists.
And then there was Emily who came from a very different background. Her parents
regularly attended church on Sundays, and Emily herself taught a Sunday School class. When
she enrolled in the Maranatha School, her pastor apparently wasnt very happy about it. But she
was happy, and she especially enjoyed learning new chorus songs.
One Sunday she decided to teach one of these choruses to her Sunday School class.
Although the song only spoke of Gods greatness and power and made no mention of any
exclusively Adventist doctrine, the pastor must have felt threatened by the fact that she was
teaching something she had learned at Maranatha. He accused her of trying to spread the
Sabbath teachings she was picking up at the school, and she was stripped of all her
responsibilities in her church and was virtually excommunicated.
Poor Emily felt crushed by this turn of events and shed many tears. Her mother was very
upset as well. When she brought her daughter back to school after the weekend, she poured out
her tale of woe to any ears willing to listen. Patti sympathized, Im so sorry to hear this. I know
it wasnt fair, but Emily doesnt have to be deprived of church fellowship. She will always be
welcome to participate in our religious activities here at Maranatha. The mother seemed to be
comforted by this assurance, and Emily did continue to take an active part in the worship
services at the school.
Meanwhile the flow of patients to the clinic continued unabated. In fact, the very month
that the new school started, all previous records were shattered as Patti attended to 695 patient
visits that month. This success was about to break her, and she was feeling dangerously close
to burnout. It was frustrating to her that so frequently she would barely begin a household task
when the bell at the clinic would ring, and she would have to drop what she was doing to go take
care of another sick person. The knowledge that Colette would soon be coming back from France
to help her gave her courage to keep pressing on.
Dale also felt the pressure. There was a limit to how many boxes of medicines he could
handle at one time, and so with the increased demand for medicines he had to go to Pucallpa
every two or three weeks to restock. That severely limited the amount of time he could spend
working on school buildings, and that too was frustrating.
Then Santiago announced one day, I have found some land just a short distance above
Sungarillo Creek that nobody has ever claimed. The reason is probably because it is hard to get
to the property. The riverbank is very steep and high at that place, but I have found a spot where
I think I can make a suitable port. I want to clear some land and start a plantation, and when I
have enough things growing to feed my family, I will move them out there.
Oh, Im sorry to hear that you are going to leave us, was Dales disappointed reply. You
have been such a big help to us during hard times. But I know how much you have wanted to
have a place of your own, so I cant blame you for taking advantage of this opportunity.
Santiago responded, We probably wont be able to move up there until next year, and in
the meantime I can continue to help you part time.
I appreciate your willingness to keep on helping us, and Im sure we are going to need all
the help we can get. I dont suppose you will be able to move your house to the new site this
time, will you?
No, Im afraid not. Ill just have to find new materials right there on the property to make a
new house for my family.
Well, we can make good use of your house here at Maranatha. It will make an excellent
boys dorm next year, so Ill pay you for it. How much do you think it is worth? After
discussing the matter briefly, they settled on a price that was about the equivalent of US$500.
About this time something else was taking place that also had elements of sadness mixed
with happiness. Vern, the pilot, had come to the end of his term of service, and he was planning
on a permanent return to his homeland. For a couple of years Dale and Patti had talked to him
by radio nearly every day, and they enjoyed his visits so much. They had learned to love him
like a member of the family, and they were going to miss his quiet dignity and considerate ways.
He showed his thoughtful consideration one more time by postponing his departure until one
week after his replacement arrived, so that he could give the new pilot some orientation for the
job.
When the Duerksens heard the name of the new pilot, all sorrow turned to joy, for it was Bill
Nortonand of course he was coming with his wife Bonnie, the legal owner of the Maranatha
property. Before they left the States, they were required to attend a one-week training course
conducted by Mission Institute at Andrews University. They found it to be a very inspiring and
helpful course, but one day when the mission appointees were discussing how to deal with
culture shock when they would enter a new and strange environment, Bonnie commented, For
me it is going to be just like going home.