This week, travel with us to Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America. Here, we’ll meet the Uros people, who live on this lake which is shared by Peru and Bolivia at 12,500 feet above sea level. For generations, the Uros have used the reeds of the totora plant for many things, including constructing floating platforms where they build their homes. Years ago, most of the Uros people were Seventh-day Adventist, but they didn’t have a great church building. Maranatha was asked to construct a new one, but it would need to be different from any other church we’d built before—it had to float!

Your kids will see how Maranatha navigated this unique construction challenge. They’ll also consider how God helps them when they are faced with hard situations.

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Pre-video Discussion Questions
What is the most unique place you’ve ever gone to church at?

VIDEO
In today’s video, see how Maranatha constructed a floating church on Lake Titicaca.

Post-video Discussion Questions
Building a church on the water was an unusual request for Maranatha. We had never built a floating church, so it would have been easy for us to say “no.” Have you ever been asked to do something hard? What was it and how did it turn out?
In the Bible, Moses also took a tough request. He grew up as a prince of Egypt, but eventually ran away and became a shepherd in the wilderness. You can read about this part of his story in Exodus 2-12. God asked Moses to return to Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery. But just like Maranatha had no experience building floating churches, Moses didn’t have any experience in freeing slaves. He didn’t want to do it. In fact, he made a handful of excuses about why he couldn’t do it. One of the reasons was that he didn’t speak very well. God said that his brother Aaron could speak for him, which he did, just like Maranatha got help from volunteers who were expert boat builders. Even though Moses and Maranatha faced tough situations, how did God help them to meet the challenge?
When we are faced with hard problems, God puts people in our life that can help us—who are those people in your life?

Prayer Points
To ask for help from God’s helpers in our lives when faced with a difficult situation.
Ask kids what they would add to the prayer list.

Did You Know?
The totora plants the Uros people use to construct their floating villages can grow as tall as 20 feet high.