In just a few months from, prayers, songs, sermons and community activities will take place in a new church building nestled in the midst of the world’s highest navigable lake. Its construction is the realization of a decades-old dream.

The new church replaces a small, corrugated metal structure and will serve the Seventh-day Adventist community on the 40-plus islands that float on Lake Titicaca, Peru, some 12,500 feet above sea level. The new church will seat 250 people and contain two Bible study classrooms and a baptistry. The building will also serve as the community’s general auditorium.

The church is scheduled to be dedicated on Nov. 12, four weeks after Maranatha Volunteers International starts construction. Church members, Peruvian officials and representatives from the Adventist world church, including Pastor Jan Paulsen, world church president, are planning to attend the ceremony. Maranatha Volunteers International is a California-based non-profit organization that constructs urgently needed buildings through the use of volunteers.

The unique environment of the church’s location has made for one of Maranatha’s most interesting architectural challenges. Each island is made from thick layers of tortora reeds. The church, as with any other building on Los Uros, must either float or sit atop the buoyant reeds.

The new church will be made from lightweight and waterproof tornillo wood, to be topped with a lightweight roof. Reeds will be layered on the roof to match the existing architectural style of the island. The church will sit on a 34 by 66-foot deck, bordered by rails. Underneath, the entire structure will float on 20 aluminum floats. Everything will then be attached to a “kile,” a mass of decomposed reeds and hardened minerals that serves as an anchoring island for the building. The kile are a precious commodity as they only form where the river flows into the lake, and they take 50 to 80 years to take shape.

The process of creating an efficient and effective design has been a collaborative effort. The Slikkers family, of S2 Yachts, Inc. in Holland, Michigan, are funding part of the project and have shared their knowledge and resources from the boat-building industry. Over the past year, nautical engineers from the United States and engineers from the Lake Titicaca region have also met with Maranatha to produce a design.

Led by the Slikkers family, volunteers will construct the church in two phases beginning in mid-October. The first team will assemble the pontoons and construct the platform. On Oct. 30, a second team of volunteers will arrive on the island to begin phase two, which involves the construction of the actual church.

The need for a new church building on Los Uros first came to Maranatha’s attention during a visit to Lake Titicaca in 2003. At the time, only 63 people were members of the church, a low number considering that just 40 years ago 90 percent of the islands’ population was Adventist. 

In 1985, a rift in the congregation caused most of the island population to leave the faith. Only a handful of families remained. Over time and under new leadership, the church has begun to grow once more. But its remote location has hampered them from receiving more support from the Peruvian Adventist community.

In 2003 Maranatha pledged to construct a solid church for the congregation of Los Uros.

“We have, in a way, felt abandoned,” said Noe Coila, the congregation’s leader. “Now, thank God, by building a new church, we can bring back our brothers and sisters. We want to work.”

In an update letter from the group in September 2004, Coila reported an outreach meeting.  During that meeting 18 people gave heir lives to Christ and 100 more are taking Bible studies. 

The floating church project of Los Uros is part of Maranatha’s larger effort to construct 1,000 churches in 1,000 days. Nearly 100 building projects are scheduled for Peru.