After three years of work, Maranatha Volunteers International has completed renovations of the Binjipali Adventist School in Odisha, eastern India. The old campus was a group of structures with peeling paint, cracked floors, and not enough room for Binjipali’s growing enrollment. Students had to sit through classes on the floor.

“Sometimes we used to also sit on the ground under the trees or in the … hot sun,” one student, Sunaina Tigga, recalled. Students also had to share small beds in cramped dormitories. “It is very crowded. No place to keep their things,” the girls’ dean Evenlyn Suen said.

But thanks to the dedication of generous donors, volunteer teams, and local crews, students now enjoy bright places of learning, spacious dormitories, upgraded restrooms, beautiful landscaping, and a modern kitchen and dining hall. Binjipali staff are also thankful for new apartments and a boundary wall to increase campus security.

“Before, we had to sit in the classrooms on the ground, and now we got all benches with blackboards, and it’s very, very nice. All with the windows, everything. It feels very happy,” principal Sudhir Tigga said. “We are so happy,” he repeated. “We hope that we’ll be able to provide for the children a better place to study, and they’ll be better human beings in this school over here as they study.”

In the past, students had to sleep in cramped spaces.

Photo: Maranatha Volunteers International

New girls’ dormitory at Binjipali.

Photo: Maranatha Volunteers International

New classrooms at Binjipali Adventist School, thanks to Maranatha volunteers and funds.

Photo: Maranatha Volunteers International

Outside view of the old girls’ dormitory.

Photo: Maranatha Volunteers International

Outside view of the renovated girls’ dormitory at Binjipali Adventist School.

Photo: Maranatha Volunteers International

For nearly eight decades, the Binjipali Adventist School has been sharing the light of the gospel with its campus community and beyond. The school was established in a poor agricultural town around 1946, when an Adventist community member donated two acres (0.8 hectare) of land. But the school didn’t formally operate until a principal was appointed in 1997.

Until 2016, Binjipali only accepted students through grade five. There was a significant need for further education, so the school hired more teachers and added classes up to tenth grade.

Binjipali provides a stellar education and a strong spiritual atmosphere. “As the children are growing up, they’re coming to know about the true God,” Sudhir Tigga said. “And we have many children who are non-Adventist, non-Christians. And they would like to accept Jesus. And at many times, as we have the meetings and all, they stand up to give their hearts to Jesus,” he said.

Maranatha has had a continuous presence in India since 1998, building places of worship and education throughout the country. In 2019, Maranatha started drilling water wells in areas in need of clean water. Maranatha has constructed more than 3,000 structures in India.

The original version of this story was posted on the Maranatha Volunteers International news site. Maranatha is a nonprofit supporting ministry and is not operated by the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.