A volunteer worker with Maranatha Volunteers International, a Seventh-day Adventist supporting organization, disappeared last month while on a project in Costa Rica and has since been declared missing by Costa Rican authorities.

Details currently available indicate that Leo Widicker, 86, wandered away from the group while on an excursion to a hot springs resort November 18. There is no evidence to date of foul play.

“We cannot speculate on reasons for the disappearance as the matter has been turned over to local authorities,” said Kyle Fiess, marketing director for Maranatha. “Maranatha is working in full cooperation with those authorities, and we will provide more information as it becomes available.”

Widicker, from Bowdon, North Dakota, has participated in 41 projects that Maranatha has coordinated with local Aventist Church organizations. He was part of a group of 31 volunteers from the United States, Canada, and Ireland who were painting recently constructed schools and churches in Costa Rica.

“We express our greatest concern and sympathy for the family of Mr. Widicker and we are praying for a quick and hopeful resolution to this situation,” said Fiess.

Maranatha Volunteers International is a non-profit Christian organization committed to mobilizing volunteers through the construction of urgently needed buildings such as schools, churches, orphanages, clinics, and houses.

Since 1969, Maranatha has constructed nearly 3,000 buildings and mobilized 45,000 volunteers in 61 countries. Maranatha has been working in Costa Rica for more than a year and is currently constructing 26 churches and 10 schools.