The Forgotten “Maranatha” Maritime Mission
By Julien Durup et Henri Maurel
The Seychelles ‘Maranatha’ Maritime Mission of the Seventh Day Adventist started in 1953 with arrival of Pastor Eugene Philibert Vervoort.
Maranatha is an interesting Aramaic word converted into Greek letters rather than translated. It is found in Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 16:22). That word could not mean “Jesus is coming again”, because Paul who was a Roman citizen spoke of a supernatural Christ and never mentioned Jesus of Nazareth in his writings, nor does he give any reference to Jesus' life on earth.
Maranatha has been translated in many different ways in modern editions of the Bible, viz. “Our Lord, come!”; “Come, O Lord” and it could also be interpreted as “Our Lord has come”. Early on, the Church of Rome used that word to signify the exclusion of a sinner from the society of the faithful.
In the Seychelles, generally the Adventists are known by the sobriquet of ‘Bados’. That name derived from Badaut the surname of the first Adventist Missionary who arrived in Mauritius in 1914. Paul Badaut was a Frenchman born in 1880 and died in 1948. He was one of the youngest pioneers of the French Adventist; Pastor Badaut built the first church in Mauritius. He left the island for France in 1921 due to his wife’s ill-health, and was replaced by Pastor Raspal Marius.
Vervoort was in fact a Belgian of Flemish origin and was born in Antwerp. After his school studies, he became Lieutenant in the Belgium merchant navy. He converted to the Advent Message after the Second World War. He completed his studies at the French Adventist Seminary, Collonges-Sous- Salière, France. After receiving his ministerial diploma, he took charge of the church in Bruges, Belgium, where he spent two years. In April 1949 he began his ministry as a missionary in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and later moved to the Seychelles. His first post in Madagascar was in Saomanandrariny, in Atsinanana, until 1950 when he was moved to Sihahaka, in Ambatonodrazaka until 1951. In the same year he was transferred to Toamasina (Tamatave) until 1952.
Pastor Vervoort arrived in the Seychelles in late 1952. While in the Seychelles he went on leave in 1954 to his native land. He finally left the Seychelles in 1957 for Mahajunga (Majunga) in the North West Coast of Madagascar; there he went on leave on October 1960. Coming back in in 1961 he became Director of the mission of Majunga up to Ankazambo and he remained there until 1964 when he went on leave. Coming back in 1965 as a professor he was posted in Fiananrantsoa (locally known as the City of good education). There in 1966, he was made Education Secretary and the next year he became President of the Union until he went on leave in 1967 in Belgium. After his vacation in 1968 he was posted in France until 1970 serving as Directeur Maison d’édition in Dammarie-lès-Lys, a commune in the department of Siene-et-Marne, in the suburbs of Paris. In 1970 he was sent back to Madagascar and was posted as President of the Union in Antananarivo (Tananarive). He went back on leave in 1973 and on the same year he became President of Indian Ocean Union until 1979. In 1981 he was appointed President of the Vanuatu Mission in the Western Pacific. He retired at the end of 1985 and settled in La Réunion Island.
Eugène Vervoort, President of the Indian Ocean Union; Jonah Randrianasola,
President of the Majunga Mission and Jean Scrippa, Union treasurer.
Source: Quarterly Review March 1973, Vol. 40. No.2, p.3.
Pastor Vervoort arrived in the Seychelles on 24th October 1953 on board the AMV Revenant (which was under the command of an Adventist, Captain Joseph William Celtel) to replace Pastor René Mauch. Mauch came to the Seychelles in 1950 and later resigned and left the island at his own cost in 1952. Vervoort arrived in the Seychelles with his wife and a daughter. They boarded the Revenant at Nosy Bé, the little coastal island of Madagascar. Vervoort started his ministry just after the new year of 1953. His first major task was to acquire at new property at Bel Eau, Mahé, with the funds from the sale of the mission’s former property at Bel Air, to build a school and the pastor’s residence. In the same year he launched the ‘Marantha’ project, and Evangelist Johnson and his family left the Seychelles and was replaced by Mr Cangy. The project ‘Marantha’ was to try to bring an end to the isolation of the mission’s work in the scattered islands of the Seychelles and the north of Madagascar, because the Seychelles’s mission was under Madagascar and there was no regular maritime connection between them. In an attempt to mitigate the obstacle posed by isolation, Vervoort followed the practical steps that the missionary work in the Pacific had used. There they had solved the problem of transportation between the islands by building several small sturdy ocean-going boats. The ‘Marantha’ project was also to build a school in the Seychelles to implement the visionary desire of the former Pastor Karl Sturzenegger of Geneva, Switzerland. According to Vervoort “the mission’s own denominational schools were an absolute necessity in this country where the Roman church reigns with its marvellous medieval methods”. The school and Vervoort’s new house were completed in 1954.
The first boat was built at the old long pier by Ėsaïe Stravens, Jean D M Calais, Camille Adeline and Vervoort, using mostly Takamaka timber coming from Anse Fourmi, La Digue. The timber was taken by Christian Adeline, an Adventist, from the property of the late Saddi Morgan. The sturdy vessel was named Maranatha. However, she soon proved to be too small and was sold to the Seychelles Government which renamed it the Rose Mary. She replaced the Shamrock as the medical boat stationed at Praslin to serve La Digue. She plied also to Curieuse and Mahé.
After getting money from the sale, the congregation built a bigger boat and baptised it Maranatha II . She was completed in 1955. She left Mahé under the command of Jean Calais on 22 April 1955 for her maiden voyage to Diego Saurez, in Madagascar, via Farquhar Island. Calais’ crew were Ėsaïe Stravens, Christian Adeline, Pastor Vervoort and his wife.
Jean Calais, Mrs Vervoort and Ėsaïe Stravens on the Maranatha II
Photo: Archives Adventist Mission Seychelles.
Ėsaïe Stravens who was a master carpenter later returned to the Seychelles and then went for a short time to Borneo to work as a shipbuilder.
In 1957 Miss Mildred Vel, an Adventist, left the Seychelles as the first missionary nurse for the Maranatha project in Majunga. There, she was liked by the community and was known simply as Miss. Even though she was a qualified nurse, it took her quite a while to get a permanent post in the Medical Department.
Miss Mildred Vel
Photo: Archives Adventist Mission Seychelles
Before joining the Medical Department, she worked with the mission in Majunga and later moved to Tamatave to open a small dispensary. Mildred was born in Kisumu, (a Dholuo word meaning a place to look for food) a port city of western Kenya, from Seychellois parents. Kisumu was for a short period called “Port Florence”
At Majunga, the crew of the Marnatha II befriended Mr Jean Loïs Maurel the British Vice-Consul. Henri Maurel (Loulou) the young son of the Vice-Consul who was 12 years old at that time became a very good friend of Jean Calais and Camille Adeline.
Calais and Adeline built a Seychellois styled pirogue for Mr. Maurel, using wood found mostly from Mr Maurel’s property. Loulou was too young to help in the construction. However, his main chores was to bring them fresh water and lunch.
Every time the Maranatha II left, Loulou who had a passion for sail boat, went on board. Calais, Adeline and Vervoort taught him the basics of navigation. They went on many sorties. The one best remembered was to the ‘Narticius’, the best fishing bank near Majunga. Amongst the passengers was Harry D’Offay, a Seychellois who was based in Madagascar. Loulou remembered Vervoort as tall, athletic, with blue eyes and very active in his mission. The house of Vervoort according to Loulou was near the suburbs of Majunga, opposite the school of the Sister of Notre Dame. At the start of the mission the Maranatha II was anchored in front of the Port Office and Adeline was the watchman, later she was moved to Port Schneider. At the end of the Maranatha Mission Adeline was employed as foreman at the cement factory at Ambanio, situated on the other side of Bombetoka Bay, on the Northwestern coast of Madagascar. There he met and married a girl from La Réunion and they had many children. Adeline had a profound respect for the Maurel family. He visited them almost every weekend. Calais returned to the Seychelles and later immigrated to Australia. Adeline later died in the Seychelles. It is sad that little has been written about the “Maranatha II” mission in Madagascar.
The Maranatha II was later sold to the French organisation of ORSTOM (Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique d’Outre-Mer) and was renamed Ambariaka after a local Malagasy fish.
Maranatha II Source: L’ORSTOM
Ref :
- Flavie Jackson : The Seventh Day Adventist Mission in the Seychelles, 1930-1980.
- South Pacific Records and Adventist World Survey. 1st November 1986 Vol. 91 No. 42.
- Quarterly Review: March 1971, Vol. 38. No.1.
- Quarterly Review: March 1973, Vol. 40, No. 1.
- Review and Herald: 17 March 1966, Vol. 143 No. 11.
- Ex. infos: Pastor Jonathan Nzuma; France Adeline, and Josen Stravens.