After their graduation, God united Daniel and Kelly in team ministry.
by Kelly Miranda
God planted in me a love and a burden for the Latino culture a long time ago. I grew up in a neighborhood with Latinos and my best friend was from Honduras. She introduced me to Adventism by inviting me to her church to practice Spanish. To my surprise, my Spanish teacher also attended that church. Her family later became key to my accepting Adventism and attending Hartland College.
When I arrived at Hartland, Daniel Miranda was already a student. I was ALUMNI impressed by his devotion to missions and his sincerity to please God. Little did I know that the Lord would bring us together in ministry and in marriage five years later. Daniel did his pastoral evangelism internship in New York City and I did my Christian secondary education internship at an Adventist school in Barranquilla, Colombia. After internship, I received an invitation from Fundación Las Delicias to be the head teacher of their day school. Daniel had actually grown up in a small town near the ministry, and decided to return and head up their Department of Evangelism and the Bible Instructor course. It was here, while we were working for the ministry, that the Lord brought us together.
We got married three years ago and the Lord has blessed us both abundantly. Hartland gave Daniel a solid foundation to be able to teach the Word of God and do Bible work. South America has a strong need for solid Bible training due to rampant winds of doctrine. Fundación Las Delicias fills that need. We have Bible instructors working for ministries in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. Others have felt called to pastoral ministry and are studying at the local Adventist university. Also, the Evangelism Department is very active and we’ve seen many souls baptized. We support the local churches and train lay members to do outreach using the health message, Bible studies, friendship evangelism, and more.
The academy here has taken shape and is growing each year. We now have school records, nice classrooms, distance learning, and students enrolled from local churches. Currently we have 10 students on campus and 21 students online. We’ve gained a lot of confidence and rapport in the community, and we have even made an agreement with an educational institution to certify the studies that our students receive. Hartland gave us both the training we needed for God’s calling!