Luka T. Daniel President

The Africa-Indian Ocean Division (AID) is known for its formidable challenges: currency devaluations, political instability, and protracted military conflicts, together with their corollaries: inflation, economic downturn, refugees, displaced persons, starvation, poverty. In spite of all these negatives, the church has forged ahead impressively in many ways. Let me highlight a few of these briefly, beginning with evangelism, the primary purpose for our existence as a church.

The total number of believers added to the church in the AID so far in this quinquennium (as of March 31, 2000) was 629,425—129,425 above our goal. And by God’s grace, we plan to reach a faith goal of 700,000 before the quinquennium ends in June 2000.

Some Outstanding Annual Events
In 1996 our division appointed a commission under the chairmanship of Pastor Charles Montille, the general secretary of the division, to look into the problem of higher education. In view of the unfavorable economic, political, and social realities prevalent in our territory, coupled with the closure of Adventist University of Central Africa in Rwanda, the commission recommended the establishment of two multicampus university systems under the oversight of the division. One system is to serve the English-speaking unions. Known as Adventist University, it comprises two institutions: Adventist Seminary of West Africa (now Babcock University) in Nigeria, and Valley View College (now Valley View University) in Ghana.

The other system is to cater for the French-speaking unions. Under the name Universite Adventiste (Adventist University), it comprises four institutions, all named after pioneer missionaries, as follows: the Cosendai campus in Cameroon, the Wallace campus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), the Zurcher campus in Madagascar, and the Monnier campus in Rwanda (later changed to Universite Adventiste au Rwanda). Right now almost all of these institutions are recognized by their hosting governments.

During the weekend of October 22-24, 1999, I was privileged to participate in the first graduation program of one of them—in Cameroon—where about 60 young men and women marched joyfully to receive their diplomas.

AID president Luka T. Daniel (second from left) visits lay member John Kamimba, who built this portable baptistry. With them are Pastor Ratsara (left) and Pastor Rugelinyange.

Both the East Congo and West Congo union missions will ever remember 1997 in a special way. As far back as 1926 the Adventist Church acquired legal status to operate as an international religious body in the Congo (Kinshasa). But after the country changed its name to Zaire more than 20 years back, we lost this legal status to an ecumenical body called The Church of Christ in Zaire, with the French acronym ECZ. During those more than 20 long years it was not easy for us to interact with the government. However, on September 12, 1997, the new government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo graciously renewed our full legal status in the country.

As the quinquennium progressed, other events unfolded, and in 1998 there were five that were the first of their kind. PENTECOST ’98 was the first satellite evangelism to be held on the continent of Africa (beamed from Soweto, South Africa, and led by a Jamaican lay evangelist, Fiz Henry). Even though this came as a brand-new method of evangelism in our division, it added 8,632 members to the church. The program ran almost simultaneously with the first division-wide evangelistic campaign organized by women’s ministries. In many churches it was the first time for women to preach publicly. This effort brought a total of 23,510 precious souls into the church.

It was in this same year that the first division-wide youth congress was held in Yaounde, Cameroon. More than 3,400 young people, from countries both on the continent of Africa and its surrounding islands, sang together, prayed together, listened to lectures together, and socialized together for 12 days. Then our division’s year-end council was held in the city of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. It was the first time for such a council to be held off the shores of the African continent. It began with a Sabbath gathering of an estimated 8,000 worshipers. Throughout the meetings all in attendance enjoyed the fantastic Christian music for which Madagascar is known.

EVANGELISTIC MEETING IN PROGRESS: From left to right: Amon Rugelinyange, president of Rwanda Union (seated); AID women’s ministries director Akissi Priscilla Menotou delivering the Word, with AID ministerial associate secretary and stewardship director Paul Ratsara translating.

In 1998 we purchased a sophisticated video production unit for our communication department. And the report last evening gave the world church the opportunity of seeing the quality of the first video production of our own. I should also thank Adventist World Radio for establishing a recording studio at Babcock University in Nigeria. The studio is saddled with the task of bringing the Advent message to the more than 100 million citizens of the most populous country in Africa, which also has a large population of Muslims. This will be done in the three main languages: Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.

March 7-27, 1999, the ACTS 2000 satellite evangelism series beamed from the historic city of Kumasi, Ghana, and led by Mark Finley, the father of Adventist satellite evangelism. By mid-May we had received reports that ACTS 2000 had added to the church a total of 26,371 new souls division-wide. About half of these (12,511) were from the host country of Ghana alone.

The first series of unionwide ministerial councils began in Nigeria in the oil-rich city of Warri, April 20-24, 1999. The five-day retreat was attended by about 600 ministers and their spouses from all over Nigeria. This was followed by other meetings in the Indian Ocean Union, Burundi Association, and Rwanda Union. For many couples it was a precious period to be together and to interact socially and spiritually with other couples from across the fields. Similarly some 650 laypeople (with a few ministers) gathered in Kumasi for a weeklong session of the first festival of the laity, August 10-14. The participants—540 from the West African Union and 110 from the neighboring Sahel Union—came together to celebrate the unprecedented soul-winning achievements that the Lord had accomplished through them and others throughout the division.

One of the important events with which we ended 1999 was the division’s last year-end council held in Abidjan—the last in this outgoing quinquennium. It was graced by the presence of dignitaries from the General Conference led by none other than the newly elected president, Jan Paulsen.

Other Developments
At the beginning of this quinquennium General Conference Global Mission published a priority list of 512 segments of unentered people groups of 1 million each. It showed that 18 of these were located in our division. Most of these were either Islamic states or predominantly Muslim, including our host country, Côte d’Ivoire, where about 37 percent are Muslim—the largest single religious group in the nation.

I held seminars on how to approach Muslims in 1996 and 1997 in Abidjan, and also did the same in my home country of Nigeria last year. In each case young people volunteered to go out as pioneers in Muslim communities. As a result, some 50 converts have been baptized in Côte d’Ivoire alone, and another 100 join them in fellowship every Sabbath in the northern parts of the country. In Nigeria the story is almost the same. For instance, two of the pioneers planted a church in an unentered area in the North East Mission with an initial membership of 25. A similar report came from the North West Mission where, in addition, a village chief donated land to our church, and one of his wives joined our people in preparing the donated land for church construction.

We also had our fair share of religious liberty infringements. For instance, in Cape Verde (Sahel Union Mission) three young people were arrested in 1998 and charged with desecrating Catholic Church buildings and property. One of them was released after a short while. But two them remained in prison and were subjected to various kinds of torture, including the use of electric wire, for the 12-month period of the trial. However, on July 26, 1999, the presiding judge ruled that all three of the accused young people were innocent. She concluded her ruling with the following interesting statement: “The only crime which the three Adventists committed, if that constitutes any, was to be Seventh-day Adventist.” What a testimony!

The Burundi Association, which is an attached field to the division and which aspires to attain full union status, has been in a protracted political crisis and military conflict. However, the Lord’s work is moving well there, and indeed, last year Burundi proved that it had something to offer to the world at large. Anne-Frida, a talented young girl from Bujumbura, the capital city, was among eight winners in a Ministry magazine contest for PKs (pastors’ kids). As a minor she won a return ticket for herself and her parents to both the World Ministers Council and the General Conference session this year.

The Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries department reports an interesting prison ministry experience in Nigeria. Years ago John Mamud Buba was sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly murdering his wife. In this hopeless state he was contacted by an Adventist prison ministries team. After a number of visits he was converted and baptized. The convicted murderer soon turned into a prison lay preacher. One day in the prison he met a former Nigerian head of state, retired general Olusegun Obasanjo, who had just been put in detention for allegedly plotting against the Nigerian government under General Sani Abacha. The Adventist Church in Jos, Nigeria, took to him The Desire of Ages, which he thankfully acknowledged in his handwritten letter of January 12, 1996. Little did General Obasanjo know that he was going to be released from prison and return to reoccupy the state house within two and a half years. Chief Obasanjo was released in 1998, and after winning a nationwide election, he became the civilian president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1999. Shortly after being sworn in, President Obasanjo declared pardon to a great number of prisoners, and, of course, Mr. Buba was included. Mr. Buba is now back in his home in Jos a free man and is planning to go back to his nursing profession. He has visited President Obasanjo at his private house at Abeokuta and at the State House at Abuja. Incidentally, in his letter to the church mentioned above, the retired general had asserted, among other things, “God does not allow anything to happen outside His purpose and plan.” What a fulfilled prediction!

Prisoners line up for baptism in the West Rwanda Association in Mugonero. First they confess their sins, and then they are baptized.

The church has been enjoying the financial generosity of well-to-do Adventists from both inside and outside our division. The McNeilus family, from the United States, for example, have built and/or roofed churches and schools all over the division. In Ghana alone they have built 88 schools and roofed 1,300 churches. The Adelekes, from Nigeria, have built and/or roofed quite a number of churches in Nigeria. They also have sponsored and are sponsoring 38 students in church and secular universities, both in Nigeria and abroad.

20 Years of Miracles
Since it was formally created at the 1980 General Conference session in Dallas, Texas, the AID has experienced three major miracles. First, phenomenal growth. At the end of 1980 our church membership stood at 333,001. At the end of the third quarter of 1999 we had reached a membership of 1,343,396. This represents a quadrupling of our membership within 20 years.

Second, the AID is home to some of the poorest countries in the world. Consequently, the division began in 1980 with only two local conferences out of a total of 47 administrative entities (conferences and missions). However, I am delighted to state that we now have 16 local conferences out of 58 entities. Eight of these 16 were born within this quinquennium. Moreover, we welcomed the year 2000 with the inauguration of the very first union conference in our division—the Ghana Union Conference. The colorful inauguration (before a mammoth congregation of about 35,000) was led by General Conference president (and former missionary to Ghana) Jan Paulsen, on the Sabbath of January 22, at the Accra Trade Fair Center.

Third, our division comprises 32 countries. Its members speak many different languages and belong to numerous people groups that are sometimes hostile to each other. However, during the 20 years of our existence—and especially this quinquennium—we have learned how to live together, plan together, work together, and experience together the impressive achievements by the special grace of our Lord Jesus.

On behalf of the AID I congratulate our laymen and laywomen, officers and directors at all levels of the church, and our counselors and donors at home and abroad for allowing the Lord of the harvest to use their services, their time, and their means to attain the impressive achievements mentioned above. Above all, I give God the glory.

Maranatha!