Returning to the mission station where Seventh-day Adventist Church work first began in Zambia a century ago, Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa joined church officials and members in noting the 100th anniversary on May 6. The following day, former President Kenneth Kaunda, who led the nation for 27 years, visited the celebrations.

“I want ... to commend the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other churches for the tireless efforts to fight evil in our society through the preaching of the word of God, Mwanawasa told the audience at the Rusangu Mission in Monze, near the Zambian Adventist University, which grew out of the primary school started by early missionaries.

The message of the Adventist Church first entered Zambia through American missionary, W. H. Anderson, in 1905. Anderson and a few helpers trekked from Southern Rhodesia (today known as Zimbabwe) to establish the work at Rusangu in the Monze region of Zambia. In Zambia, Adventist Church membership has since grown to almost 500,000 out of a national population of 10 million, or roughly five percent of the country.

Mwanawasa, a Christian who has also attended satellite evangelistic meetings held by the Voice of Prophecy, an Adventist media ministry, in the nation’s capital, Lusaka, said that while he had wanted to attend the Adventist centenary, a scheduling conflict almost prevented him, until it was “suddenly” resolved. Zambia’s ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, or MMD, had planned a convention for the same day but the convention was cancelled. He credited it to the power of prayer.

Mwanawasa commended the Adventist Church “for living up to the mission and vision of our Lord ... set for the church” and urged the church to continue on the same path. He also commended the church for the innumerable contributions it has made to “the spiritual and social development of our people and country.” He cited the education, health development and relief sectors in which the church had made significant contributions in national development.

The president then spoke about the Bible’s transforming power: “Biblical teaching transforms and shapes the hearts, minds and characters of people and turns them not only into good disciples of Christ Jesus but also into good and responsible citizens. If a nation has the fortune to be led by God-fearing men and women of high moral integrity, it will certainly prosper as public affairs would be in safe and responsible hands.”

Earlier, Cornelius Matandiko, president of the Adventist Church in Zambia, thanked Mwanawasa “for providing an atmosphere in Zambia which enables freedom of working and [the] freedom to knock on any door for the purpose of witnessing for the Lord that we love. Without the freedom of worship our church would never have grown beyond Rusangu.”

And Pardon Mwansa, president of the Adventist Church in the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region, thanked Mwanawasa for traveling more 125 miles (200 km) by road from Lusaka in order to officiate at the occasion.

The next day, Zambia’s first president, Kenneth David Kaunda, commended the early missionaries as “true servants of the people who practiced to the letter one of the Lord’s greatest commandments: ‘to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” Kaunda said this when he officiated as guest of honor on Sabbath, or Saturday, May 7, in services at Rusangu Mission in Monze, during the church’s centennial celebrations.

Referring to the early missionaries, Kaunda, the son of a missionary himself, said: “They understood clearly that the neighbor the Lord was referring to did not need to be of their own race, nationality or even religion, but any human being created in the Lord’s image.”

Kaunda, a leading luminary of anti-colonial freedom fighters, said that the church in his time “identified with the oppressed and stood side by side with us in our campaign for change.” He added that while preaching the word of God was the primary task of the church, “we should remain mindful that its work is multi-faceted. This may include advocacy campaigns for human, social, economic and political rights of citizens.”

He also said the church may find itself at loggerheads with those in power, “but as servants of the people, you must not relent in raising the concerns of the voiceless…. As Christians, we have a responsibility to continue advocating for every human being to enjoy their God-given rights, especially the weak and vulnerable in society.”