Zambia’s ambassador to the United States commended the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s humanitarian work and educational development during his visit to the denomination’s headquarters this week.
Palan Mulonda, himself an Adventist Church member, also said that the government has requested Adventist-operated Rusangu University to assist in the development of teachers for public schools.
The visit to headquarters was Mulonda’s first since his appointment in Washington, D.C. in December. He also serves as his nation’s ambassador to several countries in Central America.
Zambia is home to some 13 million people, about 6 percent of whom identify themselves as Adventists in government census data, Mulonda said. The Adventist Church’s Zambia Union Conference reports a membership of more than 800,000, making it the largest union by population in the denomination.
The Adventist Church in Zambia has experienced tremendous growth in recent decades. There were only 20,000 members in 1972, said Zambia Union President Harrington S. Akombwa in a phone interview. Today, roughly 45,000 people join the Adventist Church each year, many through public evangelism campaigns and the work of Adventist literature evangelists. A majority of the population is Christian.
Ambassador Mulonda said “consistency” is likely what has attracted many people to the Adventist Church. “The message has not changed,” he said to a group of church leaders in the headquarters’ executive dining room on Monday.
Graphic by Amber Sarno.
Zambia, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia, gained independence from the UK in 1964. Since then, it is the only country in the region to have avoided major political unrest and civil war.
At Monday’s welcoming event, Adventist Church President Ted N. C. Wilson commended Mulonda and the people of Zambia for helping to maintain peace in the region.
“While we don’t corporately become involved in politics, we try in whatever way we can to assist sharing in the load of building up society,” Wilson told Mulonda and other church leaders.
Adventists in Zambia are well represented in politics. About 15 percent of the legislature is Adventist, including the chief executive of parliament.
The church in Zambia also operates the “Dorcas Mothers Movement,” an Adventist women’s organization in Zambia. “No other group can draw such a large crowd to events,” said Pardon Mwansa, a general vice president of the Adventist world church, and a native of Zambia. He spoke in a separate interview.
The women’s group can sometimes draw 30,000 people to events, which last year led the president to request from the minister of culture affairs a budget for the group’s humanitarian work and caring of HIV/AIDS patients.
“They are strong and their objectives are noble for the country,” Mwansa said.