The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

The South African Conference

The South African Conference was organized in 1892. At the General Conference in 1893 it was voted into the General Conference. It then had five churches, one hundred and thirty-eight members, who paid a tithe the previous year of $34,077.32. At this conference the South African Conference was represented by Peter Wessels, who generously donated to the General Conference $16,000, this being more than the General Conference had expended in opening up the work in South Africa. In addition to this gift, he and one of his brothers donated $40,000 to begin the free dispensary work in the city of Chicago. GSAM 426.2

At the General Conference in 1895 the Foreign Mission Secretary said of the African field: “The conference in South Africa has been organized but two years, but in that time the General Conference has sent into that field twelve workers. Two of these have gone into the interior as self-supporting missionaries, while the others have entered the work in various departments. That conference has a flourishing school, and orphans’ home, and a sanitarium in process of erection. The statistics show their membership as 184.” GSAM 426.3