How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, . . . who proclaims salvation” (Isa. 52:7). This year the Seventh-day Adventist Church remembers the sending of J. N. Andrews as the first official foreign missionary to Europe 150 years ago. Yet 1874 was not the beginning of foreign mission work. Before that date, in South Africa, a newly converted Seventh-day Adventist named William Hunt prepared the way for the establishment of the mission work there.
Hunt was a prospector and mine digger originally from Wales, United Kingdom. He moved to Canada, then to the United States, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1856. In 1869 he learned about Seventh-day Adventists through a paper critical of the church. Hunt contacted J. N. Loughborough and, through correspondence, purchased Adventist books and other materials.
While digging gold in Gold Hill, Nevada, Hunt went to Bloomfield, California, and for two weeks attended evangelistic meetings led by Loughborough between December 1870 and January 1871. He fully accepted the Adventist message and was baptized. Hunt was also interested in everything written by Seventh-day Adventists. He purchased Loughborough’s personal evangelistic charts; various books, including Ellen White’s Testimonies for the Church; and a subscription to the Review and Herald.1
Within weeks he traveled to the diamond mines in Kimberley, South Africa, via New Zealand and Australia, arriving toward the end of 1871. He took a quantity of Adventist literature with him. As he shared these materials, he continued to order new supplies from America. Sometime around 1878 Hunt placed Seventh-day Adventist literature in the hands of J.H.C. Wilson, a Wesleyan Methodist class leader and lay preacher. Wilson wrote to the Review and Herald and described the conversion of both he and his wife to the Seventh-day Adventist faith. He mentioned sharing the message with several others who also became believers.2
The work expands
About 1885, separate from Hunt’s influence, both George J. Van Druten and Peter J. D. Wessels, members of the Dutch Reformed Church, became Sabbathkeepers. One Sabbath afternoon following their decision, George and his wife, Mary Van Druten, passed by Hunt’s shack and saw him reading his Bible, dressed in his best clothes. They met with him and learned about the Seventh-day Adventist Church and were shocked to discover that there were about 30,000 members keeping the Sabbath in the United States.
Toward the end of 1885 Van Druten introduced Peter Wessels to Hunt. Not long after this, both men asked Hunt to write to America and request that a Dutch missionary be sent to South Africa. They enclosed a substantial sum of 50 pounds. At the 1886 General Conference Session G. I. Butler spoke with astonishment: “Just think of it! Such a sum of money sent to a distant land, to strangers, to bring them to the truth of God!”3 Upon hearing this “Macedonian call,” the assembled delegates arose and sang the doxology.
The next year, in July 1887, C. L. Boyd and D. A. Robinson with their families and four additional Bible workers and colporteurs arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, to begin their work. Boyd continued to Kimberley and found about a dozen believers there. Before the end of 1887, the Beaconsfield Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kimberley was organized with 21 members.4 By 1890 a church building was erected. It remains the oldest Seventh-day Adventist church in South Africa—probably in the entire continent of Africa. The church was designated a national monument in South Africa in 1967, but now has the status of a provincial monument.
In October of 1894 S. N. Haskell arrived for a second time in South Africa and played an important role in furthering the Adventist work.5 He focused on personal ministries, including establishing a school in Beaconsfield with Sarah Peck as the teacher, and a health facility called the “Kimberley Bath and Benevolent Society for Miners,” located on the east side of the “Big Hole” diamond mine. George Van Druten also operated a store north of the “Big Hole.” A native ministry was also begun. The newly established church and the various ministries brought increased interest among people in the region, and the work began to expand.
Indigenous leaders established
Richard Moko, the first native African convert, joined the church in Kimberley at some point between 1892 and 1895. A descendant of paramount chiefs of the Gaika tribe, he also became the first native missionary and ordained pastor. Pastor Moko was an effective evangelist and preacher. Besides his native language, he was also fluent in English and Dutch. His self-sacrificial ministry resulted in many native converts. He faithfully served the Lord until his passing on January 7, 1932.6
Ellen White took a particular interest in the South African mission. The Boyd and Robinson missionary teams joined Ellen White in Moss, Norway, in the summer of 1887 on their way to South Africa. When the Wessels family visited Battle Creek in 1889, they became acquainted with her. Ellen White wrote many times to the various members of the Wessels family between 1890 and 1908. She also received many divine messages for those working in South Africa. God gave special attention to this important mission field and those who were leaders in the work.7
Early historical sites
In 2023, Markus Kutzschbach, executive director of Adventist Heritage Ministries, in cooperation with Michael Sokupa, an associate director of the White Estate, rediscovered the unmarked grave of William Hunt in the Dutoitspan Cemetery outside of Kimberley, South Africa, near what was once the Wesselton diamond mine. Soon the church in South Africa will provide a gravestone to commemorate Hunt’s role as the first Seventh-day Adventist pioneer in Africa. There are also plans to do restoration work on the Beaconsfield Church.
This historical site reminds us of God’s mighty work of establishing the church on the continent of Africa where today there are more than 10 million members. David’s song of praise declares that “one generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts” (Ps. 145:4).
1 J. N. Loughborough, “California,” Review and Herald, Feb. 7, 1871, p. 62; J. N. Loughborough, “Present Truth on the Pacific Coast XXVIII,” Pacific Union Recorder, Aug. 9, 1906, p. 1.
2 J.H C. Wilson, “A Letter From Africa,” Review and Herald, June 6, 1878, p. 183.
3 G. I. Butler, “Important Plans and Issues Contemplated by the General Conference,” Review and Herald, Dec. 7, 1886, p. 760.
4 C. L. Boyd, “Sabbath-Keepers in Africa,” Review and Herald, Oct. 11, 1887, p. 634.
5 S. N. Haskell, “The Work in Africa,” Bible Echo, January 1888, p. 12; M. E. Olsen, A History of the Origin and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1925), pp. 489, 490.
6 J. L Robison, “The Passing of Richard Moko,” Review and Herald, Apr. 7, 1932, p. 331; see also Olsen, p. 488.
7 See Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Southern Africa (Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1974); Ellen G. White manuscript release 491, The Ellen G. White Africa Collection (Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1976).
