Jerome Ngabo Birikunzira

Implantation and Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Rwanda: 1919-2000 Jerome Ngabo Birikunzira

The Seventh-day Adventist church originated in the USA(1860). It was considered as a small sect of few hundred believers scattered across the northwestern states of America. Today it has grown to a worldwide church of more than sixteen million members and it is the most widespread of all Protestant denominations, well established in about 90 percent of all countries of the world,embracing people of many different cultures, ethnic, origins, and languages. This church possessed particular characteristics such as its methods of evangelization and beliefs, especially regarding the sabbath which constitutes its pillar. After Europe, the adventism reached Rwanda by two missionaries, E. Delhove(Belgian)and H. Monnier (Swiss), after the first World War in 1919. They implanted three mission stations, which served as the basis for the growth of the church in the country. Currently it has a half million of members and has helped people through the love, peace and fellowship. It also contributed to social and economic development of the nation, by implanting schools, medical infrastructures, and agriculture in spite of the genocide of Tutsi in 1994.