In Zanzibar, a teenage girl named Jesse began volunteering at the Adventist clinic where her mother found healing. Surrounded by kindness and faith, she eventually chose baptism despite family opposition — becoming one of the island’s first Adventists and later a nurse at the same clinic that shaped her life.
There were nearly no Seventh-day Adventists on Zanzibar when the Adventist clinic opened in the late 1980s. This is the story of how a girl named Jesse became one of the first Adventists on the island.
Jesse’s Mother didn’t feel well. She was weak and sick. So, she went to the Seventh-day Adventist clinic to see if the doctor could help.
The doctor gave Mother some medicine, and she got well.
She was so happy!
But after a while, Mother didn’t feel well again. She was weak and sick. So, she went to the clinic again. The doctor gave her more medicine, and she got well.
Now she was really happy!
She liked the doctor and nurses. They were so kind and thoughtful. She wanted her 13-year-old daughter to be around kind and thoughtful people. She wanted Jesse to work as a volunteer at the clinic.
“I have a daughter named Jesse,” Mother told the doctor. “I would like her to work here after school. Could you arrange for that?”
The doctor agreed.
“Bring her here, and we’ll see what she can do,” he said. “Maybe she can do some cleaning or help in another way.”
Mother brought Jesse to the clinic.
“She’s yours now,” she told the doctor.
So, Jesse began to volunteer at the clinic after school.
At first, she mopped the floors and took out the trash. She was a good and careful worker, and everyone liked her.
Jesse liked volunteering at the clinic as well. She thought that the doctor and nurses were so kind and thoughtful. They even gave her free lunches of bread and fish. She especially liked the soft, white bread called boflo. Everyone liked to eat boflo on Zanzibar.
When the doctor and nurses saw that Jesse was a good worker, they asked her to help with other things at the clinic. They trusted her.
Jesse volunteered at the clinic for a year. Then she volunteered for a second year and a third year. During that time, she did everything that the doctor and nurses did. She even went to clinic worships. She and her family believed in Jesus, but they weren’t Adventist.
Then someone at the clinic invited Jesse to be baptized and become an Adventist.
She said no.
Some time passed, and someone else invited Jesse to be baptized.
Again, she said no.
Jesse actually wanted to be baptized. She loved Jesus, but Mother didn’t want her to join the Adventist Church.
Jesse couldn’t say no when someone invited for a third time to be baptized. She wanted with all her heart to be baptized.
A short time later, Jesse was baptized in the waters of the Indian Ocean. She was among the first people living in Zanzibar to join the Adventist Church. She was 17 years old.
Mother was furious when she found out, and she threatened to kick Jesse out of the house.
But Jesse’s mind was made up.
“I have decided that this is the path I want to follow,” she said.
Jesse came to the clinic in tears many times after that. She asked for many prayers, but she never changed her mind.
Today, Jesse works at the clinic as a nurse. She has an Adventist husband, and they have two Adventist children. She is so happy that she volunteered at the clinic as a girl. The experience changed her life forever.
One of the mission projects for this quarter is the Zanzibar Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary, which is featured in today’s story. Your offering will help improve the clinic. Thank you for giving generously to this important project.
Gina Wahlen
is the editor of Adventist Mission’s Sabbath School mission quarterlies and Inside Stories
