This week’s mission story is about the first Seventh-day Adventist pastor to live on Zanzibar island, which is part of Tanzania and located just off Africa’s eastern coast. Pastor Ibrahim Alex Juma arrived from Tanzania’s mainland in 1989.

Ibrahim wasn’t trained as a medical doctor. He had studied theology to become a pastor, but he knew many health principles after teaching “Stop Smoking” programs, helping people quit drinking, and personally following a plant-based diet. 

So, he arrived on the island of Zanzibar as a medical worker rather than a pastor. Ibrahim understood why. Many islanders weren’t Christian, and he would not have been welcomed if he had arrived as a pastor. He himself had been raised in the same non-Christian world religion that was practiced by many islanders.

Ibrahim came with his wife and five children in 1989, a year after the opening of the first Adventist clinic on the island. He worked with the clinic’s director, Dr. Josiah, and islanders nicknamed him “doctor.”

As a health worker, Ibrahim traveled around Zanzibar and taught health principles. 

He soon gained a reputation for doing good. 

At a hotel, he noticed that the receptionist was chain-smoking and said, “I can help you to quit.” 

He prayed with the man and offered some tips on quitting tobacco. 

When the receptionist successfully stopped smoking, he told everyone about Ibrahim.

The local church congregation consisted of seven people when Ibrahim arrived. They included Ezekiel and Moses, two men from Tanzania’s mainland who had been baptized a couple years earlier, and five others whom Ezekiel and Moses had led to baptism. 

Those seven Adventists had been sharing their faith with other Christians. A month after Ibrahim’s arrival, he baptized nine people. One of those nine people works today at the Adventist clinic.

Another employee at the clinic is a lab technician whose father joined the church through Ibrahim’s work. The father was a pastor who once invited Ibrahim to preach at his church. Ibrahim preached about the seventh-day Sabbath, and the pastor and his family were baptized.

Sometimes the days were tough. 

Ibrahim’s children, who were from 10 to 15 years old, were beaten and otherwise bullied at school. Ibrahim prayed that the children would not grow discouraged, and God answered. 

All five children, and a sixth who was born later, are faithful Adventists. One is a pastor, and another is a pastor’s wife.

Potential danger sometimes lurked around the corner. 

A well-placed government official once cautioned Ibrahim and the clinic’s doctor not to attend an appointment. 

“Someone wants to do something bad,” he said. “Don’t go.” 

Another time, a new friend who wasn’t a Christian warned Ibrahim against going to a meeting. 

“Don’t go there today,” he said. “They want to hurt you.”

Some islanders weren’t so friendly. A retired soldier told Ibrahim, “You came to bring Christianity to our island. Go back to the mainland. We don’t want to see you here.”

Another islander threatened him, “We will kill you if you stay. The one who kills you will go straight to heaven because he did something good by killing the one who tried to spoil our island.”

Ibrahim survived all plots, and the church thrived. 

For a while, church members worshiped on a rented soccer field every Sabbath. As the need for a church building grew, Ibrahim and a clinic doctor went to visit Zanzibar’s leaders.

Ibrahim told a leader, “In our clinic, we have doctors and nurses who are Seventh-day Adventist. They don’t have a place to worship. Please, can we have land so we can construct a place to worship?”

The leader promptly instructed that land be given to the Adventists to build a church.

Ibrahim realized that it had been easy to obtain land because the clinic was well known and had successfully treated many people. 

He thanked God for the blessing of the clinic.

The first Adventist church opened in 1995 at a dedication ceremony attended by General Conference president Robert S. Folkenberg.

The next year, Ibrahim’s work ended in Zanzibar, and he left to serve on Tanzania’s mainland. 

From a congregation of only seven Adventists when he arrived, there were 160 when he left. 

Today, more than 1,000 church members live on the island.

At 71 years old, Ibrahim still preaches, and he participates in prison ministries. 

He returns to Zanzibar from time to time, including for a camp meeting three years ago.

He is grateful to God for sending him
to Zanzibar. 

He is thankful for the Adventist clinic, which continues to bring healing to many people today.

The Zanzibar Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary has offered critical services on Zanzibar for nearly 40 years. But now its two buildings are old and need to be replaced. You can be part of the clinic’s story by giving to this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, which is also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering. The funds will allow the clinic’s buildings to be demolished and replaced with modern structures. The offering will also go to four other projects in the East-Central Africa Division: a clinic in Burundi, a nursing school at the Adventist University of Lukanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a primary school in Kenya, and a large media center in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thank you for giving generously.