The Ellen G. White Africa Collection
When in 1886 a “Macedonian call” came to the General Confer-
ence in Battle Creek from several Sabbath-keeping Adventists in South
Africa asking that a minister be sent to them, the response came in
the form of a company who set out from America the next year for
Cape Town, consisting of D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd and their
wives; two colporteurs, George Burleigh and R. S. Anthony; and a
Bible instructor, Miss Carrie Mace
.
In Norway, as they were en route to South Africa, the path of
brethren D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd crossed that of Ellen White
who had gone from America to spend some time in Europe (1885-
1887); and having become deeply interested in their mission she wrote
letters of counsel which she placed in their hands as they journeyed to
Africa
.
Mrs. White’s interest in the opening work in Africa did not stop
there. In 1889 when S. N. Haskell went to Africa to spend five months
in visiting, holding meetings, and counseling concerning the work,
he received letters from Ellen White in which she discussed certain
aspects of the work of the mission and those leading out in it
.
A. T. Robinson was sent to Africa in 1891 and, as he took charge
of the work there, had much to do in shaping its organization. Letters
of counsel from the pen of Ellen White were also addressed to him
.
Among those very prominent in Ellen White’s correspondence
concerning the Africa interests was a South African family, the Wessels
family, who had come into the possession of considerable means.
Pieter Wessels was one of the original two believers who wrote for
help to the General Conference in 1886, and this entire family evoked
the deepest interest in the years that followed on the part of Ellen
White who was concerned with their spiritual welfare, their personal
problems, and the right use of their means for the cause
.
[5]
While Ellen White never visited South Africa in person she con-
ducted regular correspondence with leaders and members there while
she was in Australia from 1891 to 1900. There are in the files many
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