Seventh-Day Adventist Church: Glendale Mission

Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Glendale Mission

Glendale Mission (Glendale Farm) was opened by Seventh-Day Adventist Church missionaries Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Gibson 10-12 miles south of Fort Victoria (Masvingo), Southern Rhodesia in 1913.

The mission farm consisted of 1900 acres and was staffed with helpers from Solusi Mission. This created an initial problem in that the first teachers were Ndebele who were distrusted among the Shona who inhabited the area. The mission day schools in four outstations were taught in the vernacular (local language). From these schools students “who [were] most apt in their studies” were brought to the main mission station school at Glendale where they were introduced to English.  As of 1915, The Glendale school numbered 35-40 students.

By 1917, due to the sparse local population, church membership numbered only twenty-two. The Gibsons returned to South Africa and were replaced by Laurie Sparrow as mission superintendent and I. E. Evenson. Notwithstanding their efforts, in 1919-1920, Glendale reverted to the status of an outstation under Hanke Mission. Glendale Farm was later sold.

References

• Our Story of Missions for Colleges & Academies (1921) – William Ambrose Spicer
• The Beginnings of the Adventist Mission in Africa, (atoday.org)
• The South African Missionary, June 3, 1918

Contributors

• Mark Loomis