South-East Liberia Mission

South-East Liberia Mission is a subsidiary of West African Union Mission in the West-Central Africa Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

South-East Liberia Mission is comprised of Grand Bassa, Grand Kru, Maryland, River Cess, River Gee, and Sinoe counties in Liberia. As of June 30, 2020, the mission supported nineteen churches with a membership of 3,724 amongst a population of 1,180,537.¹

History

Active missionary work in Liberia began in Grand Bassa County in 1926. The seed that was sown in Siahn, Grand Bassa County, by Rudolph Helbig, Elijah Helbig, Ernest Flammer, and later Pastor Karl F. Noltze grew and spread from the Lewaii District of Bong County to Konola Margibi County and then Monrovia. From this humble beginning the Seventh-day Adventist Church entered thirteen of Liberia’s fifteen counties. The fast growth of the Church in Liberia led to the reorganization of the Liberia Mission into three fields: the South-West Liberia Conference, the Central Liberia Mission Station, and the South-East Liberia Mission Station.

Organization

The South-East Liberia Mission Station was organized at a constituency meeting of the Liberia Mission, which took place on the Konola Academy campus in Margibi County, January 16-18, 2011.² This was the first time the Liberia Mission was reorganized since it was established in 1927 and organized in 1933.³ The field started with a membership of 5,181 worshiping in twenty-one churches and ten companies. The educational institutions in the field included a high school, a junior high school, and six elementary schools.⁴ The first administrators of the field were Arve S. Sivili, director, and Aaron W. Joe, secretary-treasurer.⁵ The departmental directors were Arve S. Sivili, Jr., stewardship, religious liberty, and Spirit of Prophecy; Godday C. Akwarandu, Sabbath School and personal ministries; Zeegar Flamma, ministerial secretary, Global Mission, and evangelism; Albert Maye, youth ministries; Henry Robert, communication; George B. Moore, health ministries; Nancy Bryant, women’s and children’s ministries; S. E. Joe, family life ministries.⁶ After two years of existence as a mission station, the field was organized as a mission in 2013.⁷

Administrators

Directors/Presidents: Arve S. Sivili, Jr. (2011-2015), B. Darlington Teah (2015- ).

Secretary-Treasurers: Aaron W. Joe (2011-2013), Aaron W. Joe (2013-2015).

Secretary: Amos P. M. Jacobs (2015- ).

Treasurer: Eddie Willie (2015- ).

Sources

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2001.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Notes

1. “South-East Liberia Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2021), accessed December 15, 2021, https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=52316.↩

2. Liberia Mission Records.↩

3. “Liberia Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2001), 61.↩

4. Personal knowledge of the author who was the director of South-East Nigeria Mission Station, 2011-2013.↩

5. Ibid.↩

6. South-East Liberia Mission Records.↩

7. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, “South-East Liberia Mission,” accessed November 21, 2021, https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=52316&highlight=liberia.↩