The Beginning of the SDA Message

This experience was told by Dr. van Niekerk, the Great Grandson of John Wessels, who is the first Sabbath keeper known in South Africa.
Before I boarded the ship that would bring me to the United States of America I thought, “What would be appropriate to do in that last afternoon? Should I quickly run down to Heidelberg College and visit some of my friends, see my teachers one last time? Should I take a tour of Capetown, a city which I knew quite well? Or perhaps rent a car and go around the Cape Point with its beautiful, magnificent scenery? Then a thought struck me.

I decided to take a bus and go to a certain spot on the slope of Table Mountain where I got off the bus and walked a few yards into what we called the velt, or a piece of land that was unoccupied. And as I stood there amidst the ruins of a building, tall grass and tall trees the following quotation from Ellen G. White came to mind, “Upon this land will never again be another building. Only the wind will rustle the grass and blow through the tall trees as a mute testimony to what might have been.” But let me start from the beginning.

It was before the turn of the century (1900) that my great grandfather, Peter Wessels, while studying his Bible, became convinced that the seventh day Sabbath was the right day on which to worship. So, after studying diligently for several more weeks, he finally decided that he was going to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath in spite of what his friends or his neighbours might think. One evening he gathered his family together at worship, (it was their custom to have worship every evening after supper) and he told them that he had become convinced that this was the Sabbath to keep, and so they kept it. And when he left his Christian Reform in his Dutch Reform church, (which was the state church in South Africa), many of his friends and neighbours came to him and said, “You are crazy!

What has gotten into you? You know that you cannot do this.” But he was determined to keep on. Next, he talked to one of his neighbours by the name of Henry van Druitten about his belief, and the two families together kept the Sabbath. For many months they thought they were the only people in the whole world keeping the seventh day Saturday Sabbath.

One day Great Grandpa thought, “I am going to visit my very good friend, Dr. Andrew Murray.” Dr. Murray was, at that time, the leading theologian in the country of South Africa. So one Friday evening Great Grandpa got into his buggy and drove it over to Andrew Murray’s home in Wellington, about 30 miles from Capetown. There the two started chatting. They were old friends.

They had known each other for years. Their families had been friends for years. And so they started discussing the newfound faith that Grandpa had found.
They talked through the night and as the sun came up the next morning it found the two of them walking down the little path with rose tr,ees on each side. As they reached the garden gate, Dr. Murray turned to Great Grandpa and said, “John, you have found the truth. Because of my position in the Dutch Reform Church I cannot make a stand at this point, but if you feel this is what you have to do, then do it because you are right.” And so more determined than ever, in spite of what his friends and even his relatives were saying, he went back home and started anew to study the Bible and to keep the Sabbath. Then something happened.

There was the discovery of diamonds in the country and very close to one of the ranches that Great Grandpa owned was this one field of diamonds that they had discovered. He decided that it was about time for one of his periodic trips to see how things were going on his ranches and then also at the same time to stop off and see what was going on at the diamond diggings.He took a train from Capetown up north to near Blume Fountain and there he got off and visited his three ranches and then went over on a Thursday to the diamond fields. There he saw how people were prospecting and staking claims and how they were digging furiously and frantically, trying to become wealthy overnight. He was wondering about this because he was a wealthy man already and then he thought, “Well I’ll stay a little longer.” He became intrigued with what was going on at those diamond fields, and pretty soon he realized it was Friday evening so he decided to stay over the Sabbath.

As his custom was on the Sabbath day, he took out his Bible in the morning and sat in the sun next to the tent where he was staying on the diamond diggings and started reading. Pretty soon he noticed something very strange.

About three tents over instead of feverishly digging and staking claims, trying to get some wealth like everyone else, there was another gentleman sitting, reading his Bible. He went over to the gentleman and said (in Afrikaans):

“Good morning Sir.” The gentleman didn’t answer him, so he said: “What are you doing?”
Then the gentleman said, “Do you speak English?”
“Yes I do, what are you doing?” asked Great Grandpa again. “Well, I’m reading my Bible.”
“Isn’t that a little strange, you are reading your Bible while everyone else is trying to stake claims and find wealth?”
“Well, this is the Sabbath and I am a Seventh-day Adventist,” the gentleman added. Great Grandpa looked at him and said, “You’re a what??”
“I’m a Seventh-day Adventist,” he repeated.

And so the two of them started talking. Grandpa found out that his name was John Hunt. He had been ‘baptised in California by Elder Loughborough and he belonged to a company of people who called themselves Seventhday Adventists. James White had just been elected as the first president of the newly established General Conference whose headquarters were in Oakland California.

How thrilled Great Grandpa was. All this time he thought that they were alone in the world, and here he found a man that represented a company of people across the ocean who believed just as he did. He spent days with this man who had come to the diamond fields to tell people about Christ.

When it was time for John Hunt to return to the United States, Great Grandpa sent a letter back with him with a cheque in it. The letter said, “Please send us a missionary.” After many weeks, finally a letter came back, not from James White, but from Ellen White stating, “We do not have enough funds, your letter does not cover enough funds and we do not have the personnel. We are a young organization.”

Undaunted Grandpa wrote back and included another cheque and he said, “Send us a missionary.” After several months of negotiation, finally a letter came back telling them what day a certain ship would be sailing for Capetown, South Africa with a missionary family on board. How they waited for that ship to come. Finally the day arrived and the whole family was down at the docks waiting for the missionaries to come. They finally disembarked and stayed with the family for about a week. During that week Great Grandpa went to the governor of the Cape, Sir George Gray, and said, “I want you to help me find some land because these missionaries want to go up north and establish a mission station.”

Great Grandpa offered to pay for whatever land they would give. Not telling Grandpa anything, Sir George Gray, went into his office, wrote a letter, sealed it, and handed it to him and he said , to him, “When you get up north, go to the governor of Rhodesia and give this to Cecil John Rhodes.
They trekked for four months by ox wagon. Two of their company died on the way, but finally they reached the north country. There they found the governor of Rhodesia and Great Grandpa handed him the letter. He opened the letter, read it and he looked at Great Grandpa and said, “How much land do you want?”

“Well, maybe 800 to 1000 acres would be very good.” Great Grandpa replied.

“Well I’ll do you one better. I’ve been told in this letter by Sir George Gray to give you all the land you want. I’ll tell you what, you take a horse and you ride that horse. Once you’ve found the place you want to settle go for one hour in each direction of the compass and the land that you’ve covered, you can have.” Great Grandpa then took a horse, the freshest the fastest horse he could find. When he found the place they wanted to settle, he rode – one hour north, one hour east, one hour south and one hour west and with the horse frothing at the mouth, he finally arrived at the point of origin and they had covered an area of 4000 acres.

Today, Soluthi Mission Station, belonging to the SDA church still stands on that property. From that small beginning the work started. As mentioned before Great Grandpa was a man of great means. He would be considered a millionaire in today’s terms, and he decided he wanted to do something special, something of his own. He solemnly said, “I have heard, about the medical work. And the climate here in the Cape is such that it could be a marvellous place for a sanitarium.” So out of his own pocket he built the sanitarium; a beautiful place on the slopes of the mountains, just a little ways from his own beautiful mansion.

He was called the Earl of Lansdowne because he was so wealthy. When they furnished the rooms in his house, he and his family with Great Grandmother went over to Europe and had special furniture made for the special rooms and had them shipped over. Then a strange thing happened.

TO BE CONTINUED!