Wilson to Inaugurate $7.3 Million in Projects in Rwanda During February Trip

By AT News Team, Jan. 30, 2015:   A nine-story national denominational headquarters and a university science and technology center will be officially opened during a trip to Rwanda by Pastor Ted Wilson, president of the General Conference (GC) of Seventh country. The new construction is valued at 5 billion Rwandan francs ($7.3 million) the report stated.

The office building for the denomination’s Rwanda Union Mission is located in the Kigali city center. The science and technology center is on the new Gishushu Campus of the Adventist University of Central Africa which serves 11 nations in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Ceremonies at the two new projects will be February 10 and 11.

Wilson will also participate in the ground-breaking ceremony for the Adventist Regional Medical School in Masoro, the newspaper stated. Prof. Sebahahashya N. Abel, rector of the university, told the newspaper that “the new science and technology campus will … help boost the national vision of having an IT-led economy.” He stated that the Adventist Church “does not only preach the gospel … but also promotes education, health and community development.”

During his last visit to Rwanda, Wilson “said the Adventist Church was committed to supporting Rwanda’s education, health and spiritual programs,” the newspaper recalled. The office tower and the science and technology center are part of the fulfillment of that commitment, it reported, as will be the new medical school.

The Adventist faith is the largest Protestant denomination in the country that was ravaged with genocidal violence between the two major ethnic groups in the early 1990s. Among Rwanda’s 11 million population, about one in ten individuals is an Adventist adherent (including children from birth).

The denomination has about 2,300 congregations in the country with a total current membership of 625,510 and nearly 300 clergy. In addition to the university, the denomination operates three secondary schools, Mugonero Hospital and six community health centers. More than 43,000 new members were baptized in the last year of record which gave the denomination a seven percent growth rate in Rwanda.