Adventist Students Find New Support in Middle East and North Africa

Students and church leaders work to establish regional chapters of Public Campus Ministries.

By Chanmin Chung, communication coordinator, Middle East and North Africa Union

The first thing that many Seventh-day Adventist university students do when they arrive in the Middle East or North Africa to study is google “Adventist Church.”

Typically, they find no results.

Students who keep looking for an Adventist church tend to stumble upon other Adventist students at their public universities. These students then gather quietly on Sabbaths to worship.

But Adventist students experience unexpected challenges without a supportive Adventist network, and many face strong pressure while studying in a non-Christian environment. Classes and exams frequently are scheduled on the biblical seventh-day Sabbath, and professors are often unsympathetic to requests for alternate exam days when they learn that the student is a Christian.

Many students face academic censure or the loss of scholarships when they hold fast to their convictions about the Sabbath, church leaders said. A significant number of students fall away from the faith.

“Students from Adventist backgrounds lose their faith after arriving in countries like Morocco and Algeria,” said Mioty Andriamahefason, who formerly served as a regional leader among students in Morocco and now works for the Adventist Church’s Middle East and North Africa Union.

Andriamahefason, who has been praying about the issue for several years, and other church leaders hope that all that will change with the establishment of Public Campus Ministries in the Middle East and North Africa region, known as MENA.

“Public Campus Ministries can help solve many issues by providing structure and leadership for student groups as well as spiritual resources to help them stay strong in their faith,” Andriamaehfason said.

A group of church leaders met with 100 Adventist students at East Mediterranean University, a state university in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus, for a first conference to strategize the regional future of Public Campus Ministries, an organization of the Adventist world church that nurtures the faith of Adventist students on public campuses by encouraging them to engage in mission. The leadership team — comprised a diverse group from Angola, Ecuador, Kenya, Madagascar, Paraguay, Sao Tome and Principe, the United States, and Uganda — surveyed the students about their challenges during the inaugural Oct. 29-31 Public Campus Ministries Advisory.

“I think we need more of these kind of informal discussions together to unpack what challenges fellow students face and find ways to strengthen our group,” said Bravington Mazengwe, a Zimbabwe student who studies in the region.

Nearly 400 Adventist students study at public university campuses, mainly in Morocco, Algeria, North Cyprus, and Turkey, church leaders said. That amounts to 10 percent of the Adventist membership in MENA.

“Public Campus Ministries can be a strategic support to retain students in those restricted access countries and also empower them to be creative, cross cultural witnesses,” said Brian Manley, the church’s liaison for Public Campus Ministries in the region.

Throughout the weekend, the leadership team reviewed feedback from students and worked to develop a strategic plan for the future of Public Campus Ministries in the MENA Union. Plans were developed for a leadership training event and the establishment of five Public Campus Ministries chapters in 2017.

“I am thankful that the General Conference has initiated a Public Campus Ministries focus and look forward to seeing student groups strengthened by this initiative,” said Ligio Jose, an Angolan student who attended the meeting.

In a region where the population of 500 million is 90 percent non-Christian, the church is continuously seeking new ways to establish new, front line work. The 400 Adventist students in some of the most challenging and restrictive countries in the world positions them to be powerful disciples, said Rick McEdward, president of the MENA Union.

“We are so happy to see public campus ministries taking off in MENA,” McEdward said. “We feel this can be a very significant step for the many places where students are who are surrounded by a cross section of other nationalities on campus.”