LIBERIA. A West African republic with an area of 38,250 square miles (99,000 square kilometers) and a population (1994) of 3 million. The country is bounded on the south and west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by Sierre Leone and Guinea, and on the east by Côte d’Ivoire. Agriculture is the principal occupation of the people, with rubber, iron, cacao, and coffee the principal exports.

Liberia has a low coastline stretching 350 miles (550 kilometers) along the Atlantic Ocean and a hinterland extending into the interior for some 200 miles (300 kilometers). The climate is hot and humid. English is the official language, but approximately 28 different dialects are spoken. Since 1847 Liberia has been an independent Black republic.

In the early nineteenth century, when the pangs of conscience began to trouble the minds of Europeans and Americans and forceful appeals were made for the abolition of slavery, the American Colonization Society decided that the Liberian coast would make a suitable home for repatriated Blacks. Since that time hundreds of freed slaves and their descendants migrated there so that by 1925 there were about 25,000 American Liberians in the country.

Seventh-day Adventist Statistics. The territory of Liberia constitutes the Liberia Mission in the West African Union Mission, which forms a part of the Africa-Indian Ocean Division. Statistics (1993) for Liberia: churches, 34; membership, 11,492; ordained ministers, 5; credentialed missionaries, 5. Headquarters: P.O. Box 52, 1000 Monrovia.

Institutions. Seventh-day Adventist Cooper Memorial Hospital.

Development of Seventh-day Adventist Work. Beginnings. The GC Daily Bulletin of Oct. 24, 1889, contains a reference to "Bro. Gaston from Liberia, who recently embraced the truth, and has gone back to his country to sow the seeds of precious truth among his kindred." Later reports reveal that he was of the Washington, D.C., church. In reporting his 1892 visit to West Africa at the January 1893 General Conference session, Lawrence C. Chadwick appealed that a missionary be sent to open a mission "at or near the home of Brother Gaston" (GC Daily Bulletin 5:2, Jan. 29, 1893). However, Liberia was to wait another 33 years for its first Seventh-day Adventist missionaries.

In 1926 the European Division sent R. Helbig and E. Flammer from Germany to Liberia, where, with L. F. Langford, of England (who had worked in the Gold Coast), they found a suitable site for the first SDA mission inland in Grand Bassa County, at Seahn. The next year Helbig and Flammer, making final arrangements for the piece of land, secured from the government a grant of 100 acres (40 hectares) of land for 99 years, on which were built the first school, church, and dispensary. Early in 1927 K. Noltze arrived from Germany to assist in the work in Liberia and remained there for 15 years.

On Apr. 30, 1930, the first four SDA converts were baptized at Seahn. Among them was Willie Helbig, who later became the first Liberian ordained minister. Later D. K. Reider arrived to join the missionary families. Noltze and Reider were sent to Liiwa, in the Gbarnga district, to begin another mission station.

In 1935 K. Noltze established the Konola Mission, where in 1937 he opened a boarding school for boys, which later became an accredited boarding academy for both boys and girls (see Konola Academy). N. S. During, an African pastor from Sierra Leone, was sent to Liberia in 1937 for schoolwork at Konola, and stayed there until 1939.

In 1936 T. N. Ketola, from Finland, arrived at the Konola Station and was moved to Liiwa Station in the following year. In 1941, after Noltze returned to Germany, Ketola moved back to Konola. In 1942 he bought property for new mission headquarters at Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, and began the work there. He prepared buildings and made contacts with leaders and with the people before going to the United States in 1943. At that time the church membership in the entire country was 303.

In the meantime, in 1933, I. W. Harding, an African, had been sent as a missionary from neighboring Sierra Leone to Lower Buchanan in Liberia. When during World War II the overseas missionaries had to leave Liberia, Harding became, in 1942, the first African president of the Liberia Mission, a post he held until 1945. Under his leadership the work was expanded into Lower Buchanan and Monrovia, the capital city. By 1940 there were three mission stations and a baptized membership of 137 in the Liberia Mission.

Late in 1945 three Black American families appointed by the General Conference arrived in Liberia. G. N. Banks became president and secretary-treasurer of the mission; P. E. Giddings, the principal of the Konola School; and C. D. Henri, evangelist and leader in the Bassa district. Since 1945 Black missionaries from the United States have held the leadership of the field.

The temperance work progressed in Liberia, with successful use of stop-smoking plans and radio and television programs.

On Dec. 24, 1989, civil unrest developed, and since then more than half the population have become refugees. Many church members and pastors have been scattered to remote areas of Liberia and to neighboring countries. During this period 11 new churches have been raised up in Liberia and in neighboring countries.

(Information from the SDA Encyclopedia)