SDA Church world leader to visit Malawi

The world leader of Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pastor Ted Wilson, wis expected to have a pastoral visit to  Malawi next month.

The 69-year-old Wilson, who is the president of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, on his mission to impact Malawi with Jesus, is expected to jet in the country on February 7 through Kamuzu International Airport.

The general conference, based in Maryland, US, is the governing body of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It co-ordinates the global ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is also responsible for the spiritual and developmental plans of the church around the world.

On arrival at Kamuzu International Airport, Pr Wilson will address a news conference  and then will have various engagements in the country before flying out on Febryary 10.

“The  SDA church in Malawi is eagerly waiting for the visit,” said  SDA Malawi Union president Pastor Frackson Kuyama.

Who is Ted Wilson?

Ted N.C. Wilson was elected as president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church in July 2010 during the General Conference Session in Atlanta, US.

Born in Takoma Park, Maryland on May 10, 1950, the son of former Adventist world church President Neal C. Wilson and Elinor E. Wilson, Wilson spent part of his childhood in Egypt.

He began his church career as a pastor in 1974 in the Greater New York Conference. He married Nancy Louise Vollmer Wilson in 1975. The couple has three daughters and 10 grandchildren.

Wilson served as the assistant director and then director of Metropolitan Ministries in New York from 1976 to 1981. He served in the then Africa-Indian Ocean Division, based in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, until 1990 as a departmental director and later as executive secretary.

Following his post in West Africa, Wilson served for two years at the Adventist world church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, US, as an associate secretary. He served as the president of the church’s Euro Asia-Division in Moscow, Russia from 1992 to 1996.

Pastor Wilson returned to the US to serve as president of the Review and Herald Publishing Association in Hagerstown, Maryland until his election as an Adventist world church vice-president in 2000.

An ordained minister, Wilson holds a doctor of philosophy degree in religious education from New York University, a master of divinity degree from Andrews University, and a Master of Science degree in public health from the Loma Linda University School of Public Health. In addition to English, he speaks French and some Russian.