The Birth of Adventism in New Zealand Season 2 | Episode 36
Funds had been raised by Sabbath school members in California
to send a missionary team down to Australia.
The intention was to open the work in Australia,
but God had additional plans in store.
Headed by S. N. Haskell, the team stopped here in New Zealand
for four to five days en route in 1885.
Impressed by the friendliness of the people
and noting the libraries in town,
Haskell commented that the people must be interested in learning
and would therefore make good prospects for learning Bible truths.
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After settling in Melbourne,
he decided to return to America and stopped off in New Zealand on the way.
He had heard of a group of Sunday-keeping Adventists,
and found accommodation with Edward and Lizzie Hare.
They introduced him to others in the area,
and he held some meetings over the course of a few weeks.
Breaking the evangelistic rule,
he presented the Sabbath on the first night
and the Second Coming on the second night.
They were convinced,
and encouraged him to visit the rest of the Hare family
who lived North in Kaeo.
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Deciding not to return to the US,
he stayed with the Hare family in Kaeo,
about 250 kilometers north of Auckland.
This area is rich in religious history,
with the Methodist, Anglican, Catholic,
and Seventh-day Adventist churches having roots in the area.
Here he met the patriarch of the family, Joseph Hare,
an Irish Orangeman who, along with his family,
lived in a house on the mound behind me.
He also met his son, Robert, and both of them were preachers.
Haskell was invited to speak, and spoke for three consecutive Sundays,
along with evening meetings
and also holding Bible studies during the day in the home.
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The Hare family decided to keep the Sabbath,
and this chemist behind me
would end up being one of the first church buildings that they met in.
Robert, the son, had a difficult decision to make.
He was engaged to be married.
The house had been built, the furniture had been ordered,
but his bride-to-be objected to his new beliefs.
It was marriage or the Sabbath.
She wouldn't convert, and he wouldn't compromise.
The marriage was off,
and he left for America to study for the ministry at Healdsburg College.
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Haskell returned in 1886 and ran a two-week evangelistic series,
and before he left, he organized the Kaeo Seventh-day Adventist Church,
the first in New Zealand, on the 23rd of March 1886.
Haskell sent a good report to the General Conference,
and requested an evangelist be sent.
The choice was 28-year-old A. G. Daniells,
who would later go on
to be the longest-serving General Conference president.
A. G. Daniells brought with him a 15-square-metre marquee
that was pitched here in this park, along with a pedal organ.
Together with his wife, he lived in a tent on site.
[music]
A. G. Daniells would lead the first evangelistic tent series in Auckland
and drew large crowds.
At the end of 17 weeks of meetings,
a Sabbath school with 78 members was started.
Later on, a small wooden church
was built on Mackelvie Street with 67 charter members,
and the first service took place on the 15th of October 1887.
This was the first church built in the southern hemisphere
and still stands today as part of the Ponsonby Seventh-day Adventist Church.
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Robert hare would soon return from the USA
with his American bride, Henrietta Johnson,
and thrust himself into the work here.
A few years later, a conference would be formed
and the work would progress to the South Island,
with S. N. Haskell amongst others starting the church there as well.
A few years later, the conference would split into two, in 1915.
A college was also started at Longburn on the south part of the North Island.
When Ellen White was in the South Pacific,
she spent some time here helping to establish the church
and spoke at the first New Zealand campmeeting
and also began writing on the life of Christ while she was down here.
[music]
And so the stop on the journey to Australia
turned into a lot more than just a few days' rest.
God had bigger plans than just rest and relaxation.
S. N. Haskell's return journey to America never materialized then,
and instead the church was birthed here in this beautiful country.
Sometimes we have big plans that we want God to accomplish,
and whilst that's good to have,
we must always be open to God turning things around
and remember as Isaiah says,
that His ways are higher than our ways. (Isaiah 55:9)