Miracle Clinic: Adult Mission Story for June 6, 2026

By Gina Wahlen

This week’s mission story takes a look at the remarkable events that led to the opening of a Seventh-day Adventist clinic on Zanzibar island, which is part of Tanzania and located just off Africa’s eastern coast. The clinic is one of this quarter’s special mission projects. Its story began in the mid-1980s.

The senior government official from Zanzibar was in trouble.

Seif Sharif Hamad didn’t feel well during a visit to Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma. As chief minister, he was a powerful leader on the island and second only to Zanzibar’s president. But on this particular day, he felt weak and unsure of himself.

Someone recommended that he go to a Seventh-day Adventist clinic. Now, the clinic wasn’t the closest medical facility to his workplace in the parliament building. There were other hospitals nearby. But the chief minister went to the Adventist clinic. He was pleased with the care that he received, and he asked the staff, “Who are you?” They replied, “We’re Seventh-day Adventists.”

He asked, “Does your organization have leadership?”

They said, “Yes, we have leadership.”

Then he asked, “Can we open something like this on the island of Zanzibar?”

They said, “Yes, we can.”

The clinic’s staff passed on the request to the Adventist Church’s Tanzania Union Mission, whose leaders were delighted. Zanzibar had proven to be a particularly challenging territory since the first church workers arrived there in the late 1930s. Those workers were literature evangelists, and they had unsuccessfully sought to sell books on the island, where most of the people were not Christian.

More recently, the church had met more success by sending medical doctors to conduct health programs on the dangers of alcohol, tobacco, and pork. The health initiatives aligned with Zanzibar beliefs and had been met with a good response.

Now, Zanzibar’s chief minister was inviting the Adventists to open a clinic that could significantly expand the church’s health outreach work. It seemed to be too good to be true.

The Tanzania Union Mission formed a three-member committee to explore the idea of opening a clinic.

Before long, its three members arrived in Zanzibar and met with the chief minister in his office in 1986. He remembered the Adventist clinic that had treated him, and he invited the visitors to get to work on opening the clinic promptly. He also instructed the island’s health authorities to approve a proposal for the project.

But months passed, and nothing happened. No approval was granted.

Finally, a church leader went to the chief minister and asked what was happening.

The chief minister was upset about the delay. He intervened to make sure that the project proposal was approved quickly.

Then the church needed to find a place for the clinic. Church leaders asked a literature evangelist who had lived on the island for the past five years to help. The man found a former hotel consisting of two buildings located on opposite sides of a street. It had been up for sale for two years. The church purchased the buildings.

A doctor, Josiah Tayali, arrived from the mainland to set up the clinic. Under his watch, the buildings were renovated, and medical, surgical, and laboratory equipment were shipped from the mainland.

Dr. Josiah received permission to open a pharmacy that sold medicine in the clinic. By law, all medical services offered on Zanzibar had to be free, and he was looking for a way to help pay the clinic’s staff. The money made from medicine sales proved to be enough to cover the workers’ salaries and to buy more medicine.

The Zanzibar Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary opened on January 31, 1988.

Zanzibar’s chief minister was pleased. After that, when family members fell ill, he sent them to the clinic for treatment. The clinic’s other well-known patients have included the wife of Zanzibar’s president and other senior officials. Most patients, however, are those who live nearby.

Dr. Josiah, who is now retired, called the clinic a miracle of God.

“This was God’s call to work in Zanzibar,” he said. “It was not started by us.”

The Zanzibar Seventh-day Adventist Dispensary has offered critical services on Zanzibar for nearly 40 years. During that time, private clinics have been allowed to open, and the Adventist clinic has joined them in accepting payments for its services. But now its two buildings have grown old and need to be replaced. You can be part of this miracle story by giving to this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, which is also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering. The funds will allow the clinic’s buildings to be demolished and replaced with modern buildings. Thank you for giving generously to this important project.