This Month in Church History
July 1993: Mbabane Meetinghouse Dedicated
In a ceremony presided over by Africa Area President Richard P. Lindsay, Eswatini’s first meetinghouse was dedicated in the capital city of Mbabane on 18 July 1993, just over a year after ground was broken for the building.
Two hundred Church members and leaders from Eswatini’s five branches attended the groundbreaking on 20 June 1992. At the ceremony, Elder Earl C. Tingey, also of the Africa Area Presidency, said the new meetinghouse would be a place where all could be taught how to live the gospel of Jesus Christ in their homes.
Several government officials also attended and spoke at the ceremony, including Enos Mavuso, the official representative of Prince Soblana. He said, “It is our prayer that the Church grows. I think that in heaven angels are happy.”
A year later, as he dedicated the new building, Elder Lindsay asked for God’s blessings that the building “be used as an instrument of Thy peace in this great land. May it be a symbol of Thy love for all Thy children. May all who worship Thee herein be touched by the spirit of true brotherhood and sisterhood, and through that spirit may they come to better know Thee and Thy Son, Jesus Christ.”
At the time of dedication, there were two branches in Mbabane with a total membership of 332. Other branches were beginning in Ezulwini, Manzini, and Nhlangano. Today there are over 2,100 members in the country and the Mbabane meetinghouse is still in use.1