FIRST OFFICIAL POSTAGE STAMP MENTIONED ADVENTIST CHURCH
This 1967 postage stamp of Madagascar is the first ever official postage stamp that explicitly mentions the SDA Church.
Christianity had a hard time making its way into Madagascar. In 1613, the Jesuits established their first mission on the island, but various difficulties forced them to close their doors by the end of the century, leaving a small following to fend for themselves. Evangelical missionaries tried to establish missions in the early 1800s with varying success, but only the Lutheran Church had established a foothold by the end of the nineteenth century. The Seventh-day Adventist Church began making efforts to reach the Malagasy people with its message, sending magazines to Scandinavians in Malagasy in 1896. However, according to GC reports, Madagascar was still unreached in 1909. Specific plans to evangelize Madagascar were begun in 1913, and the first missionary left for Mauritius in 1914.
Official First Day Cover
In 1917, Antoine Tuyau from Mauritius settled in Madagascar and began distributing Adventist literature. In 1918, he met André Rasamoelina, who became interested in the truth and contacted a pastor in Mauritius and through him the missionary department of the General Conference. In 1920, André received the book Steps to Christ and immediately translated it into Malagasy. Five years later, it was printed and distributed through a small Adventist bookstore. But it was not until 1926 that the first baptism took place, and André and three other locals were baptized, organizing the first Adventist congregation on the island.
By 1967, when the government of Madagascar decided to depict the Adventist church building on a postage stamp, there were already 82 churches on the island with four thousand members. The church pictured on the stamp was built in 1958 and also served as the office for the local mission at Cité Adventiste, Tanambao V.