Malawi’s celebrated social media influencer, Pemphero Mphande, has launched an essay competition in which public and private secondary school students across the country are challenged to summarize a 219-paged ‘The Great Controversy’ book.
‘The Great Controversy’ book, written by Seventh Day Adventist Church Co-founder Ellen Gould White and published in 1858 by her husband James White, is all about the history of sin from beginning to end.
In the essay competition, Mphande, a humanitarian and a member of the New Apostolic Faith Church, is challenging secondary school students across the country to summarize the whole book or any chapter of their choice.
The first phase of the competition started on Monday 25th March and it will run until 1st of April 2024. In this phase, secondary school students who don’t have the book, have been allowed to ask Mphande to give them through WhatsApp at no cost.
The final phase which runs to 25 April 2024, is the actual writing and submission of the essay and some of the rules include summarising the whole book or any chapter of the book to 300-500 words.
When submitting the essay through WhatsApp, students who intend to participate, are encouraged to put them in Word or PDF formats, and on the document they should put their names, essay titles, age, number of words, and name of their school.
Twenty outstanding students from both public and private schools will win prizes including School books, Calculators, Mathematical sets, school bags, and also at sunrise books.
Mphande who is also an author, started reading ‘The Great Controversy’ book last year and since then he has been on a campaign, encouraging people to read the book as well, saying it is a life changer.
“This book is changing my life. The Great Controversy opens your eyes to an inevitable future and fate of mankind in well-told biblical literature by Ellen G White. It connects you to the creator in ways untold.
“I am giving away 25 copies of this book. If you want a book, like this post, share this post, and comment “I want this book. I am in Blantyre or whichever district you are in. I will send it anywhere in Malawi,” wrote Mphande on his Facebook page last month.
While speaking to the local media earlier this week, Mphande further said although ‘The Great Controversy’ book was authored by an Adventist, Ellen G. White, this does not mean the book is only for Seventh-day Adventists but for everyone.
