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Fresno, Calif.
Celebrating the past, looking to the future


October 2000 marks a century since MB churches in North America formed their first legal structure: the American Mennonite Brethren Mission Union, a mission agency. Through many changes in name, strategy and personnel, the work of global mission has continued to be a key focus of Mennonite Brethren ministry over the past century.

The first missionaries sent by the MB mission board in language study in India, 1898-1901. (l-r) Anna Suderman, A.J. Huebert, Heinrich Unruh, tutor, N.N. Hiebert, Elizabeth Neufeld. MB mission board

To date, MBMS International – the name eventually given to the MB mission agency – has sent 2,332 people as resident missionaries. Thousands more have served on short-term assignments through Youth Mission International, Church Partnership Evangelism, or for a variety of service projects.

The first overseas church planting work of the Mennonite Brethren of North America began 101 years ago when a group of missionaries travelled to India. That church has grown to 800 congregations throughout India. In December 1999, MBMSI General Director Harold Ens visited a church in Caoxian, one of the cities where Mennonite missionaries Henry and Nettie Bartel served in the early 1900s.

Two cobras that came into the compound of a mission hospital in India. Catherine Reimer

“Over the past decade, membership in the Caoxian region has grown from a few thousand to more than 18,000,” Enns says “They baptized 1,000 people in 1998. Through many years of change, trial and suffering (in China), God was still present long after our missionaries had been expelled.”

The MB church in Congo was started through efforts of the A.A. Janzens in 1924, and was nurtured by dozens of missionaries over the following decades. When Ens lived in Congo in the early 1970s, there was only one MB church in Kinshasa. Today, there are 42 churches with three being added each year.

“During my visit in February, I met with 30 Congolese MBs who have a vision for mission,” Ens says. “One objective is to reach out to a people group in Brazzaville. We learned of plans to send a Congolese MB missionary family to Angola. Several missiology students have a passion for sharing the gospel with Muslims. Others talked about bringing hope to the strife-torn regions of Africa.”

At this meeting, Ens states that he saw part of the future of MB mission. “We have a chance to partner with Christians in Congo by combining our resources, to do things that each cannot do on their own.”

Ens sees a future of partnership with the 15 MB conferences that have emerged over the past century. “These conferences stand ready to join with (us),” he says. “We and our partners may not always provide equal resources in all areas. But we need to build a vision together.”

Missionaries Frank and Agnes Wiens provide first aid to wounded soldiers in China, 1921. Linda Gerbrandt

MBMSI is already testing mission partnerships with several MB conferences. Hiromi Takeda from Japan is serving on the Thailand team; Jose and Esperanza Prada from Colombia are part of the Peru team; and Cristoph and Antonia Hägele from Germany are long-term MBMSI missionaries in Lithuania.

According to Dennis Fast, chair of the MBMSI Board, the agency hopes to open up Board membership to other MB conferences in the future. “Our goal is eventually to be an agency that is owned not just by Canadians and Americans, but by believers from all corners of the globe,” he states.

As Ens looks back at the Conference’s last century of mission, he emphasizes that it is only a starting point. “A quarter of the world’s people still do not have access to the gospel. This is the great unfinished task of global mission that is before us.”

 – Brad Thiessen, MBMS International

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Last modified October 20, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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