Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

sssssecsssssssssesssssssssscsssssssussees 320: A SCHOOL IN POKROVKA A FAMILY GROUP OF MENNONITES SCHOOL BUILDING—CENTRAL-SCHULE HMIGRA TION PROVE RUSSIAN. nh) haat ole oer een 321 PERSONNEL OF RELIEF WORKERS... 344, 352, 356, 360: PERSONNEL OF THE MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 376, 388 THE) CHORTITZA-ROSENTHAL MBDA Lae iscssssccovessssscsstistssorsssessconenseste 405 DENK SCHREPT Ne tira seein Octo ras On a ee ee 408 MANY FAITHS UNITED IN THE GREATEST OF HUMANI- TARIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS ORGANIZED AMERICAN MENNONITE RELIEF CHAPTER I. MENNONITE RELIEF ACTIVITIES DURING AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE WAR For centuries, Mennonites have generally been ac- knowledged to be a thrifty, well-to-do people, who pro- vided for their own poor, of whom they usually had but few. They also have the reputation of being peace-loving and law-abiding. They have, however, often been charg- ed with being rather self-centered and manifesting but a limited interest in things outside of their circles. At various times leaders of vision have urged them to reach out farther, in an effort to help the needy and to give the world the Gospel; yet little progress was made in this matter until a vital impetus was given to this work by a great famine of India in 1899, when several groups of Mennonites sent representatives with food to minister to the physical and the spiritual needs of the people. Out of these and later efforts, have developed several of the present-day missionary enterprises of the Mennonites in foreign lands. Soon after the beginning of the World War a plea for help came to America from the starving in Belgium and northern France. In response the Mennonites gave freely. As the war continued, this need broadened and gave the Mennonites an opportunity to relieve much suf- fering in France, Germany, Austria, and Poland. Dur- ing this time the Mennonites contributed large sums of money to the cause of relief, and a number of their young men volunteered for service among the needy of Europe and Asia. 28 FEEDING THE HUNGRY THESE YOUTHFUL WITNESSES OF THE FAITH became one of the effective means in the hands of God to teach the Mennonites to give and to serve as a group and in an organized way. The Lord used these young men in a wonderful way to awaken the American Mennonites to a realization of their peculiar mission as a people who believe in saving life rather than in de- stroying it. These men, whose age under normal con- ditions would have precluded their wielding any exten- sive influence on the lives and actions of their people, did more than they themselves realized. But God sometimes uses ways and means that we had never con- templated, and so it was in the case of the young men from our Christian, Mennonite homes, who were drafted for service in the great world war. At home, when all went well, it was easy to be a pacifist and to live a non- resistant life, at least theoretically, but when