A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

nies in Russia, Zinzendorf s writings and reports of his mission efforts provided a major point of refer- ence for Mennonite Brethren. Cornelius Krahn wrote that "no other single religious movement has had such an impact on the Mennonites in all countries with the exception of the Netherlands as Pietism."11 Wilhelm Lange, a Lutheran Pietist who became a leading minister of the Gnadenfeld Mennonite Church, initiated mis- sionary festivals as early as the 1830s. These festivals were an important influence in the renewal movement that preceded the birth of the Mennonite Brethren in I860. Tobias Voth and 83 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH his wife were converted through the writings of Pietist Jung- Stilling while living in Germany. As a teacher in the Ohrloff Zentralscbule Voth emphasized missions and encouraged mis- sionary giving,12 Heinrich Dirks, the first foreign missionary from the Russian Mennonites, went to Sumatra in 1870 under the Dutch Mennonite Mission Board, and received his training at the Missionshaus at Barmen, Germany, a school with Pietist roots.13 Eduard Wust, the Pietist pastor from Germany, fanned the spiritual renewal in South Russia into a flame. "Either-Or" was the watchword of this man who knew only two categories of people-the converted and the unconverted. Wiist's joyous concept of justification by faith complemented the more earnest Reformation theology of Menno Simons to produce a heightened passion for the Great Commission ,u A WITNESSING COMMUNITY These influences gave impetus and definition to the mis- sions ferment that was already brewing in the Russian Menno- nite colonies when the Mennonite Brethren emerged in I860.15 The new movement was bom in an atmosphere of keen mis- sionary spirit that would flourish for decades to come. At first, mission efforts focused on other Mennonites who were not converted. They also reached out to native Rus- sians, in spite of laws forbidding evangelism among them, and a goodly number responded, Imprisonment and threats of Siberian banishment did not deter them in this effort. The extension of their outreach to regions beyond-foreign mis- sions-emerged as leaders of the young movement prayed and searched Scripture for further direction1* The early Mennonite Brethren Church shared the zeal of the apostolic church as recorded in Acts 4:20, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." Threats and interrogations took place in courtrooms; they suffered for the testimony of their faith in prisons. In all these places they 84 A MISSIONARY MOVEMENT spoke of Jesus as their S