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

LY MENNQNTTE BRETHREN MISSIONARIES agreed, and while aboard a ship to Hamburg, black fever overcame him. He died and his body was buried in the At- lantic Ocean, His term of service had been tragically short, but it launched a dramatic movement. Others felt compelled to bring the gospel to those who had not heard. His act of obedience became a cornerstone of Mennonite Brethren for- eign missions. Heinrich Enns. The message from Peter Wedel's ocean grave continued to reverberate among the Mennonite Brethren in North America, Heinrich Enns, a well-loved teacher, and his wife Maria suddenly became resdess, bur- dened by the needs far beyond the shores of their chosen homeland, God had spoken to them. Sharing the vision of Peter Wedel they left in 1896 to go to Cameroon under the German Baptist Mission. A large crowd gathered at the rail- road station in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, to bid them farewell Heinrich Voth, elder and leader of the conference, offered a prayer of dedication and farewell As the prayer concluded and the assembled well-wishers broke into the song, "God be with You Till We Meet Again,'* the train began to move. Heinrich Enns stood on the steps of the train and spoke one Final time to his friends and neighbors. His words rang out above the sound of the train's gathering speed. "If we do not come back, if we must die, then from this group there will have to be others who will follow us in order that people who have not heard may hear." Perhaps he had a premonition that he too would find his grave in African soil, for he was on the field only seven months when he succumbed to black fever. But his parting words continued to stir the heart of a youth, only fourteen and not yet a believer, who had been part of that crowd at the Mountain Lake station. Aaron A. Janzen was his name. Aaron Jamen grew up in a godly pioneer family, the Aaron F. Janzens. At the age of twenty-three, in a revival meeting in Windom, Minnesota, he experienced personal sal- 97 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH vation. For some time he struggled with the question of his future. The parting words of Heinrich Enns, which he had heard as a boy several years earlier at the Mountain Lake rail- road station, would not leave him. He surrendered to the wooing of the Spirit of God to become a missionary. In preparation, he studied at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and for a short time at the Baptist seminary in Rochester, New York. He was deeply concerned to find a spouse who would share his ambitious vision. This he found in Emestin