A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

amilies settled here and established a church at Kelowna in 1947. A small congregation at Oliver, seventy miles south of Kelowna, was a subsidiary of the Kelowna M.B. Church for a number of years. The other churches in the interior of the province are largely the result of an intensive outreach program on the part of the Home Missions Committee (formerly the "West Coast Children's Mission of B.C.") of the provincial conference." In many instances a number of M.B. families who found professional employment in the larger towns and cities of the interior would form the nucleus of a Mennonite Brethren fellowship and witness. An M.B. church was organized in the city of Prince George [Peden Hill) in 1961. In the same year mission churches were established at Ocean Falls and Kitimat. In the northwest small subsidized churches were established in 1962 at Port Edward and Hazelton. In the following year groups were organized at Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and Terrace. The Cariboo Bethel Church at Williams Lake, established in 1966, show promise of growth and stability. In 1971 the newly organized congregation at Kamloops (Valleyview Bible 170 HISTORY OF THE MENNON1TE BRETHREN CHURCH Church) was accepted into the Canadian M.B. Conference. A number of mission churches have also been established in the lower mainland dur- ing the fifties and sixties — Mountain View Gospel Chapel, Harrison Gospel Chapel. County Line Gospel Chapel. Brookswood M.B. Church, Lake Errock M.B. Church, and South Otter M.B. Church. Practically all of these began as church extension projects of the older congrega- tions in the Fraser Valley.' 1 " The large influx of more than two thousand Mennonites coming from Russia after World War II has also led to an increase in membership in many M.B. churches of this area. In the Greater Vancouver Area The general movement from the country to the city was accentuated in British Columbia by the economic depression of the 1930's. Vancouver, a large seaport city, offered employment opportuni- ties not available in the Fraser Valley. Here, as elsewhere, Mennonites were reluctant to take up residence in a city because their children and young people would be exposed to the temptations and "worldliness" of a large metropolis. By 1937, however, the number of M.B. families in Vancouver had grown to a sizeable group. Leading brethren from the Valley (Gerhard Derksen and Petrus Martens, Yarrow, and C. C. Peters, Agassiz) were invited to assist in the organization of a church. Thus, the first M.B. church in the Vancouver area was established in 1937 with thirty-seven charter members. 4 ' The following year, Jacob G. Thiessen, a minister with wide experience in Russia and Saskatchewan, moved here and together with a number of other brethren provided spirtual nurture for the rapidly increasing membership. After renting a hall for several years, the congregation was able to build a church basement i