A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

e con- ferences. The first meetinghouse, a two-story brick structure with a seating capacity of about 125, has provided the necessary facilities through the years for both rescue mission efforts as well as Sunday school work." The present Lakeview M.B. Church in Chicago has grown out of these earlier mission activities. In the years following World War II a city mission {Fontenelle Chapel) was also established in Omaha, Nebraska. The publication efforts of the K.M.B. Conference date back to 1914 when a committee was elected and authorized to proceed with the publication of a conference paper and, if possible, establish a publishing house owned and operated by the conference. Hofer and Tschetter provided the necessary funds for the purchase of the building at 2812 1111. KHIMMKH MENNONITE HKKTHKKN COME TO NORTH AMERICA 187 Lincoln Ave., Chicago, and the needed printing equipment, on the condition that a city mission could be conducted in a part of the building housing the publishing activities. The Wahrheitsfreund (friend of truth), the German organ of the K.M.B. Church appeared weekly (except for ten months in 1934) from 1915 to 1947. In 1933 the Publishing Committee of the conference became the actual publisher of the paper, with the office of publication at Hillsboro for one year, and thereafter at Inman, Kansas. As a result of a declining readership, the Wahrheitsfreund was discontinued in 1947 and replaced by the Christian Witness as the official conference paper. After the K.M.B. — M.B. merger in 1960, the Christian Witness was amalgamated with the Christian Leader.' 0 Through the publication of the Wahrheitsfreund Hofer and Tschetter reached far beyond the K.M.B. constituency. In 1919 they reported a circulation of 5500 copies — at least three times the number of families in K.M.B. churches. In addition to the conference paper, they also published Yearbooks, Articles of Faith, the Constitution, and Sunday school quarterlies." The printed page no doubt constituted an important medium in uniting a widely scattered brotherhood, and in promoting the missionary interests of the conference. A very prominent feature of the church extension work of the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren through the years has been an itinerant ministry of elders, preachers and evangelists. In the earlier period these were always sent out two by two. In later years evangelists were appointed for full-time service, and the "team effort" was abandoned. After World War II, home mission efforts were expanded. By 1954 the work at Orchard Park Chapel in Hutchinson (Kansas) had developed into an organized church. An area which received special consideration during this period was the Ozark region of Arkansas. Primarily through vacation Bible schools, an initial witness was established at Compton, Elkhorn, and Kingston. 42 Through Sunday schools, Bible classes, and special evangelistic efforts the work developed and resulte