A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

d in the establishment of small fellowship groups. 6. Involvement in Foreign Missions In 1886 the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren opened a mission work in the black community of Elk Park, North Carolina. According to Bender this is "the first Mennonite Negro work." 43 In the conference reports the work at Elk Park is always listed under "foreign missions," even though it was a mission located within the borders of the United States. This classification of North Carolina as a "foreign mission" field in all probability stems from the fact that the concept of missions among the 188 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH Krimmer Brethren (as well as among most Mennonite groups) in times past has been determined not only by geographical distance, but also by the color of the skin. The K.M.B. churches of Kansas and South Dakota were, of course, also far removed geographically from the people living at Elk Park, North Carolina. Through the faithful ministry of Mr. and Mrs. Heinrich Wiebe (1900-1908), Mr. and Mrs. Jacob M. Tschetter (1903-1912); Mr. and Mrs. Joseph W. Tschetter (1911-1916), and Mr. and Mrs. Peter H. Siemens (1925-1956), the work was established and extended over a radius of sixty miles, from the eastern tip of Tennessee into the heart of the Blue Ridge mountains. During Brother Siemens' ministry the work had grown to include eleven small congregations. Siemens served as superintendent of the churches and endeavored to visit each group once a month. 4 '' The congregations of this area have been organized as the North Carolina Conference which today constitutes a district of the United States M.B. Conference. For a number of years Rondo Horton and his wife Ruth, a local black couple, have rendered effective pastoral services in the North Carolina district. At present 1 1972) the conference consists of six churches: one located at Boone, two at Ferguson, two at Lenoir, and one at Newland. Although somewhat removed from the rest of the M.B. constituency, contacts are maintained through fraternal visits and special ministries. The K.M.B. Conference has supported its foreign missionaries at work under other boards. A "Foreign Missions Committee" has represented the mission interest of the conference through the years. The commitment of this small brotherhood (less than 2,000 in 1954) to world evangelism can be seen from the scope of its missionary activities. In 1954 the committee reported that a K.M.B. testimony was being heard in North Carolina, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Northwest Indies, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Belgian Congo, Southern Rhodesia, India, Japan and Germany. The financial receipts for foreign missions that year amounted to $47,743.80. 46 China, where the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren supported their first overseas missionaries, is not listed above because that country was closed to missionaries by 1954. Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Bartel es- tablished the first Mennonite mission in Ch