A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

ome the largest Mennonite mission in China."" Mennonite Brethren have been closely related to this mission in several ways. Brethren from the M.B. Church have served on the Board of Directors of the mission. Among the missionaries, a fairly large number of M.B. church members have been active on the field, including the P. D. Kiehns, P. P. Baltzers, Bena Bartel, Emma Bartel, Tena Kornelsen, and Paulina Foote. Jonathan Bartel, M.B. missionary in Japan and son of the founder of the mission in North China, gives the following account of the work: Eventually six city churches and many village churches, all with national pastors and evangelists, were established on this field with a total membership of somewhere around two to three thousand. A Bible school was also operated on the Shantung field with Loyal Bartel as principal. In 1940 some 70 students were enrolled. Bartels also had an orphanage during the first years of the work. Many pastors and evangelists came from these orphans. ' 2 Another mission was established in Inner Mongolia by K.M.B. missionaries Mr. and Mrs. F. V. Wiebe in 1923. For some time Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Dick (M.B.) had the supervision of this station. The Com- munist invasion of this territory in the 1940's made missionary activity virtually impossible. In South China The South China Mission was started independently by Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Wiens in 1911 among the Hakkas at Shanghang in Fukien Province. 13 Although the General Conference of Mennonite Brethren had authorized its Board of Missions to begin a work in China, acceptance of the mission among the Hakkas was delayed until 1919. During the following six years eight missionaries were sent to China to reinforce the staff: Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Dick (1920), Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Wiens (1921), Mary and Sophia Richert (1922), Paulina Foote (1924) and Adelgunda Prieb (1925). MENNONITE BRETHREN AROUND THE WORLD 407 In 1921 F. J. Wiens reported an indigenous church of 450 members, eleven outstations supervised by national pastors, and seventeen schools in which thirty teachers were employed. Statistical information for later years is not available, but reports from missionaries indicated a constant growth of the Hakka M.B. Church, a constant increase in attendance at station and village schools, and a remarkable expansion of the medical work. This period of prosperity and progress only lasted for about eight years. Recurrent political unrest which culminated in the confrontation of the Nationalists and the Communists in 1927, caused the evacuation of the missionaries. On their way to the coast, traveling by river boat, they were overtaken by bandits who robbed them of some of their belongings. The incredible sufferings which the young church endured during the time of civil strife and disorder will perhaps never be fully known." In 1929 the J. S. Dicks made an attempt to return to the field and resume the work, but after six