A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

months of harassment and threats they were forced to leave. In 1935 Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Wiens returned once more to the people who had become so dear to them. They found the buildings of the mission stations demolished, the members of the church scattered and the schools closed. Wiens did not rebuild the stations, but spent several years in itinerant evangelism. World War II and the Japanese invasion of China severed all connections with the Hakka M.B. Church. In 1947 Roland Wiens, son of the founder of the mission, and his wife returned for a third attempt. In spite of lack of communications and Communist occupation, the couple remained until May 1951, when they left the field for Hong Kong and were transferred to mission work in Japan. In West China The West China Mission of the Mennonite Brethren came about through the dissolution of the China Mennonite Mission Society in 1946, at which time the M.B. Board of Missions accepted responsibility for work which the H. C. Bartels had started in the early forties on the Szechuan-Kansu border. The experiences of the Bartels in this backward and dangerous hinterland of China constitute a story of extraordinary courage and faith. After negotiations were completed in 1946, the M.B. Board of Missions sent out the P. D. Kiehns and the sisters Bena and Emma Bartel to this field. In 1947 the P. P. Baltzers and the Harold Baltzers joined the missionary staff in West China. J. H. Lohrenz wrote in 1950 that "the Lord signally blessed the testimony of his messengers in this 408 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH difficult field. . . . The organized M.B. Church on the field numbers about 150 members." 15 In 1951 the last missionaries were forced to leave the field and return home. Loyal Bartel, a son of H. C. Bartel, stayed, however, although his family went to the United States. Through letters he has sent to members of his family it is evident that the Church of Jesus Christ, including the Mennonite Brethren, has survived in spite of persecution, civil war, and cultural revolution, and that the "powers of death" have not prevailed against it. Mennonite Brethren in Japan Although Protestant missions in Japan date back more than a hundred years, Mennonite Brethren entered "the Land of the Rising Sun" less than twenty-five years ago. The first Mennonite Brethren workers, Henry and Lydia Thielmann, came to Japan in April, 1949, under the auspices of the Mennonite Central Committee. In a very real sense the MCC ministry of compassion in the immediate post-war period opened the door for Mennonite missions in Japan. 16 The Thielmanns, assisted by other MCC workers, began a relief and rehabilitation work in a devastated section of the city of Osaka, on Honshu Island. It was in the metropolitan area of this large city that the Mennonite Brethren began their work of evangelism. In 1950 Ruth Wiens was sent out as their first missionary. In densely pop