A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

to seek medical help, but he died en route and was buried in the ocean on August 10, 1897. Mrs. Enns, too, succumbed to the climate a few months later. Although the missionary interest of the conference was diverted to India in subsequent years, in the hearts of many members a deep desire lingered to extend the Mennonite Brethren witness to the Dark Continent. Mennonite Brethren in Zaire (Formerly the Belgium Congo) In 1912 Aaron and Ernestine Janzen left for the Congo under the Congo Inland Mission (CIM) which had been organized the year before. Their financial support came largely from friends within M.B. churches. They served in the Kasai Province in east central Congo for about two terms (1913-1920), opening the Nyanga field and station. Because of a deep conviction that God had called them to open a field for their own conference they asked for a release from the CIM, which was granted with reluctance. After an exploratory trip that extended into the Kwango Province some 300 miles west of Nyanga, A. A. Janzen selected a field at Kikandji, south of the important commercial center of Kikwit. Since Kikandji proved to be unsuitable for a mission center, the Janzens sought and found a more desirable location at Kafumba ("nest of the elephants"), thirty-five miles due south of Kikwit. In God's providence Kafumba was destined to become a strategic center for M.B. missions in the Congo. Meanwhile a second center of M.B. missions emerged at Bololo, in the Kasai district, about 450 miles northeast of Kafumba. In 1933 Mr. and Mrs. Henry G. Bartsch, 22 who had been assisting the Jantzens at Kafumba for a year, set out in search of a location for a mission to the Dengese tribe. The site chosen was at Bololo, some fifteen miles north of the Sankuru River. Because of almost insurmountable obstacles of transportation and communication, the mission was transferred to DjongoSanga in 1946. Between 1933 and 1942 other workers served for short terms on the Bololo field, including the Herman Lenzmanns from Canada and the Karl Kramers of Germany. The mission at Bololo was severely tested in the early years. Being the first and only Protestant mission in a large area, it experienced strong opposition not only from hostile tribesmen, but also from Roman Catholic priests. Educational efforts and medical services, however, paved the way for evangelism, and in due time a small church was 412 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH established. World War II had its effect on the Bololo mission: the Bartsches left on furlough in 1942 and war conditions made it virtually impossible to send out new workers; the Kramers, being German citizens, were interned as "enemy aliens." From 1942 to 1946 the Dengese field was without a resident missionary. Both missions in the Congo (Kafumba and Bololo) had through the years applied for acceptance into the Mennonite Brethren Conference. The A. A. Janzens requested reco