A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

thren met for their first conference in Andreasfeld. At this convention, held from May 14-16, 1872, delegates from the three congregations (Kuban, Molotschna and Chortitza) with their affiliated groups, representing a total membership of over six hundred, met for inspirational meetings and business sessions. August Liebig, the Baptist minister residing in the Chortitza colony, was asked to preside at the meetings. It is significant, and perhaps prophetic, that the major item of business at this conference was the establishment of an itinerant ministry for evangelism and church extension. A committee of seven brethren was elected to supervise and regulate this work. Five brethren were appointed to this ministry: Eduard Leppke, Christian Schmidt, Johann Wieler, Aron Lepp and Daniel Fast. The first two consented to serve full-time with an annual salary of four hundred rubles. The other three, because of vocational responsibilities, were willing to devote CONSOLIDATION AND EXPANSION (1865-1885) 77 half-time to this work with an annual allowance of two hundred rubles. An annual budget of one thousand rubles was no mean achievement for the young church. It was also decided that the itinerant ministers [Reiseprediger) should keep a diary, and report quarterly to the conference secretary. These reports were to be circulated among the congregations to promote interest in evangelism. 20 A brief note concerning two of these "traveling evangelists" might be added here. Eduard Leppke had been a Baptist before he came to South Russia where he joined the Mennonite Brethren and, according to P. M. Friesen, became a "hyper-Mennonite." In his teaching he went so far as to claim "that only nonresistant Christians could be saved." 21 His severe criticism of the Baptists gradually limited his usefulness as evangelist and led to an estrangement from the Mennonite Brethren Conference. Later he migrated to America where he eventually joined the Seventh Day Adventists. Johann Wieler (1839-1889), a high school teacher at Halbstadt, was perhaps the only one among the five appointed ministers who had a good command of the Russian language. He had a burden for the conversion of the Russian people, and preached occasionally among them. In 1883, he proposed to the Mennonite Brethren Conference that it engage in evangelism among these people, even though this was strictly prohibited by the Russian government. When the conference rejected his proposal, he launched out on his own and carried on an effective ministry among the Russians in the Odessa area. Soon the Russian police suspected him of "subversive activities," and after baptizing a Russian woman he was sentenced to exile in Siberia. But Wieler went into hiding for six months, after which he escaped to Germany, where he was granted temporary asylum of eight months. Since he could not return to Russia, he found a place of service in Rumania, where he ministered to R