A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

the center for other "branch churches." In 1902 the congregation had a membership of three hundred and fifty, with a total of six hundred and seventy worshipers. Here as in some other new settlements, local government authorities occasionally identified the Brethren with the Baptists and consequently they suffered from various types of harassment. The Mennonite Brethren meetinghouse, for instance, was temporarily closed by the police in the winter of 1896-97. The wider horizons of the Brethren here are shown in that two brethren of this congregation studied theology in St. Crischona, Switzerland, around the turn of the century." (3) Barwenkowo. Barwenkowo, a city of about fourteen thousand inhabitants (1914) became the center of Mennonite settlement in the province of Charkov. Mennonites from the Chortitza and Molotschna colonies settled here and in Naumenko and Somoilowka after 1889. This "settlement" differed from the other daughter colonies in that Mennonites moved to Barwenkowo to engage in trade and industry. A number of flour mills, a factory for agricultural implements, and various machine shops were owned by Mennonites, including one of the founders KK A OF PROSI'KKITV AND PHOGRKSS (1885-1914) 91 of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Barwenkowo, Gerhard Froese. In 1903 the Brethren of this area extended a call to a young teacher, A. H. Unruh. to come and help them in their school program and church work. Unruh, who was twenty-five at the time, had been teaching for eight years in the Crimea, but had a desire to enter a wider spiritual ministry. After six years of teaching in the elementary school, Unruh was asked to become a member of the faculty of the "Commerce School" IKommerzschule) which was established in 1909, supported by both Russians and Mennonites. During these years in Barwenkowo, Unruh developed the expository preaching method which made his ministry so effective." In 1904 Unruh was ordained to the ministry by elder D. Schellenberg. In this congregation he served faithfully as leading minister, with a temporary interruption during World War I, until after the Russian Revolution in 1918. The Barwenkowo congregation was actively involved in a ministry to the Ru.ssian people. In connection with this mission A. H. Unruh and G. P. Froese were arrested by government officials and imprisoned for thirty days. 10 During the Civil War 11918-20) the congregation here dissolved. (4) Ignatjewo. Another prosperous agricultural settlement in the province of Ekaterinoslav was established by Chortitza Mennonites at Ignatjewo in 1888. The village of Nikolajewka became the center of the Mennonite Brethren Church in this settlement. A large secondary school built here by the Brethren, was used for worship services on Sunday. Hermann Neufeld, who had moved here from Chortitza, became the leading minister of this congregation. In 1895 he was ordained and the church ceased to be a subsidiary of