THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

or (homestead-owner) of Province District Volost Village NNN., who desires to join the newly-established church co mmuni ty, is a member of the Mennonite Church. To this I testify with my signature and the application of the church seal. 658 MATTERS OF FAITH G. FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE MENNONITES OF RUSSIA XXXVI. THE MISSION OF THE OLDER MENNONITE CHURCH We present this chapter largely word for word according to submissions received from the hand of the venerable senior of Russian- Mennonite missionaries, the present elder of the Gnadenfeld congregation, Heinrich Dirks. He writes: The Mission of the Anabaptists and Mennonites in the Dutch Indies Presented by Heinrich Dirks, Sr. 1. The Missionary Society among the Anabaptists of Holland was formed in 1849. It had developed out of an Aid Society of the English Baptists 1 which had existed in Holland since 1824, 2 and had been largely supported by the Anabaptists. The Aid Society, which originally prospered, gradually began to decline, and it was feared that it would soon come to an end. It was at this time that members of the Society in Amsterdam— Prof. S. Mueller, Prof. W. Cnoop-Koopmans, J. Slagrege and A. de Haan— expressed the desire to give a different direction to the existing missionary interest among many Anabaptist brethren in Holland. They also desired to awaken among others, if possible, the still- slumbering love for this holy work through the founding of an independent society for the promotion of the Gospel in the Dutch Indies. The brethren mentioned above now called upon the gentlemen A. Doyer, J. Boeke, J. van Gilse, C.P. Van Eeghen and W.P. van Lennep to join them in the attempt of founding a missionary society. These expressed their readiness, and unitedly they formed the new society. They elected Professor Mueller as president, de Haan and van Eeghen as treasurers, and Boeke as secretary. From the beginning the Society enjoyed not only the approval and participation of many congregations and their ministers of the fatherland (Holland), but also the approval of the sister-congregations in Germany. Soon an Anabaptist brother, Peter Jansz, a teacher from Delft, offered his services to the Society so that he might serve in the spirit of the new Society. The Society gladly accepted this brother as a trainee. He began his preparatory studies immediately ; under the guidance of a competent teacher he made special efforts to §300 659 660 FOREIGN MISSIONS learn the Javanese language. After his marriage to Sister J.W.F. Schmilan, he was sent out by the Society in May, 1851, to Java as the first missionary (of "all Mennonites!”). During the first year of his stay in Java, Br. P. Jansz served as a teacher in a school on a landed estate at Sumbring, near Japara, which belonged to a certain Mr. Sukian. This gentleman was an Armenian by birth, but had accepted the evangelical faith in Java. He had 8,000 Javanese