Report of the Board of Missions
“Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, and on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate… All Thy works shall give thanks to Thee, O Lord, and Thy godly ones shall bless Thee.” Ps. 145:3-5, 10.
In just a few days, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the sending of our first missionary to a country remote from North America. It all started approximately six years after our fellowship of churches began, at the Eleventh Semi-Annual Conference, November 3, 1864. A Committee was formed to formulate a constitution that was to be called “The Home and Heathen Missionary Society of the Evangelical Mennonites.” This seems to mark the beginning of the foreign mission endeavor. They carefully drafted a statement of their desires.
“We, as a small branch of the Christian Church, feel in duty bound to render obedience to the precepts of our Lord and Savior, who offered up His life out of love towards us, in order to redeem us from eternal death; since He has commanded His Apostles, as well as all who love Him, to go into all the world, to preach the Gospel to every creature, and to preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations, we, as a small division of the Mennonite Society feel it also our duty to organize a Missionary Society to contribute our mite to the great work of our Lord. May the Lord grant willing hearts and open hands, besides His rich blessing.”
About 26 years later, at Annual Conference in 1890, Eusebius Hershey requested and received authorization to go to India. On November 1, 1890, Eusebius Hershey sailed from New York for Liberia. Exactly what transpired to change that commitment from India to Africa we do not know. His daughter wrote, “He had a great desire for Africa all his life.” He said, “God is calling, I must go.” C. H. Brunner said of Hershey’s death in the 1911 Yearbook, “This stirred up the church and the seed commenced to grow and the offerings about doubled each year, for several years until today the Conference supports seventeen missionaries on the field.”
In the 1914 Yearbook of the 31 Annual Conference Rev.C.H.Brunner wrote:
” The Conference supports sixteen missionaries in the foreign field, or one missionary abroad to every hundred members at home (1:100). The average contributions for Foreign Missions per member for 1914 was $4.08.”
One hundred years after the sending of our first missionary, we have 91 active missionaries (52 family units), 9 appointees, and 41 applicants. Today we have one active missionary to about every sixty nine members (1:69) and the average contribution to the Board of Missions per member for 1989-90 is approximately $152.
It might be interesting to note what Ruth A. Tucker in her book From Jerusalem To Irian Jaya published by Academie in 1983, says about the zeal of the Moravians: “Their all-consuming objective was to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, a passion that was clearly evident to their proportion of missionaries to lay people. The ratio was 1:60, a noteworthy attainment in comparison to the ratio of 1:5000 in Protestantism as a whole.” We have not yet matched this ratio but it is interesting to note that we would need only about 5 more active missionaries to have a ratio of 1:60 and there are appointees who are ready and waiting to be sent in excess of that number.
We want to thank Pastors, Missions Committees, Women’s Missionary Societies, and others who have demonstrated their commitment to God’s priority of world evangelization and their active involvement. We want to thank you for the privilege of working with you in this noble endeavor and your cooperation with the Board of Missions in so many ways. We also want to thank each one who has given so generously to the missionary outreach of your church through the Board of Missions. Many have done so sacrificially. We continue to make ourselves available to each church to assist them in any way that we can that together we may excel in the work of the Lord.
The Board of Missions met seven times this year and the following update indicates some of the highlights of the year primarily between September 1, 1989 and August 31, 1990.
Missionary Candidates
At our last Annual Conference we reported that we worked with what might have been a record number of applicants, that number being 21 family units representing 35 adults. This past year we have worked with 31 family units representing 53 adults! They progressed through the process as follows (number of adults):
Applicants at September 1, 1989 (12 family units) 18
Applicants withdrew (1 family unit) 2
Additional Applicants accepted by this Board
(including reactivating missionaries) (7 family units)10
(C. Boones, Krausses, Pattison, Pollocks, Rawn, Robbins, Sears)
Applicants who became missionaries on their field of ministry 4
(3 family units: Pollocks, Rawn, Sears)
Appointees who became missionaries on their field of ministry 6
(Andersons, E. Boone, Chappell, Pattersons — 4 units)
Applicants at August 31, 1990 (23 family units) 41
General Statistical Report on August 31, 1990
1. Number of Sending Boards under which our
missionaries are working 35
2. Number of countries in which our
missionaries are working 23
3. Number of Missionaries:
Family Total
Units Couples Singles Adults
Active Missionaries 52 39 13 91
Leave of Absence 1 1 0 2
Appointees 6 3 3 9
Active Applicants 23 18 5 41
TOTALS 82 61 21 143
4. Geographical Areas where our missionaries are assigned and their number
Area Families Adults Countries
U.S. 19 31 U.S.
North America 3 6 Canada, Mexico
(excluding the U.S.)
Central America 5 9 Bonaire, Costa Rica, Guadeloupe, St.Vincent
South America 7 13 Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, Venezuela
Europe 5 9 U.K., France, Austria, Spain
Africa 9 16 Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Zaire
Asia 1 2 United Arab Emirates
Southeast Asia 3 5 Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong
TOTALS 52 91 23 COUNTRIES
Summer Missionary Financial Aid
Financial assistance was given to thirty three applicants from thirteen Bible Fellowship Churches to serve with recognized organizations in sixteen different areas of the world.
Missions Emphasis Events of the Board of Missions
The Board of Missions conducted its Fourteenth Missions Seminar for Pastors, Missionaries, and Key Lay Missions Leaders on April 24, 1990 at our Emmaus Bible Fellowship Church. The general theme was: “The Local Church In Missions.” Dr. Terry C. Hulbert, Provost from Columbia Bible College & Seminary was the speaker. About 150 people attended this seminar.
World Missions Week at Pinebrook Bible Conference was held from August 4 – 10, 1990. The general theme was: “Today’s Task — Making Disciples Of All Nations.” The evening speaker was Rev. Robert T. Evans, Director of European Ministries with BCM International. His evening theme was “Practical Issues in Missions.”
Conference-wide Missionary Rallies were conducted on May 10, 1990 at Oley, September 17, 1990 at Lancaster, September 18th at Hatfield, and September 26th at Holmes, New York.
Next year the Pastors & Leaders Missions Seminar will be on April 16, 1991 at our Oley church and the speaker will be Rev. Dwight Smith, President of United World Mission.
Fiscal Year of the Board of Missions
The fiscal year of this Board has been from September 1 to August 31. For various reasons we have considered changing our fiscal year to the calendar year on several occasions. We intend to give this very serious consideration with the possibility that we will begin a new fiscal year on January 1, 1991.
Annual Reports from Missionaries
The annual reports from missionaries will be published in a book entitled Missionary Directory and Annual Ministry Reports of the Bible Fellowship Church Missionary Family 1989-90. This will be a pictorial directory. We anticipate that this book will be ready for distribution at this Annual Conference. We have printed a limited quantity which will be distributed to each of the churches in proportion to church membership. This year these books are being made available to you free of charge for distribution to your members as you so see fit. Should you desire to participate in the cost of these books, we will gladly accept contributions towards these costs. The approximate cost of these books is $1.75 each.
Board of Missions: R. C. Reichenbach, Chairman; Roy A. Hertzog, Executive Secretary; Charles J. Albert, Jr., Financial Secretary; Kenneth F. Barber; Robert Breitegam; Leroy O. Herb; Gerald Schlonecker; Thomas P. Shorb; Ralph M. Soper; and James Sunday.