Indonesian Mennonites celebrate first missionaries' ministry 150 years agoMennonite Central Committee JAKARTA, Indonesia -- In November 1851, Dutch Mennonites Pieter and Wilhelmina Jansz arrived from the Netherlands in what is now Jakarta, Indonesia. In the ancient town of Jepara, where they later founded the first Mennonite congregation outside of Europe and North America, Indonesian Mennonites recently celebrated 150 years since their coming. The July 26 to 28 festivities were attended by nearly 200 Indonesian Mennonites from three conferences stemming from the Dutch Mennonite Mission. Representatives from the Netherlands and North America also attended.  A tour of historic locations took participants to the site of the first indigenous Javanese congregation, early mission hospitals and the burial place of Pieter and Wilhelmina Jansz, who remained in Indonesia for more than 50 years. Mennonite Central Committee began its work in Indonesia at the request of the Dutch Mennonite Mission Board following World War II. Some 160 Mennonite congregations now worship in Indonesia, and dozens more are forming. In the context of conflict-ridden present day Indonesia, church leaders are giving increasing attention to Christ's call to be peacemakers. Speakers at the celebration included Alle Hoekema and Ed van Straten, former Dutch missionaries who worked with Indonesian churches; Aristarkus Sukarto, president of Duta Wacana Christian University, Yogyakarta; and Sigit Heru Soekotjo and Lawrence Yoder, Indonesian church historians. Lawrence Yoder is a missiologist at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Harrisonburg, Va., and former MCC Indonesia country representative.
For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org |
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