Pentecost Power
For WW II generation, faithfulness and the Holy Spirit built the church in India
by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen

A patient reads the Bible at Dhamtari Hospital. Photo: Provided by Mennonite Board of Missions photography collection, Mennonite Church USA archives.

The first Mennonite missionaries went to India in the 1890s, responding to suffering created by a devastating famine. Martin Clifford Lehman, who ministered in India from 1906 to 1930, described famine relief camp conditions in his book, Our Mission Work in India.

"It would be difficult to imagine a group of more dejected, helpless, dirty, ignorant and, in some cases, vile people. The groans of cholera patients, the carrying away of corpses, crying babies, people walking about who looked like animated skeletons; all made one think he had gotten into a group of the most unfortunate people in the world. If any people ever needed the spiritual and physical ministration of someone animated by the spirit of Christ, these people did," Lehman wrote.

The missionaries distributed food, provided medical services and cared for orphans, widows and lepers. Soon, they established schools to educate the thousands of orphans and provided vocational training for the less academically minded young people, widows and lepers.

Peter A. Penner, whose term of service in India extended from 1900 to 1941, expressed the prevailing mission vision of his era in Twenty-five Years with God in India: "Our work is divided into phases called evangelistic, educational, medical, institutional and industrial. The ... goal of all phases is to win souls for Christ."

Pentecost Power: photo gallery The first Mennonite missionaries went to India in the 1890s in response to a devestating famine. See how the WWII generation helped build the church with their service. Flash 6 or higher required. Gallery opens in a new window. (Download free player.)

Although the words of the early missionaries may sound somewhat arrogant to modern ears accustomed to politically correct language, early Indian converts were moved by the humility and compassion shown by the Mennonites who came to live among them, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. Gravestones in mission compounds still bear witness to those who succumbed to tropical heat and diseases in responding to God’s call to India.

Garjan Bai, in whose memory the school was named, said that when she was starving, her rich Hindu neighbors made no effort to help, but American Christians left comfortable homes and traveled thousands of miles to relieve the suffering of people like her.

“I have come to the conclusion that the secret of the difference in attitude [between Hindus and Christians] must be because of the love of Jesus. Everything good and true [the missionaries] teach us centers in the Jesus who lives in their hearts and the hearts of those who sent them. Because of this, I want to become a disciple of Jesus,” Bai said.

Some of the missionaries of this era marvel how God used them despite their naïveté and lack of cultural understanding, but the growth of the Mennonite Church in India to nearly 130,000 members over the past century bears witness to God’s ability to infuse the sometimes feeble, sometimes heroic efforts of faithful servants with Pentecost power.

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