#30 I Will Remember The Works of the Lord, Part 5

I Will Remember The Works of the Lord, Part 5, by Henry Michel

They were looking for an opportunity to go to a place called something like “Paradise,” the United States. Then it just happened through the wonderful guidance of God that this man from the French Settlement was coming for people and found the Virkler family and asked them to come. They came to the French Settlement and not only they, but others too. So the family was increasing; they had meetings, they were singing hymns and reading the Bible, but they lacked a minister—somebody to show them the way. Through a wonderful guidance, they had the address of our people in Switzerland. They asked for a minister; and they came the opportunity for Benedict Weyeneth to come to this country, and he went to this French Settlement. He found these people and baptized them. One was appointed an elder, another as a teacher of these Virklers and Farneys, and that was the first of our congregations that existed in the United States.

Weyeneth afterwards left the French Settlement and returned to Switzerland, but came back here later to a country called Illinois. That country was said to be a very, very bad country, not healthful; they had malaria and other sicknesses. They had mosquitoes, such terrible mosquitoes that it was almost impossible to live. But the ground was good. So they started, and many others came, and we see the families Koch, Pflederer, Riggenbach, and many others. Weyeneth was working in their midst and he was a wonderful man. He said himself that he was a poor farmer. Yet he was a good evangelist. When the last crop was in his barn, he went for missionary work the whole winter; until spring came. One spring, he forgot to go home. That is, he did not forget, he could not go home. His wife said, “Benedict, it is high time that you come home.” But he had been too busy that winter. He was doing missionary work in these parts of the country. A brother told me that in the winter of 1879, he had one hundred fifty-nine baptisms.

Another man of whom I think I have found some relatives in this country, had the name of Krähenbühl. He was Swiss by birth. He went with his buggy and spread the Gospel all around the countryside.

Before the last summer I always believed that the congregations in America had been created by only Europeans who came through persecution or through people who wanted to make more dollars than they could make at home, but I have seen since that the congregations here are also the result of an extensive missionary work of many, many years. Andrew Braun had to leave his country with his whole congregation. They, the congregation of Schweinfurt, Germany, all came together. They traveled through Strasbourg, were in my grandfather’s house, and came to American and settled in Ohio. And working together, Illinois, Ohio, and the French Settlement, they went from house to house, preaching, bringing good tidings of peace. One of the Virklers even crossed the whole United States and came to the Pacific coast, and that was the beginning of the church in Oregon.

I could speak a long time about the wonderful, wonderful time, and sometimes you may be astonished. For instance, Mansfield existed a long time before Akron. One Swiss brother who came first to visit the congregations was Brother Geistlich. He came in 1866 and traveled the whole United States visiting the churches, and when he came to Akron, he said, “A busy town, but not one believer, and it seems not to be a very good ground for the Gospel.” What a poor impression of Akron where we now have the largest church! See how it can change, how it is changing and how we should be zealous to do what we can.

One thing happened. The families were growing. They all had many children and where they had big families, much food was needed. Nobody wanted to be a poor farmer as Weyeneth called himself, so they started to be good farmers. They had the reputation of being the best farmers, but the result was that they settled down. No buggies anymore to go to the Pacific coast, to bring the Gospel from house to house! And after a while congregations having been formed, they were enjoying themselves in singing hymns, and working hard, but the missionary work had been forgotten. We know how many congregations exist, and we are thankful, but we do not care so much to expand. We have a beautiful hymn, “Where is the Spirit of all these pioneers who were filled with the love of God, the love of Christ, who had the passion for souls and who wanted to bring the good tidings of peace to others?” A time came, the same on the other side of the ocean as here, as soon as the persecution stopped in Europe, then the people settled. In Switzerland the persecution ended about 1854. Following that, brethren expanded their properties, and the missionary work waits for a new revival.

I had much joy in my heart that I could tell you this story. We are in the last times, my dear ones! Yesterday or this morning, as a topic for our Bible study we had, “Shall I find faith on Earth?” When the Son of man comes back, shall He find faith? We, dear ones, who received through the grace of God the knowledge of the mystery of Christ, the knowledge of salvation by grace through faith, we are the ones who have to extend that knowledge and to tell our young people, as well as our neighbors everywhere, as we have the opportunity, that Jesus is the same today as He was 100 years ago, and that He is willing to save everyone who is ready to believe in Him. Let us therefore have a revival in our midst; let us therefore be reminded of what our grandparents did, and let us sometimes lay our business aside, like Andrew Braun sometimes did. He just locked his shoemaker shop and put out a sign, “Absent 3 or 4 months”. He was away preaching the Gospel. He did not have anyone who was working or making money in the meantime, he had to see how he financed his way. Let us have this spirit of testimony, and let us be in these last times joyful witnesses of the glory of Christ. If I could give you tonight more thankfulness for what has been done, and on the other hand more zeal for what has to be done, I would be thankful my whole life that I had this privilege to speak to you about this wonderful story of old times. Jesus is today what He was at that time! And what our grandparents were doing we need to do for His sake, and to His Glory and to the advancement of His kingdom.

May the Lord give us the needed joy, the needed zeal, and the necessary wisdom, that in these last days, in such a wicked world, in such darkness, in such confusion as exists in the whole world—in the midst of all this—may the Lord grant that we be joyful witnesses of Jesus, our Savior, who died at the cross. Amen.