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Fall 1986 · Vol. 15 No. 2 · p. 83 

Historical Endnotes

Ken Reddig

EACH STEP OF THE WAY

At the age of 93, A. E. Janzen, who served the Mennonite Brethren Conference for 45 years, continues to amaze younger people as he serves his church and the Hillsboro community. As a resident of Parkside Homes, he is now completing a twelve year project—His Memoirs: “Each Step of the Way.”

Janzen served the Mennonite Brethren Conference from 1916 to 1961, a span of 45 years. He taught at Tabor College for 34 years, serving as president for seven years. During the year 1943 he served the Mennonite settlements in South America under an MCC assignment. Then for 16 years he served as General Secretary of the churches in North America and of all the mission fields.

After his retirement Janzen remained active as archivist for the Mission board, Chairman of the Marion County Historical Society for many years, was member of the Hillsboro Historical Society and also of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies. In addition he remained active in various church committees. These memoirs promise to be a treasure chest for historians, scholars and lay readers.

JOHANN WIELER LETTERS FOUND

Letters of Johann Wieler, a Mennonite Brethren evangelist in Russia and Romania, were recently found among the papers of a St. Petersburg nobleman, Alexander Pashkov, who became a leader of the evangelical revival in Russia during the 1870’s, and was eventually forced to leave Russia.

The Pashkov personal papers were acquired by the University of Birmingham (England) and are now held in its archives.

The Johann Wieler file contains about thirty letters, mostly in Russian, but some in German. In the main, they are addressed to Pashkov, with whom Wieler had close relations. The file includes a short autobiographical sketch of Wieler’s involvement in the Ukrainian Evangelical movement between 1860-1889.

The Wieler letters were found by Lawrence Klippenstein of Winnipeg, while on an MCC assignment as research associate at Keston College in England.

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