Page:Mennonite Handbook of Information 1925.djvu/32

 India moved many Mennonites to lend aid that should in some way be an answer to the call coming from that far-away land. At a mission meeting held at Elkhart, Indiana, Nov. 4, 1898, it was decided to send out missionaries to establish a station somewhere in the famine-stricken fields of India. This proved to be an inspirational meeting that brought forth great results.

There were fifteen bishops present who had arrived from the General Conference just closed at the Holdeman Church. The Holy Spirit being unmistakably manifest, testified; "Separate unto me the two brethren for the work whereunto I have called them."

After a season of profound devotion and prayer, the fifteen bishops laid their hands upon the head and kneeling form of Jacob A. Ressler, who along with his associate, W. B. Page, were duly appointed and consecrated as the first missionaries sent by the Mennonite Church to a foreign field.

These brethren, after visiting among the churches during the remainder of the year, in February following set sail for their distant field of work. On Nov. 22, 1899, after a period of some months of prospecting and study of the general field, a mission station was established at Sundarganj near Dhamtari. Under the fostering care of the Church in America the missionary effort in India has been enlarged and extended to other points, until after twenty-five