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Slave woman treats the sick Moravian missionary, Leonard Dober
The inspiring true story First Fruits is about the two young men who went as missionaries to the slaves on St. Thomas, willing to become slaves themselves, if need be, in order to proclaim the Gospel.
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n May 12, 1727, Zinzendorf addressed the community for three hours on the blessedness of Christian unity. The people
sorrowfully confessed their past quarreling and promised to live in love
and simplicity. Herrnhut became a living congregation of Christ. The entire
summer of 1727 was a golden one at Herrnhut as the community worked together
in peace and love. There was eager anticipation that more was to come.
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A turning point
On August 5, Zinzendorf and fourteen of the Brethren spent the entire
night in conversation and prayer. On August 10th, Pastor Rothe was so
overcome by God's nearness during an afternoon service at Herrnhut, that
he threw himself on the ground during prayer and called to God with words
of repentance as he had never done before. The congregation was moved
to tears and continued until midnight, praising God and singing.
The next morning, Pastor Rothe invited the Herrnhut community to a joint
communion with his nearby congregation at Bethelsdorf on Wednesday evening,
August 13. Count Zinzendorf visited every house in Herrnhut in preparation
for this Lord's Supper. The exiles, gathered at Herrnhut, had come to
a conviction of their own sinfulness, need, and helplessness. During the
service, they made many painful prayers for themselves, for fellow Christians
still under persecution, and for their continued unity. Count Zinzendorf
made a penitential confession in the name of the congregation. The community
united in fellowship. Count Zinzendorf looked upon that August 13th as
"a day of the outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation;
it was its Pentecost."
Yes, for 100 years!
Like the first Pentecost, men and women would move forth with the gospel
from Herrnhut to the uttermost parts of the earth. Two weeks after the
revival, twenty-four men and twenty-four women of the community covenanted
together to spend one hour each day, day and night, in prayer to God for
His blessing on the congregation and its witness.
For over 100 years, members of the Moravian church continued nonstop
in this "Hourly Intercession." All Moravian adventures were
begun, surrounded, and consummated in prayer. They became known as "God's
Happy People." They launched a missionary society in a time when
Protestant missions were unknown. The first missionaries, two young men,
declared their willingness to become slaves if necessary to reach the
slaves in the West Indies with the Gospel. Within fifteen years of the
revival, the Moravians at Herrnhut had established missions in the Virgin
Islands, Greenland, Turkey, the Gold Coast of Africa, South Africa, and
North America. They endured unspeakable hardships. Many died in difficult
circumstances. But as fast as they died, others came forth to take their
places.
An unquenchable flame
The eighteenth-century revivals in America and England were influenced
by the Moravian mission and prayer movements. Peter Boehler, a Moravian
missionary in England, counseled John Wesley, later leader of the Revival
in England, leading to his conversion. Wesley wrote of Boehler, "Oh
what a work hath God begun since his coming to England! Such a one as
shall never come to an end, till heaven and earth pass away!" --but
that's the subject of our next issue.
A new phenomenon
The noted historian, Kenneth Scott Latourette, said of the Moravians:
Here was a new phenomenon in the expansion of Christianity, an entire
community, of families as well as of the unmarried, devoted to the
propagation of the faith. In its singleness of aim it resembled some
of the monastic orders of earlier centuries, but these were made up
of celibates. Here was a fellowship of Christians, of laity and clergy,
of men and women, marrying and rearing families, with much of the
quietism of the monastery and of Pietism but the spread of the Christian
message as a major objective, not of a minority of the membership,
but of the group as a whole. |
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