Eastern Mennonite Missions
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Eastern Mennointe Missions (EMM) is a mission agency primarily supported by congregations of Lancaster Mennonite Conference, an area conference of Mennonite Church USA. EMM connects with nearly 200 long-term workers (some seconded to other organizations), and sends about a hundred short-term workers per year to thirty-seven countries. The international churches that relate to EMM have over 200,000 members.
[edit] History
Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (EMBMC) was formally organized in 1914 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was initially supported through the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. Its initial activity was focused on local ministries and church plantings; in 1934 the organization sent its first international team of missionaries, to Tanganyika. 475 Mennonites chartered a special train to New York City to see the three pioneering missionaries off.
Thus began the international vision of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in places of spiritual darkness, especially in places where the church was weak or non-existent. The ministry vision is holistic, including: discipleship, church planting, leadership training, community development, medical ministries, peace and justice work, and humanitarian aid.
The next decades saw rapid expansion of overseas mission activity, as EMBMC missionaries entered into Ethiopia, Somalia, Belize, Honduras, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and many more. The popular name Eastern Mennonite Missions was adopted in 1993.
[edit] Supporters
The North American churches that directly support the work are mostly located in the eastern seaboard region of the U.S. Other churches, conferences, and agencies in North America beyond Lancaster Mennonite Conference also support EMM, including approximately 100 other churches from Global Community Network, Good News Fellowship, and Atlantic Coast, Franklin, and New York Mennonite conferences.
