Java and Sumatra The first Mennonites to enter Asia permanently
were representatives of the Dutch Mennonite Mission Board which
established work in East Java in 1851 which has developed into a
Chinese Mennonite church and a Javanese Mennonite church, later
independent of the mission board. The Mennonite Central
Committee began a relief work in this area in 1948, which is
still continuing. In 1869 missionaries of the Dutch Mennonite
Mission Board also established a work on Sumatra, which had to
be abandoned after World War I because of lack of support. The
1950 Mennonite membership in Java was about 10,000. The next
Mennonite mission work in Asia was that established in India in
1899-1901 by the Mennonites of North America: (a) by the
Mennonite Church (MC) in the Central Provinces in 1899, (b) by
the General Conference Mennonite Church in the same area but 150
miles (240 km) farther south a year later, 1900-1901, (c) by the
Mennonite Brethren Church in 1899 in the far south in Hyderabad,
the first two being pr