Algeria
1959 Article
The Algeria Mennonite Mission (Mennonite Church) was founded in 1957 under the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, at which time the Miller Stayrooks were appointed missionaries. In 1958 they were residing in Kouba (Alger), Algeria. The Robert Stetters were appointed to this field in 1958.
A small group of Pax men was sent in 1955 to do reconstruction work in the area of the earthquake of 1954, under the administration of the Mennonite Relief and Service Committee. In 1956 the work was concentrated in the village of Flatters, where 30 or more houses were built by 1959 when the work was drawing to a close. -- Harold S. Bender
1990 Update
A group of Pax volunteers, under the Mennonite Relief and Service Committee, was sent to Algeria in 1955 to assist with reconstruction after an earthquake. In 1957 the Mennonite Board of Missions (now Mennonite Mission Network) founded the Algeria Mennonite Mission and sent its first missionaries. A small group of Mennonite Board of Missions (MBM) missionaries was present in Algeria until 1977, and until her retirement in 1988 in Algeria, the board continued to support a French Mennonite missionary nurse, Annie Haldemann, who has been in Algeria since 1957.
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) entered Algeria late in 1961. In the summer of 1962, Algeria gained independence after a seven-year war with France, and that fall the number of MCC workers greatly increased. MCC worked through Christian Committee for Service in Algeria (organized by the World Council of Churches) in reconstruction, food and clothing distribution, demonstration farming, medical work, mechanics and agriculture instruction, and teaching. Besides North Americans, Mennonites from Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, and France were part of the MCC team. The highest number of workers was 23 adults in 1966. By 1971 MCC work was limited to high school teachers, the last of whom left in 1978. -- Marian Hostetler
Bibliography
Algeria newsletters from 1963-1980 and personal letters of Marian Hostetler, 1961-1970 (Hist. MS 1-736, Mennonite Church USA Archives, Goshen).
Mennonite Board of Missions annual reports (1955-1977).
Mennonite Central Committee annual reports (1960-1978).
| Author(s) | Harold S. Bender |
|---|---|
| Marian Hostetler | |
| Date Published | 1990 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Bender, Harold S. and Marian Hostetler. "Algeria." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1990. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Algeria&oldid=122124.
APA style
Bender, Harold S. and Marian Hostetler. (1990). Algeria. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Algeria&oldid=122124.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1058; vol. 5, pp. 14-15. All rights reserved.
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