A Message From Switzerland

Have you ever dropped a few dollars into the mission offering plate and wondered where that tradition began? The answer starts with a surprising visitor who arrived in the United States carrying little more than an address on a piece of paper

One day in 1869 a young man stepped off the train in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, looking a little lost. He couldn’t speak English, but held up a paper to the station agent. The paper said, “John N. Andrews, Battle Creek, Michigan.” The young man was directed to the Review and Herald office, where he was soon surrounded by a friendly group, all eager to learn who he was and where he came from. But no one could understand his French words.

James White sent for a friend who spoke French, then invited the young stranger home for lunch. The White family learned that the young man’s name was James Erzberger, and he came all the way from Europe by simply showing steamship and railroad men along the way the addressed copy of the Review. (Don‘t try this today!)

Willie would walk around the house with James every morning, naming objects and asking him to repeat the names.

Ellen and James White were very surprised when the young man said that he was a Sabbathkeeper and that he was bringing greetings from about 50 more Sabbathkeepers in Switzerland. How did people in Switzerland know about the Review? And how had they learned about the Sabbath? It turned out that the Swiss had learned about the Sabbath from a man named Mr. Czechowski. After Mr. Czechowski left his Swiss friends to preach elsewhere, the group found a copy of the Review and discovered that there were many more people in America who also kept the Sabbath. Thus the Sabbathkeeping Swiss had sent young Erzberger as their messenger to learn more about the Sabbathkeeping group in Battle Creek!

The Whites took James to their little farm in Greenville, Michigan. They brought John Harvey Kellogg, age 17, and Willie White, age 14, to teach James English. Willie would walk around the house with James every morning, naming objects and asking him to repeat the names. Next time around, James was challenged to identify the objects without help. After an hour John took over and repeated the same English lessons. They did this all day!

After only four weeks James gave an understandable talk at the Ohio camp meeting. Everyone wanted James’s friends in Switzerland to learn more about Jesus, so they took up an offering to help. This was the first foreign missions offering ever given by Seventh-day Adventists!

This story was adapted from the book Stories of My Grandmother, by Ella Robinson, copyright © 2000, Review and Herald Publishing Association.