A Brief History of AIMM

John Ens baptizes first convert at Njoka Punda

Betty Martins taught secondary school at Nyanga

Elvina Martins attends to child at Kalonda Hospital

Photo Gallery

For further articles and information on CIM/AIMM and on the Congo churches that grew out of this work , go to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online at www.gameo.org.

The origins of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission go back to the year 1912 when two small Mennonite groups, the Central Conference of Mennonites and the Defenseless Mennonite Conference, known earlier as the Stucky Amish and the Egly Amish, respectively joined their meager resources to pioneer a venture of faith on the African continent.

Identified by their founding leaders, Henry Egly and Joseph Stucky, the two groups had departed from the Old Order Amish to move forward toward a more progressive and evangelical church life.  Their rural membership clustered in Central Illinois and Indiana.  By 1910 their total number still did not exceed 3,500 people.  However, caught up as they were in the joy of their new understanding of salvation through grace, and in the excitement of newly discovered claims of discipleship upon them, they dared to launch a series of cooperative Mennonite endeavors, including international mission work.

By January 23, 1912 in the little hamlet of Meadows, Illinois, the Congo Inland Mission was officially brought into being.  Before that year ran its course, the first little handful of Mennonite missionaries had hacked clearings in the brush beside the Kasai River at Djoko Punda and Kalamba in South Central Congo, and the effort to bring a witness to the gospel of Christ in that land was engaged.

Congo Inland Mission, later to become Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM), was founded in 1912 in the USA, and sent its first mission workers to Congo that year. Both these and later mission workers soon discovered that by far the most effective means of furthering the Good News of Jesus was to invite Congolese believers to play major roles in the mission task.  The Congolese church grew best as Congolese believers shared Christ with their neighbors, and Western missionaries played supporting roles such as training local leaders and building churches and other facilities.  Decades of kingdom work bore fruit.  

• With time, two churches were planted. 
• The Mennonite Church of Congo, headquartered in Tshikapa, traces its beginning to 1912.
• The Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo, with headquarters in Mbuji Mayi, organized as a church in 1962.  
• Congo Inland Mission (CIM) consistently maintained a focus on inter-Mennonite cooperation.  
• Initial participating churches in 1912 were the Central Conference of Mennonites (now part of MC USA); and the Defenseless Mennonite Conference (now the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches). 
• The Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church (now the Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches) joined hands with the others in 1938; 
•  the General Conference Mennonite Church (now part of MC USA) in 1943.   
• The CIM name changed to Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission in 1972, as mission vision broadened beyond Congo with CIM leadership. 
• In 1973, an exploratory ministry began in Lesotho.  
• Work accompanying African Initiated Churches began in Botswana in 1975.
• Similar work began in South Africa in 1982.  
• The planting of Mennonite churches expanded to Burkina Faso in 1978. Amid this new energy and focus, the Mennonite Brethren Church joined AIMM as associate members in 1975; the Evangelical Mennonite Conference (Canada), longtime informal partner with CIM, formalized its commitment to AIMM also in 1975; and the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference became a full AIMM partner in 1986. 
• AIMM restructured significantly in 2004. African Mennonite conferences with connections to AIMM were for the first time able to become full partners.  Informal partnership had of course existed practically from the beginning, but this reality had not, to this point, been fully incorporated into the mission’s structure.