O
n September 15, 1874, 45-year-old John Nevins Andrews stepped aboard a steamship in Boston, Massachusetts, bound for Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was accompanied by his children, 16-year-old Charles and 12-year-old Mary. His beloved wife, Angeline, had died from a stroke two years before.
Awaiting Andrews were some 50 Swiss Sabbath keepers who had been converted by Michael Czechowski, a former priest who had secretly taught them Sabbath truth while sponsored by a first-day Adventist church in the United States. Neither the Swiss Sabbath keepers nor the General Conference knew of each other’s existence. But that changed when the group found a Review and Herald magazine left behind by Czechowski after he abandoned them.
They contacted the editor, John Nevins Andrews, in 1869, beginning several years of correspondence. When they requested a missionary to train them in evangelism and establish the Seventh-day Adventist faith in Europe, the General Conference considered Andrews best suited for the position. He knew many of the Swiss personally and had even mentored one of their young trainee ministers who had stayed in his home. He could also read French, the language spoken in Neuchâtel, although he couldn’t speak it.
The 1874 General Conference Session voted to send Andrews to Switzerland. This decision marked the point of no return for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Adventist mission would now become world mission.
From the start, Andrews faced formidable challenges. He had to build the church from the ground up while learning to speak the local language. The mission methods that worked well in America, such as pitching a tent in a community for evangelistic meetings or holding meetings in homes, didn’t work there. Every time Andrews entered a new town to preach, he was required to get a license from the civic authorities, which proved a difficult process. People were aware of meetings in their neighbor’s homes in the crowded rowhouses, and fellow Christians often created problems for Seventh-day Adventists. General Conference leaders didn’t understand that European cultures were vastly different from American culture and that mission methods must be adapted to local circumstances. Their lack of understanding complicated Andrews’ work and caused him deep anguish.
Additionally, the church had no system for funding overseas mission work. The expectation was that the Swiss mission quickly would become self-supporting, but its launch coincided with the beginning of a deep recession. Andrews was forced to rely on his meager capital resources and then be reimbursed by the General Conference. He was frugal, but he and his family suffered financial hardship threatening their well-being.
In consultation with the Swiss believers, Andrews decided the best way to overcome cultural, religious, and geographical barriers was to launch a subscription-based monthly evangelistic journal. In 1876, he committed himself to editing and publishing Les Signes des Temps (The Signs of the Times) while preaching and nurturing new groups of believers. Remarkably, he planted the Advent message in Switzerland and its surrounding nations. The magazine even helped establish new groups of Seventh-day Adventists in Egypt, Turkey, and Russia.
In 1878, Andrews was summoned to Battle Creek to attend the upcoming General Conference session. At his expense, he brought 16-year-old Mary. She had contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Despite receiving the best care possible, she died on November 27.
Devastated by Mary’s death and having become infected himself, Andrews stayed in the United States for an additional five months, trying to regain his health while raising funds for his European mission. He then returned to Europe, where he introduced innovations in his magazine and worked to expand its circulation. Church membership, as did the magazine’s subscription list, grew steadily but slowly.
Tuberculosis diminished Andrews’ energy, eventually confining him to bed, where he continued to work on his magazine. He died in Basel, Switzerland, on October 21, 1883, at 54.
Andrews’ ground-breaking service in Europe helped establish and shape the future of Adventist work across national and cultural boundaries. Today, our church faces similar challenges. We can learn from how Andrews negotiated reaching unreached people groups and be powerfully motivated by his spirit of sacrifice and commitment to mission.