Pandora Missionary Church marks 125th anniversary

PANDORA — Pandora Missionary Church is celebrating the 125th anniversary of its founding. The church was established in 1900 with the Rev. C.W. Oyer as the first pastor. Fast forward 125 years and the church is still part of the Putnam County village, while Oyer has been succeeded by 22 other pastors including the current leader, the Rev. Matt Steiner. A celebration service and dine-in chicken barbecue are planned June 21 for the quasquicentennial. The meal begins at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and need to be pre-purchased. Rodney Arnold, president of the Missionary Church of USA denomination, will be the guest speaker. Historical events will be presented throughout the evening and will focus on several of the 93 members who have been involved in fulltime Christian work, including 33 who served on foreign mission fields, said Carey Arthur, a member of the church and its celebration committee. The Missionary Church Association was started in 1898. Arthur said the Pandora church was founded two years later by evangelist Joseph E. Ramseyer. A Bible institute called Bethany Bible Institute was started in nearby Bluffton in 1895. Ramseyer was offered the position of principal. The school opened with 25 students including Ulrich S. Steiner from Pandora, who became a charter member of the Pandora church. In addition to his job at the institute, Ramseyer continued to preach. He recalled that first year in Bluffton and said they held a 10-week revival meeting in the town hall. Over 200 people were saved. After two years at the school, Ramseyer and his new wife, Katherine, went on evangelistic travels. In 1899, their ministry took them to an "upper room" in Pandora. A group of people heard Ramseyer speak at a revival four years earlier and had since been holding prayer meetings and Bible classes. As their numbers grew, they moved to the upper room of an old school house in town. Oyer arrived as their pastor in 1899. The following year, a building was purchased and organized under the Missionary Church Association with 24 charter members. They called themselves the Pandora Missionary Church. "It's called the Missionary Church because Ramseyer talked about the second coming of Christ and how we need to get the word to the rest of the world," said Arthur. "What's interesting to me is the majority of these people either became missionaries or had children that became missionaries." The church was formally dedicated on June 24, 1900. Elizabeth Hilty was the first missionary of the charter members. She served in China. "I'm just amazed because her sister then, Minnie Hilty, also went to China," Arthur said. "They spent their entire missionary career until 1938 in China." Sarah Amstutz was another missionary from the Pandora church. She married Jonathan Amstutz and they lived on a farm south of town. Arthur said he passed away at the early age of 32. Sarah was two years younger, and their four children were between the ages of six and six months. "She tried to work the farm with these four little kids. She couldn't do it," said Arthur. Sarah moved into Pandora. A good friend named Judith Lehman came to the Pandora Missionary Church and was saved. She shared that with Sarah, and she started going to church there. She was saved along with all four of her kids," he said. Judith decided she wanted to become a missionary and moved to Chicago where she worked for the Chicago Hebrew Mission. While she didn't become a missionary, she did work for the mission for more than 40 years. Sarah had three older daughters and a son. All three girls attended Moody Bible Institute. Edna, the oldest, became a missionary nurse and served in the Belgian Congo for 42 years. Second daughter Alma Amstutz married a Swedish immigrant, the Rev. Gerhard Jacobson. They became missionaries and went to China. Alma and Gerhard had three daughters. She asked her mother, Sarah, to come to China to be her nanny. "The women all escaped before the Japanese attacked China and before World War II. But Gerhard was behind doing ministry work on the radio. He was put into an internment camp and suffered the ill effects of that the rest of his life," Arthur said. Their oldest two daughters, Doris and Winifred Jacobson, became missionaries in the Philippines. Arthur said he got to know them when he first started attended the Pandora church in the 1970s. In 1989, church leaders assessed the current landlocked property on Main Street and decided they wanted to construct a new builting on the Margaret Hilty estate along Ohio 12. Hilty, who was a retired teacher, left her entire estate of 160 acres to the Missionary Church East Central District to establish a nursing home. Hilty Memorial Home opened in 1979 and was operated by the Missionary Church, later becoming an affiliate of Mennonite Home Communities of Ohio (MHCO). The building has since been sold to the Village of Pandora. Pandora Missionary Church was given approximately 15 acres to use for a new church in the 1970s. Unfortunately, fundraising efforts didn't raise half of the needed down payment by 1994, and plans were put on hold. Work got underway again in 2001. New plans were made, and sweat equity was used to reach the needed amount. A a groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2002 with the first service on Dec. 31, 2003. A church history booklet is being prepared for the anniversary event. In addition to Arthur, other members of the celebration committee include Jim Leightner, Dave Krohn and Prudy George. They have been searching for information since December. The church is located at 300 Rocket Ridge. For more information, call the church office at 419-384-3154.