Faithful Laborers at Rest by L. R. Conradi

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 4, 1907

Faithful Laborers at Rest

By L. R. Conradi

WHILE in past years our workers in the German Union Conference have had their lives wonderfully preserved, so that we have had very few deaths among them, yet this severe winter in Europe has cost us several of our laborers.

January 21, Brother Karl Koeller died, seventy-one years of age. He was one of the very first Sabbath-keepers in Germany, and for a number of years he was the faithful elder of the Vohwinkel church, and later he served for years as a preacher in the German field. Three years ago he donated his own ground to the union that a chapel might be erected on it for the Vohwinkel church. Thus one of the pioneers in the German Union has been laid to rest.

February 13, Sister Rosa Ehlers died near Hamburg. When our work was opened in German East Africa, her husband, Brother Johannes Ehlers, and Brother A. C. Enns were the first missionaries we sent out (1903). Then the following spring Sister Ehlers (she had married Brother Ehlers the previous year), with the second party of workers for German East Africa, followed her husband, and they remained there until recalled on account of the ill health of Brother Ehlers, in February, 1906. Sister Ehlers faithfully assisted her sick husband, and just as he seemed recovering, she took a cold, and owing to the latent malaria in her system, she quietly fell asleep in Jesus, to await the voice of the Redeemer on the resurrection day. When I last visited them at their home, Sister Ehlers' thoughts were still on Africa, and her only desire, with her husband, was to return to that land as soon as their strength would permit.

We lost another faithful friend and worker in Brother Gustav Hantzsch, who had formerly been cashier in a bank in Danzig. As the truth came to him, he left his position, and, being a man of means, he bequeathed quite an amount of money to the cause, while he himself helped us faithfully in Friedensau and Hamburg, in our institutional work, almost fully donating his time to the service of the Master. A few days before his death an operation was performed, but without any beneficial results. He passed away happy in the Lord, February 14, in Hamburg. He died of diabetes. L. R. CONRADI.