Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) is a mission agency

Mission (Christian)

Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...

 primarily supported by congregations of Lancaster Mennonite Conference, an area conference of Mennonite Church USA

Mennonite Church USA

The Mennonite Church USA, or MCUSA, is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the United States. Although the organization is a recent 2002 merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church, the body has roots in the Radical Reformation of the 16th century...

. Eastern Mennonite Missions sends more than 250 short- and long-term workers (some seconded to other organizations) per year to approximately thirty-five countries. The international churches that relate to EMM have well over 300,000 members.

History

Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities (EMBMC) was formally organized in 1914 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Lancaster County, known as the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010 the population was 519,445. Lancaster County forms the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, the...

. Its initial activity was focused on local ministries and church plants; in 1934 the organization sent its first international team of missionaries, to Tanganyika

Tanganyika

Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...

. 475 Mennonites chartered a special train to New York City to see the three pioneering missionaries off.

Thus began the international vision of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in places of spiritual darkness, especially in places where the church was weak or nonexistent. The ministry vision is holistic, including: discipleship, church planting

Church planting

Church planting is a process that results in a new Christian church being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, new worship centre or fresh expression is created that is integrated into an already established congregation...

, leadership training, community development

Community development

Community development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities....

, medical ministries, peace and justice work, and humanitarian aid

Humanitarian aid

Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...

.

The next decades saw rapid expansion of overseas mission activity, as EMBMC missionaries entered into Ethiopia, Somalia, Belize, Honduras, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and many more. The popular name Eastern Mennonite Missions was adopted in 1993.

Supporters

The North American churches that directly support this work are mostly located in the eastern seaboard region of the U.S. Eastern Mennonite Missions is supported by Lancaster Conference of the Mennonite Church, as well as by other churches, conferences, and agencies in North America -- including approximately 100 other churches from Good News Fellowship and Atlantic Coast, Franklin, and New York Mennonite conferences.