5: Count Zinzendorf 's Affect on the World

One day while Count Zinzendorf was eating dinner at the coronation of King Christian VI of Denmark, he noticed a certain servant. After investigating and talking to the servant, Count Zinzendorf learned that he was from the island of St. Thomas and that he had become a Christian recently. He had a brother and sister back on the island that he desperately wanted to hear about Christ, but he could not go, for you see, he was a servant. Count Zinzendorf then decided that his community needed to be active. His community sent two young men as missionaries to the island of St. Thomas. Other people followed as missionaries to Greenland, the Guinea coast of Africa, St. Croix, Russia, Holland, South Africa, the United States, and many other places. I appreciated these quotes by some men who went as missionaries:

"If it was good enough for the Lord Jesus to become a servant so that we might be saved, it is a worthy calling for us also. I leave it to the good judgment of the congregation, and have not other ground than this thought: that on the island there are still souls who cannot believe because they have not heard."
- Leonard Dober, missionary to the island of St. Thomas

"Never forget that we have come here resting upon Christ our Savior, in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, not on the principle of sight, but of faith."
- The covenant of three missionaries to Greenland

Count Zinzendorf was banned from the Saxony because many people thought that he had gone too far - a person of his class should not stoop to become a Lutheran pastor! Many, many years later, his banishment was lifted, though, as they began to see the good impact his community was having on the lives of people. Count Zinzendorf himself went as a missionary to St. Thomas and the United States, although he was in charge of keeping order at the two original communities in Germany. Count Zinzendorf accomplished a lot during the nearly 60 years he lived. At his death he said (speaking to his son-in-law), "Now, my dear friend, I am going to the Savior. I am ready. I bow at His will. He is satisfied with me. If He does not want me here anymore, I am ready to go to Him. There is nothing to hinder me now." Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf died Friday, May 9, 1760 at 10:00 p.m. The headstone for his grave read: Here lie the remains of that unforgettable man of God, Nicolaus Ludwig Count and Lord of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf. Through God's grace and his own faithful and untiring service he became the honored Ordinary of the Brethren's Unity, renewed in this eighteenth century. He was born at Dresden on May 26, 1700, and entered into the joy of his Lord on May 9, 1760. He was destined to bring forth fruit, fruit that should remain.

This is the final post on Count Zinzendorf. My prayer is that his life will touch you the way it touched me and I hope you have enjoyed learning about him as much as I have sharing about him!