The entire movement, with all that resulted, started in this way: On May 22, 1719, 18year old Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf visited the art gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany. As if a statue, he stood before a painting by Domenico Feti of the suffering Christ. The title of the painting declared: ‘See what a man’ Ecco homo. Zinzendorf read, then, the words that accompanied the painting: „This is what I have done for you, what have you done for me?“ To him, these words came alive and instantly touched him deep in his heart. He became deeply ashamed as he realized that he had nothing really to respond with. He wrote in his remarks: „Even though I have known Jesus for a long time, I have never done anything for Him. From this moment on, I will do what HE would like me to.“

Zinzendorf’s decision that day marks the foundation of the establishment of Herrnhut. A few years later 1722, God brought numerous Bohemian refugees to the count. He allowed them to settle nearby in the village of Berthelsdorf. They called their settlement ‘Herrnhut’, which means ‘under the Lord’s protection’, literally, ‘under the Lord’s hat’. A community was born and through this, also, a prayer movement 1727 that continued without interruption 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the next one hundred years.

On August 21, 1732, 21year old Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann left Herrnhut and entered into an unknown future. They didn’t know if they would ever return to their home, or even what they could expect on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean Sea. They were even prepared to sell themselves into slavery in order to bring the gospel to the people living there.

When the elders of the church asked Dober what his motivation to go was, he replied to them in the form of a letter: „I have no other reason, but that I know that on this island there are men living who cannot believe, because they have never heard the gospel before.“ He continued in his letter: „Even if I do not help anyone, what is important is that I was obedient.“

Leonhard Dober’s life, willingness to sacrifice, passion, faith, and obedience should encourage us to similar actions and be an example for us. After Dober, hundreds of missionaries were sent from this place into the farthest reaches of the earth into regions such as India, Tibet, Greenland, Alaska, and parts of Africa where the gospel had never been preached before.

What will your response be? Are you ready to allow yourself to be used by God? Will you, like Zinzendorf, say ‘yes’, because you want to live your life for Jesus? Are you prepared, like Leonhard Dober was 270 years ago, to step into an unknown future in order to reach the unreached with the love of God? God wants to use your life to write history… get ready for it!