Mennonites trace their roots to the 16^th century Protestant Reformation in Europe and were nicknamed after an early Dutch leader, Menno Simons.  Fired by their new faith, the movement grew as believers joined with others of like persuasion in South Germany and the Netherlands.

Anabaptist
The official churches opposed the movement and scoffed at them as "Anabaptists", which literally means to re-baptize.  The state would not tolerate this change because in essence it defied the government run church, despite the Anabaptists' strong appeal to Scripture in support of their position.  Over the next two generations, thousands of Anabaptists were martyred.

Immigration and Reaching Out
A separate group, the Amish, broke off about 1693.  In search of freedom, Mennonites moved to many places, including Russia and North America.  In the late 1800's, they organized home and foreign missions; a substantial ministry of emergency relief and development aid was initiated after World War II, alongside of church extension.  Today Mennonites are found in about 60 countries with over 802,000 members worldwide.