210 / Missions and the New Churches, 1920-1945

years later John L. Slick was ordained as his assistant. The congregation became active in a teaching program and in 1950 erected a brick meetinghouse which has since served as the center of a flourishing church community from which numerous church workers, domestic and foreign, have gone forth.'

Further growth of the Ohio and Eastern Conference in Pennsylvania took place at Mummasburg, Pennsylvania, where in 1939 a Sunday school was started by former members of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. A. A. Landis of Ephrata was installed as pastor in 1940 and the congregation became known as the Bethel Church. Paul Lantz became the first resident pastor in 1945 and the following year the congregation was received into the Ohio Conference."

In northwestern Pennsylvania a number of churches were planted through the efforts of the Ohio Mennonite Mission Board. Families from Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio had moved into the areas, and during the late 1930's new congregations were formed: Britton Run, Sunnyside, Meadville, and Beaverdam.`' The budding of these congregations is the result of cooperation with the Ohio Mennonite Mission Board and successful colonization projects. It began in the early 1930's when two families in the area were in search of a place of worship. Through the encouragement of Eli Stoltzfus of the Ohio Mennonite Mission Board they purchased a Methodist church in 1931 for $275.00. Other families joined them in following years, coming from Nebraska and Ohio. Lewis Kletzley became pastor of the church in 1933. Thus was started the Britton Run Church which became an independent congregation in 1943. I. B. Witmer of the Leetonia Church served Britton Run as pastor from 1934 to 1942. Alfred Brenner, though ordained as deacon in 1947, also preached and served till his death in 1964. Jacob W. Birky was pastor till 1955. In 1957 Daniel Johns became pastor and since 1964 has been assisted by Arland Miller. In November of 1965 the members of the congregation voted to change the church's name from Britton Run to Valley View Mennonite Church.

The Sunnyside congregation near Meadville began in 1936 as a result of families moving into the community to find farms. The congregation became independent by 1940. From 1940 to 1957 Jacob Oswald, formerly from Nebraska, served as minister. During those years, 1942-48, James A. Steiner also ministered to the congregation. In 1949 Daniel Johns began his ministry with the Sunnyside Church,