This collection contains the records of the ministry originally know as the Russian and Eastern European Mission (REEM, 1927-1949), then as the Eastern European Mission (EEM, 1949-1985) and finally as EuroVision (1985-1989) from the time of its creation in 1927 until its consolidation with Slavic Gospel Mission in 1989. The records include a complete set of minutes and financial audits, as well as voluminous correspondence with Christian workers in Eastern Europe, Russia and other parts of the world where there were Slavic populations. For a brief history of EEM up to the end of World War II, see folder 30-9. For material on the resignation of the executive director Chuck Rogers, the discussion of the mission's future, and the merger with SGA, see folders 11-9, 27-11, 24-13, 28-3 and 32-1. A self-study of the mission is in folder 33-17. For examples of the appeal letters that the mission sent out to their supporters, see folders 18-10,21-14, and 25-1. Examples of their newsletters, Advance and Wort und Zeugnis (Work and Witness) can be found in folders 18-11, 21-15, 25-2, and 31-3 and 4. The publication of the mission was The Gospel Call. The Wheaton College Library has a complete run of the magazine. Production materials, such as artwork, poems and sermons that might be published, and subscription lists can be found in folders 30-5 to 30-8. The sermons being considered included ones by G. Alan Fleece, and A. W. Tozer. Correspondence, reports and memos from the leaders of the mission - Paul Petersen (up to 1978), Walter Zurfluh (1979-1985), and Chuck Rogers(1985-1989) can be found throughout the collection. For Zurfluh, see especially folders 9-17 and 33-23. For Chuck Rogers, see folder 11-9.

The archivist created four sub-series to the collection which basically follows the original arrangement of the materials: Minutes, Financial Records, Correspondence, and General.

MINUTES - Boxes 1-4. The collections contains a complete set of the minutes of the board of trustees from the foundation of the organization until its dissolution (boxes 1-3). There are also minutes for the field council (which generally met in Poland or Danzig until 1939 and then was dissolved because of the war, 4-1 to 4-3) and the affiliated British (folder 4-4), Australian and New Zealand boards (folder 4-3).

The minutes of the board are generally concerned with the acceptance and resignation of missionaries and board members, the purchase, sale and management of properties including printing presses, finaicnal matters, approval of the sending or removal of individual missionaries, allocation of funds to workers, fund raising, reports from missionaries, reports of trips of members of the board, changes to the constitution.

Most entries in the minutes are brief notes about discussions held and decisions taken. Occasionally there is more detail, such as material relating to the resignation of Daniel Poysti in the February 21, 1955 minutes (folder 2-2). There are also few letters, financial reports and other documents included with the minutes.

Field Council minutes (folders 4-1 and 4-2) are concerned with the management of the missions work in Europe from 1928 until 1938, including the mission's Bible school in Danzig and its orphanage (see also folder 30-1). There is also more detail than the board minutes about the work of individual missionaries, problems among missionaries for the council to resolve, allotment of funds, and assignments for missionaries. The last minutes in these folders are from March 1929.

There is a folders of minutes in German and Russian (folder 4-5) which the staff were unable to process but which apparently are minutes of meetings of the German and Russian workers of the mission.

Various drafts of the constitution and by-laws of the mission, undated and typed and handwritten, are in folder 5-1.

Financial Records. Boxes 3-6. These consist mainly of yearly audit reports and are found in boxes 5 and 6. There are audits for the entire mission covering the years 1928 through 1952 in folders 5-2 and 5-3. Then there are audits for various affiliates and sub divisions, including the Australian office (folder 5-4), the Bethel Home for the Aged (folder 6-1), the British office (folder 6-2), the Canadian office (folder 6-3), the REEM field headquarters in Danzig (folder 6-4), Field accounts from the early years of World War II (folder 6-5), the German department in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (folder 6-6), and the Word and Witness Publishing Company, a subsidiary of REEM (folder 6-8). The audit reports were all done by outside accountants and list assets, receipts, disbursements. They also usually have a page or two of comments. This section also has a ledger listing the subscribers to the mission's publication, The Gospel Call. Folder 6-9 contains some of the mission's leases and quitclaims.



Correspondence. Boxes 7-29. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, by Paul B. Peterson, Walter Zurfluh, and Charles Rogers, with missionaries and Christian workers, board members, supporters of the mission, and other missions agencies. Also in this section are many letters from the mission's early years, but the bulk is from 1974-1976 (boxes 7-10) and 1982, 1985-1989 (boxes 10-28) Of especial interest are the many letters from the mission's workers in Europe and elsewhere describing their activities. Starting with box 10, the correspondence files generally fall into the following categories for each year: general and miscellaneous, major donors including foundations (see for example box 13), other donors, letters to churches that supported EEM missionaries (see, for example, boxes 12 and 13), staff (which included indigenous Christian workers in the various countries), and appeal letters.

There is a great deal of correspondence between the mission's main office (first in Chicago, then in Pasadena) with branch offices or associated organizations in Canada (folders 7-6, 8-14, 11-2, 14-11, 18-5, 21-4, and 24-9), England (9-1, 11-5, 18-4, and 21-5), the Netherlands (folders 9-10, 9-14), Poland (7-7, 7-8, 8-18, 9-1, 9-2, 9-6, 9-16, 10-8 and 9, 10-13, 11-13, 21-10, 21-12, and 33-6) and Germany (9-18, 9-22, 10-4 and 5, 10-9, 10-16, 15-1, 17-12, 18-9, and 29-12). For the Chicago office, see folders 8-18, 11-4, 15-7 18-5, and 21-7.

Listed below are a few items of particular interest in the correspondence:

Folder 7-1: a 1928 letter to "My dear and beloved brother Steiner" from Poland about the inadvisability of the use in the country of a North American Evangelist who does not know the particular conditions of the country.

Folder 7-2. Many reports from and about missionary Marie Gallont about her work in and around the Free City of Danzig

Folder 7-3. More correspondence with Gallont, who was now in London, deciding whether to return to Poland. There is a 9/29/1938 letter in which she describes the civil defense preparations being made in London during the Munich Crisis. Other letters by Gallont describe the public mood leading up to the outbreak of war.

Folder 7-4. Correspondence of G. Herbert Schmidt, a co-founder of the mission. Contains letters in German and English. He was a German citizen and the first Assemblies of God missionary in Eastern Europe. His correspondence is mostly abut the work of the mission in Danzig (then a Free City) and Poland. He was the founder of the Danzig Bible Institute, which trained many eastern European Pentecostal pastors and Christian workers. There is a September 15, 1939 letter, in German with a translation in English, that gives his account of the German invasion of Poland from a pro-German and perhaps pro-Nazi perspective. Schmidt, however, was later imprisoned by the Nazis. Other letters from 1940 describe his attempts to continue the work of the mission in Poland under wartime conditions. For more on the Institute, see folders 10-8 and 19-2.

Folder 7-5. Several letters from Harold Engelhardt from Berlin after the war about the relief aid the mission was providing for refugees in West Berlin and evangelism work among them. A letter dated November 1, 1960 describes the visit of evangelist Armin Gesswein to Berlin. The same folder has some information about Billy Graham's 1960 evangelistic meetings in Berlin.

Folders 7-6 through 10-5 cover the years 1974-1976. Among the items of interest in these folders are correspondence with Far East Broadcasting and Voice of the Gospel from Warsaw about radio programs for Russia (folder 7-6, 7-7), Senator mark Hatflied's investigation into the use of missionaries by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (folder 7-8) and translations of German articles about persecution of the church in Russia (folder 7-7)

Here is a sampling of other topics covered in the correspondence:

Correspondence with other mission and/or Evangelical organizations: Evangelical Foreign Mission Association (8-9, 10-1), Evangelical Press Association (8-11, 10-3), Evangelism to Communist Lands (folder 9-18), Fellowship of Closed Countries (folder 10-18), Licht in Osten (folder 7-7, 10-8), National Association of Evangelicals (folder 9-3), Mission to Europe's Millions (folder 10-8), Pocket Testament League (folders 7-7, 7-9, 9-18), Reach International (which helped coordinate activities of missions in Eastern Europe folder 7-7, 7-9, 9-18), Romanian Missionary Society (folders 19-9, 27-11), Scripture Union (folders 7-7, 7-8), Trans World Radio (folder 9-12), World Evangelical Fellowship (9-18). Material about the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's tour of the Soviet union in 1984 is in folder 10-8

Euroteams was a program to attract people, especially students, interested in short term mission work in Europe, generally during the summer. Jim Proud supervised the program. Folders 11-16, 15-10, 18-8, 21-9, and 24-10. See also folders 29-8 and 33-30.

Work in Austria; This country served as a base for the work in Communist Eastern Europe after 1945. See folders 7-7, 10-11, 11-6, 14-9, 15-4, 17-1, 20-5 and 6, 24-2. Also 31-6. Visitors to Austria from Hungary were particular targets of interest. See folder 20-6.

Work in Bulgaria: Folder 29-11

Work in Czechoslovakia: Folders 15-1 and 33-9.

Work in Greece: This was especially developed in the 1970s and 80s and consisted largely of the publication of Christian literature, especially for Sunday schools and Vacation Bible Schools. Milto Anghelatos was an important contact in this country. Folders 7-7 to 9, 8-1, 8-6, 9-18 and 19, 9-21, 10-6, 10-10, 144-10, 18-2, 21-1, also 29-13

Work in the Soviet Union, primarily Russia: Folders 7-7, 7-8, 9-6. See also folders 29-6 and 7, 30-4, 31-5, 33-, and 33-16 (Latvia) Folder 297-7 contains newspaper stories about Russian Christian from the 1930s. Folder 10-8 contains letters about life for Christians in Soviet prisons.

Work in Romania: Folders 24-1, 24-12, 25-2. Also folders 30-3 and 33-16.

Work in Yugoslavia: Folders 7-6 and 7-7, 9-20 and 21,folder 11-11.

Radio broadcasts: One of the mission's primary activities were Christian radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union and other closed countries. Earl Poysti was one of the workers in this ministry until 1955. The work is documented many places in the collection, especially folders 7-7, 9-6, 9-11, 9-18, 11-13, 19-7, 21-8, 24-6, 24-9, 25-2. Also 33-11 and 33-15. Letters from European listeners who heard the broadcasts, often with testimonies to their Christian faith, are in folders 11-13 and 33-2. See also folder 33-7.

Special projects: In the 1980s, the mission raised funds for a number of projects, including printing and distributing Bible in Polish (folder 12-1 an2 33-12) and Russian (folders 12-6, 21-15, 25-2, and 33-8), relief work in Oland and elsewhere (12-3 and 4, 33-14), Bible study literature in Bulgarian (folder 2-5), Eastern European audio visuals 933-10), letters of comfort and support to Russian Christian prisoners (folders 24-14, 15, 16), Polish translation of books by James Dobson (folder 20-2) encouraging mailing postcards to believers in Russia (folder 30-12).

Vaughn Shoemaker, the political cartoonist, was an active member of the mission's board for many years. There is reference to him throughout the minutes and also in folders 9-11 and 11-10. See also folders 33-18 and 19 for some of the artwork he did for the mission's magazine.



General Boxes 29-35. This section contains a wide variety of subject files that reflect the entire history of the mission. The folder titles are mostly original and they were put in alphabetical order by the archivist. Below are some of the materials covered by the files in this section.

Peter Peterson: There are biographical materials about the founder of EEM in folder 32-5. Articles that he wrote about Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union are in folder 32-6. Folder 32-7 has the manuscript of the chapter he wrote for the 1982 book Refugee about the flood of refugees from the Soviet zone of Germany into West Berlin and West Germany is in 32-7. Scripts for some his radio talks are in folder 32-9.

Finn Nicholai John Poysti (usually referred to as N. J. Poysti) was one of the influential early leaders of the mission, involved in ministry to Russia. Copes of his articles and radio scripts, as well as other material about his work are in folders 29-6 and 33-1 to 5. Earl Poysti, mentioned elsewhere in this guide, was his son, as was Daniel Poysti (folders 7-7, 7-9, 9-18).

Administrative materials: Personnel and recruitment policies from the late 1980s can be found in folder 24-13. Policy manuals for the mission for the same period are folder 32-9. Inquiries and application from people who wanted to be missionaries (usually including their testimonies and the determination to accept them or not) are in folders 11-16 and 31-2. Brochures intended to describe the missions work for various audiences and covering several decades are in folder 29-3,4. Direct mailings to supporters, also covering several years are in folder 30-12 and 31-1.

Testimonies: Folder 33-22 contains dozens of testimonies from mainly Pentecostal Christians about how they came to faith. The testimonies are from people from many Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union and cover the years 1929-1941.

Evangelical literature Overseas: The collection contains the papers given at the 1955 conference held by the ELO, including papers by David Adeney, Philip Armstrong, Horace Fenton, Art Glasser, Kenneth McVety, Vernon Mortenson, Eugene Nida, Kenneth Taylor, and A. W. Tozer.

Box 34 contains various Russian and German manuscripts without translations. Box 35 contains eighteen 8mm and Super8 films. Some were shot in Eastern Europe, including Greece, by Paul Peterson and others during their trips to that part of the world. Other appear to be footage that was used to make the film Victory in Oppression. The Archives does not have the equipment to project these films.