02. Sep 2025

Hirschfelde - Herrnhut

Photo 1: I stayed the night at this "Pilgerhäusl"... Little Pilgrim House. It was originally a barn and had been purchased by the Catholic Church in 1917 to provide a Catholic church meeting place for Catholic miners coming from Poland. Later a church building was constructed and the barn became the parsonage. The 300 year old building was slowly succoming to the forces of nature. Instead of demolishing it, the decision was made to revamp it as a pilgrim hostel on the St. James path from Görlitz to Zittau. I love staying in historical buildings like this... and I slept well.

Photo 2: It rained all morning. I was really looking forward to this hike to Herrnhut. The stop is not officially on the path of St. James, but it was worth it for me to walk the extra 18 kilometers to this place where church and world missions history were written. There was a sculpture path with biblical themes for about 5 kilometers leading to Herrnhut. This one says: "Be like the children"
- ready to hear and willing to believe
- and not like the old grey grumps in the background who and set in their ways

Photo 3: As you enter Herrhhut on the sculpture path, you will see this statement engraved in the wood: "I am the way / Go."

The Moravians went. The Herrnhut/Moravian/Brethern movement began when persecuted reformed believers from Moravia sought refuge on the plantation of Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf who was himself a follower of Jesus and led a group of reformed believers. The two groups became one and then expierenced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit which sparked a world missionary movement that was until then unprecedented. It was Moravian missionaries, for instance, who led John Wesley to faith in Christ. The oldest settlement in Ohio, Gnadenhutten (Grace Dwellings), was established by the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger. He was just 17 years old when he came to America in 1738. His heart was for the unreached indians. He lived among them and taught them the ways of Jesus until his death in 1808. David Zeisberger, born in Czech and sent out from Germany... his bones became American dust. I remember standing before his gravestone during my last round of deputation in 2018. I, born in America and sent out from Ohio, laid my hand on it and said: "I hope to return the favor."

Photo 4: The town of Herrnhut today looking down from the hill at the Moravian cemetery called "God's Acre".

Photo 5: Five years after the Herrnhut community was established, Leonhard Dober was the first missionary to be sent overseas. He went to the island of St. Thomas in the West Indies. In one generation the Moravians had sent missionaries to almost every continent with the message of Jesus Christ. His grave lays opposite to that of Zinsendorf's.