The Refugees Who Became a Movement

In 1722, a ragged band of Protestant refugees from Moravia arrived on the estate of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf in Saxony. They had nothing — no church building, no organizational structure, no reputation. They were carpenters, weavers, and farmers fleeing persecution, speaking different dialects, carrying different traditions. Zinzendorf gave them land on a hill called Herrnhut, meaning "the Lord's watch."

For five years, they quarreled. Old theological disputes flared. The community nearly fractured. But on August 13, 1727, during a communion service at Berthelsdorf, something broke open. The Holy Spirit moved so powerfully among them that participants later compared it to Pentecost. Former rivals wept and embraced. Within weeks, they launched a continuous prayer vigil that would run unbroken for over a hundred years.

From that tiny hilltop, God sent missionaries to the Caribbean, to Greenland, to South Africa — places no Protestant mission had reached. A community of exiles, lacking every worldly advantage, discovered they had been enriched with every spiritual gift they needed.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that God had called them into fellowship with His Son and confirmed His testimony among them, so that they were "not lacking in any gift." The Moravians at Herrnhut proved the same truth: God does not call a people and leave them unequipped. His faithfulness completes what His calling begins.