First steps off the continent
North American
Apparently, when toads migrate, there’s always one that doesn’t follow the group and goes its own way. This way, if anything were to happen to the main group, he would ensure the survival of the species on his own.With all due respect to what I’ve just said, it seems to me that Mihal Belina Czechowski qualifies as a mad toad.
While the young 7th Day Adventist Church focused on announcing Christ’s return to the North American continent, it took a former Polish monk to take the message beyond the borders of the USA. A person for whom it was necessary by all means to announce the message, even using money from another denomination. His target: the Waldensians in Piedmont, Italy.
He arrived in Torre-Pellice at the beginning of July 1864, and remained in the region until February 1865. At that point, he decided to come to Switzerland, which seemed a more favorable land for his family and for setting up an evangelization center.
On September 14, 1865, he was entered in the foreigners’ register of the commune of Grandson, and received residence permit no. 111159. He arrived with his wife, their five children, his brother and Jean-David Geymet, a convert from Piedmont. The journey was not an easy one for these nine people. The stages included Turin, the Mont Cenis pass on foot and with luggage, then a stagecoach from Lanslebourg to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne and finally the coach to Yverdon.
From Grandson, he will tour the region. Especially the Jura mountains. Jean-David Geymet works in Missy, in the Broye region near Avenches.
As a tool, he prints a magazine entitled: L’Evangile Eternel et l’accomplissement des prophéties sur la venue du Sauveur. He will present the prophecies of Daniel, then of the Apocalypse.
In 1866, the first fruits of Fleurier’s labours. But let’s let Anna de Prato, Louise Pigueron’s daughter, tell the story: ” My mother immediately requested the christening, which took place on February 7 in the lake near Grandson, at night, by lantern light, as we didn’t yet dare baptize by day. Brother Geymet, who had come with Czechowski from the Waldensian Valleys, was also baptized after my mother. “
From there, the Adventist message was proclaimed in Val de Travers, Val de Ruz, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, Courtelary, Tramelan, as well as Murten, Basel, Saint-Blaise and Cornaux.
“There will be no war.”
In 1914, Yverdon hosted a Camp Meeting. A young evangelist, Alfred Vaucher, recounts:
“(…) The newspapers were saying that war was imminent and inevitable. So I didn’t see that it could be avoided. But our preachers, both in America and Europe, were saying: “The next war will be the last. And it will be when the time of grace is over. So our work must first be completed. And God is giving us a time of peace, of relative tranquility, so that we can complete the work (…)”.And then 2 weeks before the outbreak of the ’14 war, we had a camp-meeting in Yverdon, Switzerland. Conradi was there. Conradi was the director of the work throughout Europe. And he said to us:
“Rest assured, there will be no war.”
Interview with John Graz in 1981.
Practical info
Adventist Church:
Address:Avenue des Bains 8, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains.
Tourist office :
Yverdon-les-Bains
To find out more :
Archives historiques de l’adventisme francophone
M.-B. Czechowskiby A-F Vaucher, Imprimerie FIDES, Collonges-sous-Salève, 1976
