David Nitschmann
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[edit] David Nitschmann
[edit] His background
David Nitschmann was born on September 18, 1676, in Zauchental, Moravia. In 1724 he together with his family joined the fellowship in Herrnhut, the community founded by Protestant refugees from Moravia and Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, just a few years earlier.
[edit] Call for Mission
On August 21, 1732 Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann were set out to the island St. Thomas in the West Indies, the day they left Herrnhut, marks the beginning of mission work of the Moravian Church.
[edit] St. Thomas
Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann arrived on St. Thomas on December 13, 1732. David Nitschmann returned to Europe four months later. Leonhard Dober preached the Gospel to the slaves there until 1734 when he was called back to become General Elder, a position he would hold until September of 1741.
[edit] His other positions in the Moravian church
He became the first bishop of the Moravian church, consecrated in Germany on March 13, 1735. 1735-36 on his way to America he met on the ship John and Charles Wesley. Most of the later years he lived in Anerica. He died 1772 in Bethlehem, Pa, USA.
