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Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

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timE out<br />

<strong>Against</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Wind</strong><br />

One thing was clear: <strong>Eberhard</strong>’s missionary zeal, his ministry to <strong>the</strong> souls of his<br />

schoolmates <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs his own age, his talent for seaking, <strong>and</strong> his involvement<br />

with <strong>the</strong> Salvation Army <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> bible group – all <strong>the</strong>se came at <strong>the</strong> cost of his<br />

schoolwork. Clara <strong>Arnold</strong> writes that her bro<strong>the</strong>r was indifferent about school,<br />

even that he had a “passive resistance” to it. By a simple calculation from esablished<br />

dates, it is evident that <strong>Eberhard</strong> had been lagging behind in his studies during <strong>the</strong><br />

years following his sixteenth birthday. His parents ultimately convinced him to<br />

concentrate on his high school final examination, but he always maintained <strong>the</strong><br />

worth of his missionary acivities: “I can never regret having worked for Jesus in<br />

caring for souls, <strong>and</strong> I must state clearly that it was his call <strong>and</strong> his spirit that urged<br />

me to do it.” 30 Since Breslau contained too many distracions from his studies,<br />

<strong>Eberhard</strong>’s parents sent him to a boarding school in <strong>the</strong> Silesian town of Jauer. 31<br />

There he passed his final examination at <strong>the</strong> royal high school during <strong>the</strong> first<br />

weeks of 1905. 32 He was twenty-one years old.<br />

13

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