Peace returned in 1814, and more securely still in 1815. And now a new path of work and activity opened up for all friends of the Kingdom of God. Now the old prayer club had to take on a new form. Throughout the first fourteen years, it had always been the same twelve, faithful servants of God who – with rare interruptions – had met every month in the same place to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus. But now death quickly left one void after another in the tightly knit chain, and several members had to move away. What had hitherto been virtually the sole activity of the association, the distribution of bibles and tractates, was taken over in 1814 and continued on a larger scale by the newly founded Bergische Bible Society and the Wuppertal Tractate Society. Both were spiritual daughters of the small missionary society, and both took with them their share of the prayer capital the mother had accumulated. That was evident from their blessed beginning and their blessed continuation. To be sure, as long as patriarch Peltzer was still alive, until 1817, the Missionary Society itself continued essentially along the old tracks, even though nearly the entire personnel changed: prayer was still the most important thing, and the publication of booklet “News of the Spread of the Kingdom of Jesus” continued. However, the members – especially the new ones (the number twelve had already been exceeded) – were already eagerly on the lookout whether the Lord might not have other work for them, and intended to call them to direct participation in the missionary work. At that moment the first young man who wished to be trained for missionary service through the mediation of the Elberfeld Society came forward. One can imagine with what happy gratitude toward the Lord his application was accepted. His examination and training, his dispatch to Berlin to be trained there as a messenger to the heathens was seen by the friends as the first pledge that the Lord would one day grant their prayers the possibility of sending forth missionaries on their own. Like Moses from Mount Nebo, the 84 year-old president Peltzer looked across into the promised land, and in his faith already saw the messengers of peace going forth from Wuppertal into the heathen world. Then he died. Now only two of the old prayer-leagues of twelve were still left. Like Joshua and Caleb they extended into the new development of the Missionary Society, which still had to go through much struggle and uncertainty before it would truly reach the goal it had yearned and beseeched God for.
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