Three streams of church life flow together in the life of GITJ. The first of these is the influence of the Dutch Mennonite Mission (Doopsgezinde Zendingsvereeniging) formed in the Netherlands in 1847, which sent its first missionaries, Pieter and Wilhelmina Jansz, to Java in 1851. The first Mennonite mission congregation in the Dutch East Indies (today Indonesia) was formed in the coastal town of Jepara at the western foot of Mount Muria when the first believers there were baptized in 1854 by Pieter Jansz. Pasrah Karso became an important early Javanese leader of this church first in Pulojati and then leading a group in the formation of the Kedungpenjalin Congregation.