Pieter Jansz

He later got remarried, to Jacoba Wilhelmina Frederica Schmilau (1830–1909) and they had ten children, of whom their son Pieter A. Jansz was a successor of his father in the missions field.

In preparation for his missionary assignment Jansz received private tutoring at the Royal Academy of Delft in order to become acquainted with the Javanese and Malayan languages, as well as with the geography and ethnology of the Dutch Indies.

August 1851 Pieter Jansz and his wife Jacoba Wilhelmina Frederica Schmilau sailed to Jakarta to begin their missionary work.

He worked as a private tutor in the area of Jepara, for a rich sugar plantation owner known as Margar Soekiazian (Wahan Markar Soekias), who was a Christian patrician of Armenian background.

In doing so he wrote a book called Land Reclamation and Evangelism in Java in which he emphasized Christian communities or colonies where converts could find support and protection.

Jansz faced much turmoil over Article 123, and in 1860 the Governor General withdrew his admission as a missionary, permitting him to stay in the country only if he remained as a teacher.

The DMMS made changes within their organization; and without formal discussion the Mennonite missionaries decided to follow the lead of other mission boards in making use of the financial and legal facilities offered by the colonial government to lease large parcels of land and to build and maintain schools and hospitals.

Jansz knew that in order to facilitate a church service and catechism, he needed to translate parts of the Bible into the Javanese language.