Charles Goldschmidt was 11 years old in 1925, and he attended the first Mennonite World Conference--with great interest.
     It was a comforting event for the small boy who lived in a French village of about 3000. "There were only three non-Catholic families," he remembers. "Two Protestant, and our family who was Mennonite." The Goldschmidts were members of the Basel Holee congregation, which was originally an Amish fellowship, and the oldest church in Basel.
     The family got up early during the days of meetings so they could milk their cows before walking the five or six kilometers into Basel. "I remember the room where we met," recalls the elderly Charles today. "The building belonged to a missions organization and the main room had four balconies. It was almost like a theater; you could look down and see the people below.
     "They talked about the beginning of the Mennonites. I'm sure it was the first time I was hearing many of the details. We heard German, Dutch, Swiss, North American English, and French. The sermons were in German, which I could understand.
     "I had such an interest--because people came from so many places, and because my parents had so much interest in the gathering."
     Goldschmidt attended four more MWC assemblies and participated in Mennonite church life throughout his adulthood, serving for many years as elder in the congregation at Le Hang in the Vosges Mountains in France.