A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented" (Heb. 11:36-37). It became a church of martyrs, sharing with their spiritual ancestors the cost of suffering and death, thus providing another link in the march of the free church movement through history and testifying to the truth that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18), According to Heinrich and Gerhard Woelk's A Wilderness Journey, most able men were arrested and sent to labor camps, never to return. Women remained at home with their children and became part of the labor force on the collective 148 IN THE SHADOW OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION farms. Public religious services were forbidden and Bibles confiscated. The only thing that could not be taken away was private prayer. Many stricken souls joined the psalmist's lament: "Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate. ... I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land" (Ps. 143:4- 6). Faith in God was to be replaced by atheistic naturalism, School became a place to impart atheistic propaganda. Chil- dren were interrogated and urged to confess any religious in- fluences in their homes, The spiritual heroes during this period of tribulation were the mothers, who now headed most Mennonite households. They preserved the seed of faith so it could be passed on. This was not without severe risk, as the communist leaders had threatened to remove children from any religious influenced The mothers were well-trained in spiritual matters. Daily Bible reading and family devotions had been not only an inte- gral part of Mennonite Brethren home life but was even a condition of church membership. As children, they had learned the stories of the Bible; to graduate from high school they needed to pass an exam in Bible content. This back- ground gave them a solid foundation to teach their children biblical truth and the way of salvation. Scattered to isolated central Asian hamlets in 1942, the mothers continued to instruct their children in the Word of God. By day the children suffered a barrage of atheistic pro- paganda in the classroom; by night, in humble one-room dwellings amid the dim light of oil lamps, they learned the stories of the people of God and sang sacred songs from memory.54 The chronology of Mennonite Brethren persecution in Russia from