A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

he La Glace Bible School in the Peace River area of northern Alberta was founded in 1933 by G. Harder, a graduate of Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute. Other teachers who served the school and the constituency were I. Dyck, A. J. Schierling, J. Franz and D. Ewert. An exodus of M.B. families to British Columbia forced the school to close shortly after World War II came to an end. In two other Mennonite Brethren communities there were short-lived efforts of Bible school training. In Vauxhall, a Bible school operated intermittently between 1937 and 1943, and in the small TRAINING FOR LIFE AND SERVICE 263 community of Crowfoot classes were conducted during the winters of 1935-36 and 1936-37 with Peter Goertz and George Martens as teachers. Bible Schools in British Columbia 21 The Mennonite Brethren who moved from the praire provinces to the Fraser Valley carried with them the vision of biblical instruction for their young people. Here too, Bible schools came into existence because there was a felt need, there were willing sponsors, and there were dedicated teachers to give leadership. Only one of the five schools founded has survived to the present. The Yarrow {Elim) Bible School (1930-1950) The Elim Bible School at Yarrow, (one of the most rapidly growing M.B. communities in Canada during the thirties and forties) was established in 1930. Instrumental in launching the Bible school movement here were P. D. Loewen, J. A. Harder, A. Nachtigall and G. H. Sukkau. In the early years attendance fluctuated between twenty and fifty. In 1937 C. C. Peters joined the staff and subsequently (1941) assumed the principalship of the school. In 1942 the Yarrow Bible School had its record enrollment of 155 students. G. H. Sukkau succeeded Peters as principal in 1947, and from 1952 to 1955 H. Warkentin served in this capacity. The presence of other Bible schools in the province and the trend toward secular education are cited as causes which led to the closing of the school in 1955. 26 Since then the students from Yarrow have generally attended the Bible institute at Clearbrook. The Greendale Bible School (1938-1943) The Bible school in Sardis (Greendale) was established in 1938 to meet local needs. H. G. Dueck and H. Lenzmann served as instructors. The school never progressed beyond its initial stages due, primarily, to the close proximity of the larger Bible schools at Yarrow and Clear- brook. The Black Creek Bible School (1942-1945) The Black Creek community on Vancouver Island has always felt its geographic isolation from the churches and schools in the Fraser Valley. When John Goertz, a former Bible school teacher from Dalmeny, Sask., moved there, the M.B. church launched out on its own Bible school program which had to be abandoned, however, after three years. The East Chilliwack Bible School (1947-1959) The last Bible school to be established in the Canadian M.B. constituency was located approx