The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884, Fred Richard Belk, 1976

t. He told them he did not object to their stay- ing, inquiring merely, ‘Will it be good for you?’ The delegation affirmed their desire to stay, and the matter was closed.” The Khivan Refuge 161 Johann Drake’s Insanity This governmental indecision was not the only problem facing the leadership of the Lausan community. One incident particularly disturbed the whole group. One Sunday night a group of girls saw “the outsider” Johann Drake jumping, laughing, and clapping his hands in a field near the hillside church. Though they mentioned this to some of the men at church, the entire congregation was horrified when Drake walked into the church, marched up to the podium, and began singing the Prussian national anthem. At first no one knew how to respond to his strange irreverence. After a tense silence, one of the men walked up to Drake and asked him to leave. Drake then be- gan struggling, and it took several men to carry the husky, six-foot Drake from the building. Later, after completing services, they saw him standing quietly on the crest of the hill. When several men went to investigate, they found him leaning on a staff, a small book in his mouth. It looked as if he were trying to swallow the book. One of the brethren stepped forward and roughly jerked the book from Drake's mouth, causing it to bleed. After emotions subsided, Claas Epp asked if he was really trying to devour the book. Speaking in a very incoher- ent manner, Drake replied the Holy Spirit had told him that he had been chosen to swallow this small Bible and then go preach the contents. Some time passed before he stopped his babbling and he be- came very quiet. The men surmised that Drake had become mentally deranged over the recent death of his father added to the previous sorrows of his mother’s death and the broken engagement with the girl he loved. Drake was cared for tenderly and became an object of pity in the community.” Making a Living The Mennonites tried to banish these problems through hard work. They spent the month of April 1883, in plowing, improving irrigation works, digging new canals, and obtaining the necessary fertilizer. Their crops of potatoes, beans, onions, carrots, cabbage, melons, maize, barley, peas, and clover demanded intensive irrigation. The Amu Darya was not especially high that spring, and all crops required special care and concern. Then, the fear of all farmers of the region came in the form of a black cloud on the horizon — grass- hoppers! The majority of the pests passed them by, but here and there they left a blackened field. After this plague, wild hogs came to 162 The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites finish off anything missed by the grasshoppers and ate everything they could find. Hence, the expected harvest was very small for some; others harvested nothing.” Epp’s Religious Work In the midst of this disastrous destruction of their crops, Claas Epp went happily about his reli