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

housewives had painstakingly wrapped in linen be- fore their departure and which had been brought so carefully along on their journey, were first shattered by the troops. They then drove the occupants out of the huts so that the rest of the sod structures could be dismantled. This slow house-by-house process of destruction continued all afternoon; by nightfall only half of the dwellings still stood. That night, the bek allowed the group to gather for a brief message by Jacob Toews and the burial of Martin Klaas- sen. Serabulak for Winter The next day the occupants were forced from the remaining dwellings and made to prepare to leave for Serabulak. Heinrich Jantzen, mayor and wagon master, saw the roof of his home torn off and his belongings thrown onto a cart. When his son Hermann tried to prevent some soldiers from rummaging through the household items, he was bound and roughly thrown on top of the baggage in one of the carts. Wagons, horses, carts, cattle, soldiers, and emi- grant people were hurriedly directed by the bek to make their way to Serabulak. Bound and helpless, Hermann Jantzen was greatly troubled by the cold wind and his freezing limbs until one of the soldiers released him to run alongside the cart to keep warm. This No-Man’'s-Land: Between Khan and Czar 123 forced march, the Mennonites later recounted, was the worst indignity they had suffered on their entire journey.'’ Arriving again in Serabulak on the evening of November 26, they decided to rent property in the small village in order to spend the winter, hoping that Russian officials would overlook their undigni- fied return. The immediate concern about winter weather was more important to them than the shame and despair they had experienced in this ‘‘final’’ trek. Four families stayed in a mosque they later used as a church; some found temporary quarters in stables; others wherever they could find extra rooms. The Klaassen family, for ex- ample, was one of the fortunate ones. Renting from a local land- lord, they acquired lodging in an enclosed courtyard with a mud- brick dwelling. Because of this forcible ejection from Bukhara, many of the brethren became convinced they had perhaps been mistaken in their theological predictions. In their first meeting after their return, it was concluded that Serabulak must be the collection site for the remnant of God’s people during the tribulation; the actual place of refuge lay elsewhere."* This ‘gathering place’ was but a small vil- lage with one main street. In Serabulak the pilgrims found no sympathy for their theology but a very simple and helpful people, nonetheless. Living in mud-brick huts, all the inhabitants of Sera- bulak were practicing Muslims and took their faith seriously. Yet they willingly opened their village to the Mennonites even during the sacred fasting month of Ramadan, when the natives ate no food between sunrise and sunset. One evening, in fact, young Jacob