JOURNEYS Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalins Russia, John B. Toews, 1998

Many refugees arrived in our village bringing with them the dreaded disease typhus. For this reason they were placed in quarantine. No one was allowed to visit them, nor could they leave until the disease ran its course. The Lord laid it on my heart to make contact with these people regardless of the danger. He blessed my meager efforts and protected me from infection. Eventually I was appointed as a Sunday school teacher and continued in this type of ministry for approximately nine years. We teachers were instructed by godly Christian brothers who helped clarify the Scripture for us in such a way that we derived much blessing from it and were able to transfer this understand¬ ing to our students. God richly blessed our ministry. In addition to teaching Sunday school I also sang in the church choir. My parents were poor farmers to whom God had entrusted three orphans in addition to their large family. Since money was scarce I had to work as a maid for other people .... There was many a year when I was not at home. At times I found it difficult to sacrifice my lovely family life with my parents and siblings for the interests of other people’s children .... Once I realized that this was God’s way I was able to learn some important things. First, I learned to suppress my big ego. Second, I learned that I was there for the purpose of making others happy. Third, I learned to do without. I worked in this capacity for some fourteen or fifteen years. At times there were tears in the midst of my loneliness. Because of the shortage of land we moved sixty kilometers beyond Frunze. I heard about a family of ten in Tiflis who were looking for a maid .... I often wonder what faith in God my 26 JOURNEYS parents had, to have let me travel so far from home. I worked for this family for nearly two years .... After I had been home for about two months, the collective farm was founded. We had to give up all our inventory — land, cows, horses, wagons etc., to the collective. Each family was al¬ lowed to keep one cow. Each person was forced to join the collec¬ tive. We were now robbed of our freedom .... We often remarked that only the slave drivers with their whips were missing. During the war years, however, these “slave drivers” actually appeared. Our work on the collective continued for the next four years. My life suddenly changed when a widower, Abraham Kroeker, came and asked for my hand in marriage .... We celebrated our wedding on March 3, 1938. I am not really in the position to describe the terrible circumstances that happened to his family preceding our marriage. They did not voluntarily join the collec¬ tive and so the collective farm confiscated all of Abraham Kroekers possessions — gardens, barns, horses, cows, young livestock, sheep, yard and house. Everything inside the house was taken including the cupboards and a bag containing patches. His oldest daughter was in the middle of cooking dinn