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

ed. Then I heard that a nurse had come to check the children in school. I sent and begged her to come see us, which she did. She thought I should bring Marta to a doctor but that was impossible. I was under the strict control of the regional commandant and further¬ more I had no money. I was in complete despair. Towards evening I took my Bible and found the passage in Mark chapter nine where a father came to the Lord with his sick son. Jesus told him: “All things are pos¬ sible to him that believes.” That was a word for me and I accepted it as a direct answer from God. I was greatly comforted by this Word and received new courage and joy. I knelt down, placed my finger on His word and reminded the Lord of His promise. “Lord you have said ‘if you can believe’ then nothing is impossible with you”. ... I stood up in the firm belief that He could help. That evening I told Marta, Heini and Nadja, who were always with us, that I had found a doctor who would heal Marta. “Where is this doctor?” Nadja asked. “In heaven,” I said in Russian so that Nadja could understand. “We need to pray and believe that the heav¬ enly doctor will cure Marta. We need no ones permission or money, only faith.” We all knelt down and everyone prayed so childlike .... Marta’s healing was not sudden but within a week she was free of her St. Vitus Dance and became calm and normal. She could walk and sit. She chattered, questioned and was happy. The Russians in the village knew all about the illness and asked how I had cured it. I told them that God above had done it ... . With the coming of spring we resumed our daily work. The land was very rocky and since I went barefoot, I hurt my foot. It became infected and a large boil formed on the sole of my foot. It hurt intensely and I could no longer walk. [Because I could not work] I received no more food. Fortunately, Marta and Heini could eat twice a day in the kindergarten. I sat all day with my foot elevated. One night I had great pain. Pus had accumulated 78 JOURNEYS and the foot was throbbing. It was red and swollen. I had no medicine or compress .... I cried bitterly in pain. The children could not sleep and sat beside me and cried with me. Next morn¬ ing I said to Marta: “Go tell Mrs. Kroeker to come here and open the boil.” She borrowed a shaving knife from a Russian and came and cut open the boil. There was a great deal of blood and pus but the pain was relieved. The children came and told me our potato patch was full of weeds. It was located at the end of the village. With the help of a stick and the children, I limped to our potato patch. I got on my knees and tore out weeds all day long .... We were still living with the Polish children Micha and Nadja. One day we learned that all Poles could return home. The two left for Poland and the house was sold. The children and I had to find another house, which was a very difficult task. Finally we found accomodation in t