What follows is an approximate description of the migration from Canada to Mexico that occurred in the year of the Lord 1922. It is left behind as a memento for my children and descendants, and for the dear congregation. “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body… And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember those things” (2 Peter 1:12-13, 15).¹

“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). And even in much distress and sorrow, it remains the true pleasure of the Christian if he sees or hears that the name of the Lord is glorified, and that Christ is preached in all places, “whether from false motives or true” (Philippians 1:18).

For what unimaginable grace of God is it that the word of God so pure and clear is in full swing among us and that through it we can find the way to true godliness. If only we knew how to rightly treasure this great grace and to honour God in the same way, and use it for the salvation of our souls. But unfortunately, it appears that nowadays we show the same disgust for it as the children of Israel did for the manna in the desert, which was considered so offensive that they were seriously punished for it by the Lord God their father. And so it cannot and will not go any better for us if we do not exert our freedom of conscience which – God be praised and thanked – we still enjoy in this Mexican land, or if we despise the rich communication of the word of God, or if we fail to use it for our salvation, and for a true change of mind or new birth. Then it may be said of us, as the Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish” (Isaiah 29:13–14).

Let us pay attention to the time of the old covenant, and after the wisdom of the prophets let us look at the time of the new covenant, and also let us read about and consider all the centuries which the beautiful martyr’s book describes, which is read far too infrequently in our dark and unbelieving times and which is unknown in many homes and to many families.² It doesn’t look like anything else but that the upright children of God and followers of Jesus were only born into sorrow, suffering, and persecution, and as if God, from the beginning of the world up to our times, has wanted to test his church and his congregation like gold in a fire, so that its loyalty and steadfastness would be manifested to the whole world.

Namely, the entire holy Scripture, especially the Old Testament, seems to be nothing more than a martyr’s book, just as the entire letter to the Hebrews, but in particular the eleventh and twelfth chapters, pertains to the great cloud of witnesses by which we are surrounded, witnesses who have, through faith, endured, overcome, and conquered entire kingdoms. And so even the strongest demands of those in authority, even the sentencing of Christians to death, orders that were signed and sealed by princes and kings, have been changed and cancelled on your behalf, just as the whole history of Daniel illustrates, especially in the third chapter. And the reason for this is that your love for God is stronger than death: “Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away” (Song of Solomon 8:7).

If only we too, who carry the name of Christ (although there are those among us who do not understand upon what this name is grounded) could behold the mysteries of God with the eye of faith, and delight in the law of the Lord, and speak of it day and night. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (Psalm1:3). It would do us well to recognize that we are very far from following in the footsteps of our forefathers who eagerly desired to live holy lives in Christ Jesus and for that reason, in the words of 2 Timothy 3:12, had to endure so many sorrows, since the God whom they served and who made them so strong is our God also, and the Saviour, in whom they hoped, is also our Saviour. The faith that they confessed and paid for with their blood is also our faith. The laws of God, which they held as the measure and the standard for their lives, are also our laws. They bent their knees before God during the holy baptism and they promised God obedience of the faith with their hearts and mouths, without wavering, and to remain constant before God the Lord and to live in holiness and justice. This is the only difference between them and us – they persevered in spite of heavy persecution until the end when they died gruesome martyrs’ deaths, but “in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed” (Hebrews 12:4).

But they overtook with force the blessed fatherland, the milk-rich Canaan, the true land of promise that flows with milk and honey, something that we have not yet done: “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait patiently” (Romans 8:24–25). “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, for we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us” (Romans 5:1–5). “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it” (2 Corinthians 5:6–9).

How instructive are the loyal fighters, the strong heroes of the faith, just as our dear old Aeltesten and ministers always advised and earnestly exhorted us. And for that reason Paul said: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). Their deeds, their works, and their way of life must speak for themselves. For God’s truth needs neither people’s praise nor vainglory. A sharp eye of faith knows what the truth is worth. The truth is never more beautiful than when it appears totally naked and simply free of human understanding or worldly teaching. The holy martyrs, and so many witnesses of the truth, serve as confirmation of this fact, especially the two most influential reformers, Menno Simons and Dirk Philips, who came out of the dark cloud of the papacy. The Lord used them to weaken the papacy.

Their teaching, in particular the complete works of Menno Simons, may be seen as an outline or model of the Christian religion, which the authors and blood witnesses, because of their knowledge of the holy Scriptures, founded and fortified (during the confused times in which they lived) under much pressure, danger, fear, and trouble. Our forebears always identified the way of the cross, no matter how narrow, as the safest way of all by which to reach their goal, which was the salvation of their souls, even though they were contradicted from all sides, and though they were afflicted with persecution, burdens, and sorrow. As 1 Peter 1:9 says: “For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Their faith was so firmly based on the path of the cross that there was no doubt that a pilgrim who had followed the path until the end would finally arrive happily in upper Zion and bring his life as a prize (Jeremiah 39:18). And he will find it there with a thousand pleasures, according to the teaching of our Saviour. Mark 8:35–37 states: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Thousands, old and young, men and women, disciples and virgins, have chosen this as the safest way to salvation because they recognized through the footsteps of grief and suffering that this must have been the way through which our predecessor Jesus, with all his dear disciples and apostles, entered into the eternal life of joy. It is also recognized by the whole world that so many thousands of martyrs could not be dissuaded from their faith – neither through promises of human bliss nor earthly riches, nor through the threat of the bitterest death that people can inflict upon one another. Were their faith not so strong there is no way they could have left us such beautiful hymns as the following:

My God! I ask you that you would well
Prepare my arms,
For the cornerstone of your house,
Which also in eternity
Was founded on Jesus Christ,
Who himself can neither be touched nor moved
By hell’s scent.
Let me bravely follow after him
In the crossroads which he broke.
Let me patiently overcome
Contempt, need, oppression, and adversity
And if the lord of the flesh falls hard
Then may you please let it be done,
From heaven strengthen your weak one.³

They left behind the message both written and orally that they found far more enjoyment, comfort, and peace in their souls in this way than ever before, when they belonged to the world and the world to them. From the faith of our forebears we have a clear pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night which is able to lead us through the cruel desert of life, so that it might be said of us: “This is the way, walk in it. And a highway will there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it (Isaiah 30:21, 35:8).

Through this faith, love, and hope in God, a strong trust in God grew in our fathers, Aeltesten, and ministers, and enabled them to leave their so dearly loved home and fatherland Russia, and were able to keep the faith and a clear conscience (Acts 24:16) as they sailed their way across the large ocean. And were they, in their hope in God, put to shame? No, as a loving father he nourished his children in Canada, rather than in the desert, and there is no knowledge of a single one dying of hunger; rather, over time great treasures were amassed and were brought here to this country, Mexico.

When those who called after our parents as they left Russia said, if you immigrate to America [North America] you will surely die of starvation, the all-powerful God and creator of all things knew in his great wisdom that after a period of thirty years they would be begging through letters for help. I remember Aeltester Ohm⁴ Peter Wiebe reading such letters aloud in church: “Help us, help us, don’t let us die of starvation.” I was twenty-three years old at the time that the first plea for help from the Aeltesten regarding the hardships in Russia was made known.⁵ And I was moved with compassion and melancholy in my low position and ability to contribute a small gift. When after a long time the first thank-you notes from Russia began to arrive, describing how the need was so great that many had eaten their last piece of bread and didn’t know what they would eat the next day, and how many thankful tears had been shed because of the help from America, I realized with humility, penance, and shame that I had contributed far too little. The Aeltester Ohm Isaak Dyck, of Russia, who was living at that time, wrote back to our Aeltesten: “You have treated us according to the words of Christ when he said: ‘I was hungry and you fed me, etc.’” He concluded his letter with the remark: “Doing good reaps interest for eternity!” If only we could always keep this expression in mind, we wouldn’t be so slow and thrifty with giving, because we would have learned our lesson. It is better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).⁶

1. All quotations from Scripture are taken from the NIV Bible. In Dyck’s original text, scripture is presented without quotation marks. In some instances, chapter and verse citations have been corrected. ↩︎
2. Dyck is referring to Martyrs Mirror, the collection of Anabaptist martyr stories first published in 1660. ↩︎
3. Dyck quotes portions of hymns from the Gesangbuch für Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Kirche und Haus. ↩︎
4. The term Aeltester refers to the highest elected and ordained office of Mennonite churches. An Aeltester would serve several congregations. The Low German term Ohm was an honorific title used to show respect to religious leaders. ↩︎
5. According to Dyck’s description, this request for famine relief happened in 1912. This does not fit with the history of Chortitza, where Aeltester Isaak Dyck of Russia served. Likely Dyck is referencing the 1920s famine. ↩︎
6. Isaak Dyck served as Aeltester in Chortitza, Russia, for 26 years. See Delbert Plett, “Aeltester Isaak Dyck 1847-1929, Servant of God,” Preservings, no.21 (2002): 7–16. ↩︎