Kirjahaku

Helmut Isaak is one of the least visible ministers of the Mennonite churches on three continents. He is well-known in Paraguay, Bolivia, and some places in British Columbia, Alberta, and Germany. The story of his commitment and devotion to the church of Christ has remained largely hidden from the Mennonite churches. This book tells that dramatic story of his love and devotion to that church. Helmut Isaak is an extraordinarily gifted person. He was born into and raised in a strong family in Fernheim, Paraguay. He saw devoted commitment to church and community demonstrated by his father, a minister, and his mother, soul of a household of twelve children. His lively intellect led to his acquiring an education to the doctoral level which fitted him for his vocation. To his native Low German were added over the years the languages High German, Spanish, Dutch, English, as well as the biblical languages Hebrew and Greek. He was an accomplished teacher, and a decisive administrator. As a pastor and preacher he was passionate and wise about the gospel. He had the ability to see through thickets of confusion and resistance to the heart of a matter, and thus able to help resolve many an apparently intractable problem. He was a counsellor who listened patiently to those who came to him. As a skilled carpenter he built houses for his family. As a scholar he wrote and published the important book Menno Simons and the New Jerusalem. His education in the Netherlands gave him scholarly distinction as well as an ecumenical spirit. These were the gifts he needed to live out a truly international vocation. Beginning in Paraguay and continuing in British Columbia, Alberta, and Germany, he was teacher and pastor. In Alberta, Mexico, and Bolivia he was teacher and counsellor to troubled people.

This book tells the impressive life-story of the author's parents and their remarkable pastoral leadership within a group of Mennonites who fled Stalinist Russia in 1929 to settle in the "undeveloped" Paraguayan Chaco. The story demonstrates this couple's team leadership style in church and community well before the term was fashionable; Elisabeth's important contribution, which really enabled Jakob's unreserved dedication to community service, is explicitly recognized. Readers are shown how their genuine, unvawering Christian faith provided both the leaders and the community the needed strength and endurance in situations of oppression and persecution in Russia and in facing the challenges of their pioneering work in the isolated Chaco. And although not intended at first, this faith-centered life of the community spontaneously led to being a missional presence in their social surroundings, including among the region's Aboriginal peoples. A special chapter on the missionary work of Kornelius Isaak, the author's older brother, is also included in the book; Kornelius' early death by the spear of an Ayoreo (Indian) warrior, who subsequently became a Christian, would forever mark the Isaak family. Though Helmut does most of the telling, it is a family story,"retold by the children and grandchildren," integrating significant portions from ltester Isaak's own reflections on key occasions of Fernheim Colony's history. But the book is more than a family biography. This "family story" inevitably gives readers a significant window into the workings of Gemeinde (church) and colony including their strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, the book insightfully and skillfully contextualizes the story of these migrants within the larger 20th century history. The Isaak family is to be commended for making this remarkable story of their family and larger community available to the wider Mennonite world and beyond. - PROF. DR. TITUS GUENTER, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipe