Two Journeys of Faith Released

Two Journeys of Faith is a 116-page book of the diaries of noted Mennonite community and religious leader, and poet, Johann P. Klassen, aged 55, and his future daughter-in-law, Katherine Schellenberg, 17, of their families’ separate and nerve-racking journeys to Canada. This volume presents them together, J.P.’s for the first time in English, two different perspectives on a harrowing journey.

J.P. became one of the founders of the First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, a well-loved Aeltester who also wrote and published volumes of poetry. Katherine married his eldest surviving son, John, and raised a family in the peaceful farmlands of southwestern Ontario.

The book includes the two diaries translated from the original German, with 2 photographs, a map and a family tree along with some information of their lives before and after the journey.

Book Launches will be held in Toronto, Leamington, Kitchener and Ottawa:

Copies of the book are available for purchase at $9.95 plus mailing costs.

Ukraine, once part of Russia, was a land of peace and plenty for over one hundred years for the German-speaking Mennonite pacifist settlers fleeing religious persecution and compulsory military service in Western Europe in the late 18th century. By the 1920s, though, thing were very different. After World War I and the Russian Revolution, chaos ruled: the scourges of famine and roving bands of bandits and anarchists drove many people into seeking refuge in the Americas.

This book will be of interest to others whose families have made the difficult journey to a new land and as a template for others with an interesting family history to tell.

The book is available immediately by sending an e-mail to hemoore@allstream.net and providing name/address/phone number. The cost of the book is $9.95 plus any mailing costs. Any proceeds after printing and mailing costs will be donated to Mennonite historical societies.