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By Dwayne Janke
Photographs by Alan Hood
A Mennonite family relocates from Mexico
to find a new life in the country their grandparents left 80 years ago.
In many ways, David and Agatha Reimer and their family
are typical of the growing Mennonite population in and around Vauxhall,
Alberta. They have had to adapt to a new country and culture and are deepening
their roots in Canada.
And, like a small number of the relocated Mennonites from Mexico, they
are also deepening their relatively young evangelical faith.
Interestingly, the Reimers, who live on a small acreage on the outskirts
of Vauxhall, have come full circle. Though they migrated here with four
children in 1999, their ancestors actually came from Canada. In the 1920s,
both sets of their grandparents moved from Canada (Manitoba and Saskatchewan)
to found colonies in northern Mexico's Chihuahua State.
A Clear Gospel
In Mexico, David and Agatha were attracted to the Evangelical Mennonite
Mission Conference (EMMC) church on the Santa Rita Colony. They liked
the teacher in the church's school, where they sent their oldest son,
Ben. It was also in that church that the young couple was impressed with
a clear preaching of the gospel from the Plautdietsch Bible.
"They didn't just read it to us," says Agatha. "They explained
what it means.
"When we were growing up, they taught us [in the colony church] to
be good," she explains. "Once we started going to that church
and heard the gospel," she adds, with tears welling up in her eyes,
"we noticed that it wasn't our good works that would do it."
Adds David, "The plan of salvation really had never been explained."
Their Santa Rita EMMC experience was in stark contrast to the colony church
they grew up in, where most people don't understand the Bible or sermons
from the past that are often used over and over again by the preachers.
All is in High German.
"They learn High German in school, but at home they speak Low German,"
explains Agatha.
The Reimers also liked having their kids join them in church. Their Old
Colony church didn't encourage families to bring children until the youngsters
were at least 12 years old.
The family's pastor was Ed Zacharias, whose passion for translating the
entire Bible into Plautdietsch gave them the privilege of hearing more
and more of God's Word in their heart language for the first time.
"Ed used it as he translated it, so that helped us a lot," says
David. "We really liked it. It was good."
David remembers his mother listening to recordings of Plautdietsch Scripture
portions on cassette, even before Zacharias had finished translating the
entire Bible.
"When she was listening to them, she said, 'There's no such thing
written in the Scripture!' But then she took the Word and looked at it—and
it was there."
Canada Bound
Canada began pulling at the family even though David finally owned his
own little farm during the final few years in Mexico.
"We were curious about how it looked here, and we decided to move
out here for a couple of years," he says. "There was such a
drought out there [in Mexico], we were afraid of moving back. We kind
of settled here, and we sold it [the Mexico farm]."
The transition was difficult for the couple, who arrived in Canada knowing
no English. Their oldest child Paulina went to public school understanding
only Plautdietsch, needing help from special classroom instructors.
The Reimers depended on translation from other Mennonites, and stumbled
along learning English.
Agatha remembers going into a grocery store to buy some yeast, and instead
asking the puzzled clerks for a calf. Does she recall any other incidents?
"I try to forget them as soon as possible," she responds with
a twinkle in her eye.
"The language was tough," adds David, "and finding a job,
getting to know the country here, and getting along with bosses and so
on—it was tough."
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