Freedom
The word, “Freedom”, evokes a plethora of emotions and thoughts that tumble over each other in each of us. When young, have visions of grandiose inactivity with a smorgasbord of life handed to us. The idea of freedom grows as we mature and see that there is always a price to pay for freedom in our lives and in our country.
Spiritually, there is a truth that explains what freedom means. Galatians 5:13 – (The Message)
– It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.
One year my sixth graders wrote their thoughts on the subject of freedom, and the recurrent theme of their writing was freedom from responsibilities and from the authority of parents and teachers. The word responsibility was nowhere to be found. They thought only of themselves.
History books are filled with stories of wars to achieve longed for freedom…the freedom of ideas, the freedom of a people to live in peace, the freedom to achieve dreams.
At every turn we are enslaved by prisons of different kinds that threaten to eliminate our freedoms of thought, or our lives and our emotions and our beliefs. Those who would enslave us seek power over us. It is then we turn to our Father in Heaven for wisdom.
II Corinthians 3:17 – For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
From the time I was small, I became aware that my ancestors came to this country following a dream of freedom, the freedom to worship Jesus freely. They were not ready to settle for ‘what is’, but longed for what could be. A freedom for their families and for their children’s children, and generations beyond. These people were labeled the Mennonites or the Anabaptist (meaning re-baptism and refuting baptism of babies according to scripture). Because of persecution for their beliefs, in circa 1535, they began the earliest migration to the Danzig area. The earliest congregations were formed as early as 1549.
Their contribution as a people to the area consisted of reclaiming land along the Vistula and Nogat Rivers. These people had experience in the Netherlands draining swamp lands into farm land. Records show that the Siemens Family left Holland because of religious persecution after the year 1560, immigrating to Danzig are of East Prussia. The swampy forest land owned by a Polish King was reclaimed by the Mennonites using a network of dikes and canals.
In 1762 – 1763, Queen Catherine II, German-born wife of Peter III, succeeded her husband and extended an invitation to the Mennonites to come to Russia to reclaim land just above the Black Sea, near the Dnieper River.
In 1787 Frederick William II of Prussia issued an order forbidding Mennonites to enlarge their holdings and in 1789 there were further restrictions including the offer of giving up their non-resistance beliefs so they could purchase all the land they wanted. Later they were to be conscripted into the nation’s armies which violated their beliefs. They stood firm just as Daniel of old did, drew a line of faith, and considered their next journey.
The dream had not died in the ensuing years of the freedom to worship and to live in peace. Groups of people again began to trek across the distance between West Prussia to Russia.
Stanley Harder chronicles the typical journey of the Mennonites by citing the Siemens Family, who left in 1803 with four children from 7 to 2 years old for 1500 miles on foot, with essential supplies in horse-drawn carts. They built 13 to 25 houses to a village – each of unbaked brick with dirt floors, over which fresh white sand was sprinkled each week.
Were their lives easy as they enjoyed freedom of worship? No. In 1838 there was an earthquake in the area. In 1845, there was a tremendous flood causing suffering and hardship along the Dnieper River and in the villages of Einlage, Rosenthal, Insel–Chortitza, and Nieder–Chortitza.
Poor harvests in the years of 1823, 1824, 1842 and 1845 caused hardships. The only total crop failure was in 1833, according to the 1848 Chortitza report. In the early years bad harvests were due to late planting and summer heat burning the plants. The years mentioned saw crop failures on a degree that went beyond the normal yearly problems of late planting and summer heat.
In 1855, Alexander Petzholter reported “…they were raising mainly sheep, cattle, horses, silk, and grains, including summer wheat, rye, barley, and oats. He found that the Mennonites had planted 7.5 million fruit and shade trees. Industry was in its early stages, with a number of mills, silk factories, carpenter and smith shops, brick factories, oil presses… The products were much in demand among the population outside Molotschna. Some 500 non-Mennonites found employment there… at that time.”
In 1870, the Russians began to control the education of the Mennonites in Russia, and began to enforce military service. The Mennonites became concerned. Each area sent two representatives from six colonies to make a six month trip to investigate living in North America. Upon their return, emigration plans were made, despite a visit from a special envoy asking them to stay. Travel road blocks necessitated hardships by the policy of the Russian imperial government which did not allow the shipping companies to pick up the travelers from Russian ports. Most of the emigrants from the Molotschna, Chortitza, and other south Russian colonies traveled down the Dnieper by boat, to the Black Sea, across to Odessa, then overland by train to Hamburg. Five shipping lines transported the immigrants by different routes, depending on their destination.
For a time it was difficult to sell the farms to gain funds for travel. Between 1873 and 1879 some 10,000 Mennonites in all settled in Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota and the Dakotas. Everywhere they went they brought with them the skill and dedication that was so coveted by authorities both in Russia and in North America. The settlers arriving in Kansas didn’t have an easy life. Making the prairie produce a crop to sell was far from easy. For housing, it was quite common to construct the dwelling from mud bricks with a sod roof. Apparently, quite a few built “dugouts” which may have been easier to insulate from the harsh winters.
Against this tapestry of trials and travel is etched the search for the ultimate freedom in Christ. Against this tapestry I find grandparents with eight and nine generations back. Their legacy of faith is handed down to us today.
For we each make a journey in our lives searching for peace and security. For a week, the following verse has been what I return to: “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” (Ephesians 5:1 – The Message)