The most vivid memory of current villagers is the deportation of the entire village in 1935. We felt as though we were losing our own children, the villager remembered: “It was harder for us than it was for them.” He spoke of Otto Toews, Emil Riesen, and eight other leaders whose death sentences were commuted to ten years of hard labor. The men and their possessions were to be transported by separate conveyance, but instead, the Soviet functionaries divided it among themselves. (This, yet another new tidbit of information.) The other 140 families took what they could carry and left almost everything behind. Villagers still treasure the artifacts Mennonites left behind and often bring them out to show us.

The pear tree in the northwest corner of the walled garden, still alive and bearing fruit three years ago, is now dead. Nearby, villagers had recently dug up the fertile soil and carried it off to enrich their gardens. But when they uncovered “boxes” and bones, they stopped digging. They had discovered yet another remnant of Mennonite presence—the cemetery.

As we ambled down the wide, sandy street to the school, a woman brought us freshly baked nan/bread, yet another expression of Uzbek hospitality. At the village school, Director Karimov told us that he considers the school a continuation of the Mennonite school that once stood in the Khan’s garden. As always, the children and teachers streamed out of the building to see us—and to collect the gifts we brought. In the classroom where two Mennonite-constructed desks still reside, students sang for us and we sang (Canadian and American national anthems) for them.
All too quickly, we boarded the bus to return to Khiva for a tour and lunch. After lunch some enjoyed free time, while others of us took a two-hour trek to the Lausan Canal, near the Amu Darya River. Here we remembered Verne Klassen’s (and Irene’s and Carole’s) ancestors who had lived here for more than two yeas before emigrating to the United States in 1884. We walked by the canal, took pictures, and imagined what once existed here. After hearing about this place for forty years, Verne was now walking over the soil they once tilled. He scooped up a bit of it to take along home.

Back in Khiva, Azot Karimov took us to his archives office to show us items that had been created for the Ichan Kahla-Kauffman Museum (North Newton, Kan.) Mennonite exhibit in 2010. Among the items: a model of Ak Metchet with homes and families identified, a large Great Trek map, several paintings, clothing, tools, and panels of photographs. I was reminded of the day in 2010 when the scheduled grand opening was shut down by city politics. TM trekkers, on hand for the opening, caught a quick glimpse of the museum and its contents before it was locked and barred. The artifacts have been in storage ever since. Karimov is optimistic that the exhibit will open one day—when the government changes.

In Karimov’s office I met with Dr. A. Abdurasoluv (Hushnud’s father) who has been researching and writing a new history of Great Trek Mennonites. This project is unique since it will the first such account by an Uzbek historian. The author has accessed archival documents in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Tashkent—inaccessible to English-language scholars. Hushnud, his son, who is a research scholar, is joining his father to co-write the manuscript. He will bring scholarly methodology and perspective that will improve the manuscript. This year’s trekkers contributed $636 to add to the $1364 which trekkers from earlier years have contributed to this project. Hushnud and I will write grant proposals to fund ongoing research, translation to English, and publication.

~ John Sharp

Ruins of the Odeon Theatre

The group of the World of Paul got along really well, and have really been challenged in our understanding of the apostle through the dynamic teaching of Tom Yoder Neufeld. It has been a wonderful ride through the footsteps of Paul.

~ Fred Redekop

Not only did Mennonites worship in the mosque, perform 21 baptisms and two marriages, but several families moved in and made it their home! Others were camped around the mosque, some in donkey stalls. We marveled at the uncommon hospitality shown to historic trekkers, as well as to current ones—our group of 18. But read on! The hospitality continues.

The imam’s brother, Sunatillo Karimov, invited us to his house for tea—the first such experience in TM trekker history. We sat cross-legged on colorful carpets around a low table Uzbek style. We were served tea, dried fruit, nuts, and naan, large, round, flat loaves of bread. Our host’s wife and daughter-in-law kept our tea pots filled, while Karimov and 90-year-old Ziyodillo Buranov entertained us with wit and humor. Here’s an example: After we had been invited to Karimov’s house, Buranov, invited us to his house for tea. I said that I understood Uzbek etiquette to require two refusals before accepting the third invitation, so we could not possibly come to his house today. Buranov quickly solved the problem by loudly repeating his invitation three times! This we clearly understood, even though it was in Uzbek. How we loved his humor and wit! In the end he, too, came to Karimov’s home with us.

As we enjoyed tea, Karimov added a new thread to the Serabulak story. His ancestor was a wealthy local merchant who traded goods, transporting them by camel caravans. As an extension of Uzbek hospitality, he sent the trekking Mennonites away in the spring with gifts and money. He helped finance the trek to Khiva! And on this day, Karimov, also obviously wealthy, entertained us in his exceptionally nice home. As we entered, he gave us a standing invitation to any and all future family weddings, surely another Uzbek custom. Uzbek wives, they told us, were perfect in every way.

As we were leaving, others of the large extended family appeared and wished us well. After an exchange of chocolates (given by the Farquhars) and photographs (which we were eager to shoot), we boarded the bus for another four hours on the road to Bukhara.

~ John Sharp

In the afternoon, we had a cultural experience at a carpet co-op. The guide who showed us around was very good, and his workers snapped the many carpets at our feet. We had apple tea, Turkish coffee and raki to soften our hearts and wallets. The carpets were made from a variety of materials including cotton, silk and wool and were breathtaking.

On Thursday we visited one of the oldest sites of archeology in all the world. On the same piece of ground, the site of Troy has nine civilizations that have been excavated. It goes back to the era of the Hittites, over 4000 years ago. Wow!

On Friday we traveled to the monuments of the Gallipoli war campaign. The battles took place in 1915 and 1916, and had much horror connected to them. The Turks defeated the Australian and New Zealand forces during these battles, and it led eventually to the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 following the end of WW I.

Yesterday afternoon, we said goodbye to our wonderful Turkish guide, Erkal, and bus driver, Mahmet the Magnificent, as we left Turkey and entered Greece to explore the next part of Paul’s journey. If you want to follow in your Bibles, look in Acts 16, where it says “he left Troy and went to Samothrace….” We are following this journey for the next five days.

Today is another fine day on our exploration of the world of Paul. We saw a new mosaic in the town of Kavala of Paul the Apostle, highlighting that he was the first convert to enter European soil. After this we explored the ancient site of Philippi, where we looked at two ancient church sites from the 6th century, and the traditional site where Paul and Silas had been imprisoned. We took about three hours to tour the place where Paul had been.

After a short drive, we visited the site where the conversion of Lydia is observed. Tom read the text of Lydia’s baptism, and had a short devotional on the text. One of the songs we sang was, “Have you not Heard of that Beautiful Stream.”

We arrived in Thessaloniki just a few minutes ago, after a visit to the Church of St. Demetrius. This church has played an important role in the theology of the Orthodox Church and history of the city.

As you read this you can see we had another busy day. At times it may seem that we are running in the footsteps of Paul.

Shalom and strength for the journey of faith and life.

~ Fred Redekop

An afternoon Bosphorus cruise was delightful as Gokcen commentated all along the way. Our evening ended at the airport as we checked into a midnight flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Oh my, the rules do change from country to country. We did eventually get seats and as we were waiting at the departure gate John gave us our first Great Trek story.

We arrived safely at 630am and all our bags were there. For this we are grateful. None of us will ever forget our entry into Uzbekistan. The Uzbek gentleman in front of me commented after almost 3 hrs at customs, “I hope your impression of our country will not be determined from your experience in the airport”.

We know it will improve each hour we spend trekking the Mennonites for the next week.

~ Audrey Voth Petkau

Walking from our hotel in Istanbul, we saw lots of dishes with many colors. The restaurants all seem to have one or two guys who are eager to show us a menu and invite us in. We had so enjoyed the cats of the church that were disappointed with a dog outside the gate who was ambitious enough to bark at everyone passing by but seemed too lazy to actually get up and make a serious challenge to anyone.

For lunch we were tempted to eat the familiar – McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King or Subway – but we resisted and had our Turkish sandwich, a donair kebab.

We are still learning the names of our group and haven’t really got to playing the Mennonite Game – figuring out whether you are a ninth cousin or a twelfth cousin. That will be for another day.

~ Joyce and Cleora Warkentin

In Revelation 3, there is a note to the angel of Laodiceia, about being neither hot or cold. At the ancient site, there is a high rock where the cold water from the south meets the hot springs water from the north. We read that text from Revelation. It was a holy moment for all of us.

Fred Redekop

~ Fred Redekop

Of course, the highlight was the swim-float in the Dead Sea. This was a double header for Erika Koepke who was the only one to swim in both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Everyone was excited as we drove from Jericho up to Jerusalem–an elevation change of 1300 metres. The air of Jerusalem is
cooler and cleaner.

Taysir Abu Saada, an Arab Christian, who spoke to our group, with Sebastian and Bishop Joseph.

~ Lorne Smith

Bishop Joseph and Jeanette Nyakyema from Tanzania

On arrival at Kibbutz Ma’agan, Erika Koepke was the first one in the pool to cool off. Gabrielle even got her first swim. We gathered on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after dark for Communion led by Sebastian and Carey.

Nancy, Erika, Doris and Erika at the Church of Primacy of St. Peter by the Sea of Galilee

Our day ended with a musical concert by Paul and Sebastian in the bar using a 100-year-old grand piano built in Russia. Off to bed for an early start on our journey to Jerusalem.

~ Lorne Smith