COLUMN: Carillon Flashback December 10, 2001 – Mennonitische Post editor steps down

For someone who poured his heart into a job for 25 years, it was not an easy decision to resign. But effective at the end of the year, Abe Warkentin will step down as editor of Mennonitische Post, a German newspaper published by MCC Canada, for Mennonites in Latin and South America.

Warkentin says his reasons for stepping down at this time are two-fold. His health has been affected by the stress he feels seeing the desperate situation some Mennonites face in Latin and South America, with nowhere to go and no one who seems to listen.

“I have come to the shocking conclusion that few people really care about the plight of these people, and some are even in denial about their needs,”

More than anyone in Canada, Warkentin knows about life on Mennonite colonies in Latin and South America, located in Mexico, Belize, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.

During his tenure as editor of the Mennonitische Post, he has travelled to the colonies more than 20 times, beginning in 1976, when he first accepted a position with MCC to work with the colonies.

“I love these people. They may be the world’s greatest pioneers, but I fear for those in the ultra-conservative colonies, who are seeking to survive in today’s global village.”

In far too many cases, especially in some of the countries, families are living in extreme poverty, with the land base shrinking due to rapidly increasing population. They have no means to make a living in the contemporary world, Warkentin says.

Farming is still done with outdated equipment like steel-wheeled tractors, because anything modern is “wrong.” Basically, the leaders in the colonies want to keep things exactly the way they’ve always been.

Warkentin has also been frustrated by people in Canada, who tend to romanticize the lifestyle followed by the colonists; a style that is far from idyllic at its best and brutal at its worst.

Warkentin and his wife Myrna applied for voluntary service under MCC in 1976 and were assigned to work with Kanadier concerns.

He was pumped up for service and quickly developed a vision and a sense of the colonists’ needs.

Fresh from a job as editor of The Carillon News, a post he held for 10 years, Warkentin believed the written word was a powerful tool to reach people with information,

He began publishing Mennonitische Post, first out of the basement of his home, then from an office on Steinbach’s Main Street, next door to Derksen Printers. The Steinbach Post had ceased publication in 1966 and there was a strong feeling that Latin American Mennonites needed a communication link in their own language. While the initial target audience was people in Latin and South America, the Mennonitische Post is sent to many readers in Canada and the United States as well. It has over 5,400 subscribers, which translates into 30,000 readers, Warkentin says.

In addition, the Post publishes Das Blatt, a magazine geared for children and young teens. The magazine – started in 1988 – contains stories, simple puzzles and games that make learning fun. Several thousand copies are sent directly to schools on the Mennonite colonies, where they are used during class time.

The Mennonitische Post also runs an active book ministry, begun around 1980, to supply Christian literature to the colonies. This ministry has mushroomed and there are four book stores (Steinbach and Winkler in Manitoba, and Aylmer and Leamington in Ontario) with $164,000 in sales over the last year.

The stores carry both English and German titles, as well as music tapes and a limited number of videos. Much of the selling is done through mail order, but there is also a brisk business from walk-in traffic as well.

The Steinbach office is staffed by six employees, who undertake the publishing, packaging and mailing.

Having had a fairly heavy work load in the last years, Warkentin is anticipating a period of relaxation, at least for the first while after he retires.

– with files from Doris Penner