Menno News Historical Archives
When Cornelius
had lived 34 years, he had a son. He named him Henry and said, "He will
help us in the labor and hardships caused by the ground in the potato field."
After Henry was 36 years old, he became the father of Edgar, Ernie and Harold.
The Lord was upset that there was dancinG in the town, which
obviously lead to sex. The Lord also lamented that the fields were plowed
crooked, furniture was made sloppy and leftovers were thrown away carelessly.
Indeed the Lord was grieved that man had become lazy and wasteful and his
heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, "I will wipe man from the
face of the town, and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the
air. But Henry found
favour in the eyes of the Lord.
Henry
was a Mennonite farmer, blameless among the farmers of his time. He planted
straight and even rows, despised dancing and ate leftovers for weeks at a time.
Henry was also an aspiring carpenter and delighted in making sturdy tables from
solid white oak.
Henry’s field: blameless in the eyes of the Lord.
Now the town was corrupt in
God's sight and was full of wastefulness. While Henry was driving his tractor,
God called to him and said, "I am going to put an end to all people. So
make yourself and ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it and coat it with pitch
inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet
long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Put a door in the side of the ark and make
three separate decks. You are to bring into the ark two of all families, male
and female to keep alive with you. Two of every Cornies, Dick, Warkentin,
Thiessen, Enns, Driedger, Klassen, Neufeld, Peters, Friesen, Wiebe and any
other name you find in the official
church phonebook."
“You are
to bring into the ark two of all families”
Henry did everything just as God
commanded him, but made a few modifications. Instead of cypress, Henry used
oak because it was sturdier and had nice grain. Instead of pitch, Henry coated
the ark in a new waterproof urethane that he bought from the local hardware
store. Henry even replaced the ark's helm with the steering wheel from his
tractor.
Henry’s
ark: oak with a nice polyurethane topcoat.
The Lord
then said to Henry, "Go into the ark because I have found you frugal in
this generation. Take with you two of every family, a male and its wife to
preserve their various breeds throughout the town. Six and a half days from now
I will send rain for thirty-nine days and thirty-nine nights and I will wipe
from the town every living thing."
And
Henry did all that the Lord commanded of him.
After the
six and a half days the wells of the deep burst forth, and the irrigation
ponds of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the Earth thirty-nine days
and thirty-nine nights. Henry was 42 years old when the floodwaters came.
On that very day, Henry and his sons, Edgar, Ernie and Harold, together with
his wife Elfreida entered the ark to escape the waters.
Every
living thing perished, including the cows
But God
remembered Henry and all the families that were with him in the ark, and he
sent down a Blessed sump pump, and the
waters receded. Now the wells of the deep and the irrigation ponds of the
heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling. The ark came to
rest on the barn that Henry's uncle's cousin used to own.
After thirty-nine
days, Henry opened the window he had made in the ark, complete with shudders
and mosquito screens and sent out a crow. When the crow returned to him in
the evening, there was a freshly plucked corn blade in its beak! Then Henry
knew that the water had receded from the town - and that there was good soil
around.
Henry then
removed the door from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry,
but still with enough moisture to grow a good tomato
crop. Then God said to Henry, "Come out of the ark. Bring
out every kind of family that is with you, the Cornies's, Dicks, Warkentins,
Thiessens, Enns's, Driedgers, Klassens, Neufelds, Peters, Friesens, Wiebes
and all the others found in the church phonebook so that they can till the
soil and raise new barns." Then God blessed Henry and his sons, saying
to them, "Be frugal and increase in number and make sturdy furniture.
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