"I was born in a Mennonite colony in the Orenburg area in 1932, in the foothills of the Ural Mts.
When I was 2 years old my parents who were declared to be children of "Kulaki"; had to flee the area and ended up in Ukraine. My father got a job in a Russian town, teaching mathematics and German language.
When the German army occupied the area in 1941 we moved into the Mennonite colony of Sagradowka where he continued teaching in German for 2 years until we were evacuated to the west.
When I was 12 my father was inducted into the German army and we saw him again after 22 years in 1966 in Canada. Meanwhile my mother, 2 younger sisters and I ended up in1948 in a Mennonite Colony in Paraguay. The colony was still in the pioneer phase. A few acres had beencleared in the forested area but most large tree trunks werestill lying as they had fallen.
We seeded corn and other crops by hand with hoes by climbing over the tree trunks.
I started attending a secondary school in the mornings, working the land in the afternoon and doing homework in the evening by a small kerosene lamp. I finished high school , took a two year course in a Normal school in a neighboring Mennonite colony. Upon graduation I taught 4 years in my home colony. After 2 years of teaching Martha and I married and two years later we decided to emigrate to Canada.
After two years of teaching in a Hutterite school in Manitoba, we embarked on a 4 year study at the Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg. After 2 more years of teaching in Moosehorn a town on Lake Manitoba we set aside 2 years of teaching under the MB Christian Service program in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Upon our return from Brazil I signed up in the geography department in Morden, Manitoba where we remained the following 20 years.
Retirement after 30 years of teaching was the next adventure. We accepted a full time volunteer positions with MCC and continued to serve for the next 6 years, 4 in Abbotsford and in Germany for 2 more years with Mennonite immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
After our return from Germany we continued our association with MCC in a local volunteer setting. This work was interspersed by times when we were called to help along in small struggling churches, both in Germany and Austria. Because of government regulations we stayed in each about 6 months. Altogether we served in 7 churches, three times in one of them. We did this on our own, not through Multiply or other mission agencies.
Our last one was in 2016 when I was 84 and Martha 81. The Lord has been wonderfully gracious to us throughout our lives and we are eternally grateful for all his leading and guiding us in the right direction." --Hugo Unger
