Isaac, John Jacob (1890-1978)

Mennonite Brethren Herald obituary: 1978 Nov 10 p. 28

Birth date: 1890 July 31

text of obituary:

JOHN JACOB ISAAC

John Jacob Isaac of Chilliwack, B.C. died quietly on October 5 at the age of 88. He was born to Jacob and Maria Isaac on July 31, 1890 in Alexanderpol, Russia, one of nine children born to his parents. In his early youth he committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ, and gave public witness in his baptism on May 25, 1904. During the turbulent years 1912-1917 he was forced, with his brothers, into wartime duties, and in refusing to take up arms he was often assigned to difficult and dangerous alternative tasks. At one point he caught typhoid fever, and then experienced God's healing. On another occasion he was told by a Russian officer that he would have been shot had not the day been Easter Sunday. He married Katharina Krause on May 21, 1917, and the couple emigrated to Canada in 1924, arriving in Montreal August 14. They made their first farm home near Arnaud, Man., and then moved to Chilliwack, B.C. in 1944. Mrs. Isaac died on October 8, 1977, a number of months after the 60th wedding anniversary of the couple.

The family of John Jacob Isaac remembers him as a sincere and devoted Christian, and as a father who set a worthy example. Even in the last days, together with pastor Lenzmann he said the words of the song "My faith has found a resting place." In most of the years since coming to Canada he served as deacon, first in the Arnaud Mennonite Brethren Church, and then in the East Chilliwack Mennonite Brethren Church. His heart was with the Lord and the Church, and in this spirit of devotion he often felt his inadequacies and shortcomings.

He was predeceased by his wife, by one daughter, (Mrs.) Mary Suderman, and by two sons, David and Jacob.