Wiens, Aganetha (1891-1941)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1941 Jun 11 p. 5

Birth date: 1891 Jun 2

text of obituary:

LOCAL NEWS

. . .

— The past week-end was a time of many tragedies. To the tornadoes and rainstorms were added several serious automobile accidents, resulting in injury and death. This morning at about eleven o'clock Sister Aganetha Wiens of the Bethel Hospital died of injuries received last Sunday in a auto wreck near Eureka. She had been taken to the Basham Hospital there, where she also passed away. Together with Sister Aganetha in the same accident were John Wiens, Buhler, who suffered scalp cuts and was in a serious condition; Mrs. Wiens, his wife, who has a chest injury, Esther Wiens, who was badly shaken up, and Leona Enns, a student nurse, who has a broken pelvis. The accident happened when cars were passing each other and the Wiens car was hurled against a concrete culvert. Sister Aganetha will be greatly missed by the Bethel Sisters, by whom she was loved and highly respected. She is survived by the following brothers and sisters: Maria Wiens of Newton, Mrs. G. F. Kroeker of Lebanon, Ore., John J. Wiens, Buhler, Berhard E. Wiens [sic Gerhard], Hillsboro, Jacob E. Wiens and Abr. E. Wiens, Meade, Mrs. Peter F. Nachtigal and Mrs. Harry Grochowsky, Newton. Funeral services are to be held Saturday, at 1;30 p.m. at the Bethel Deaconess Home chapel and at 2 P. M. at the First Mennonite church.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1941 Jun 18 p. 1

text of obituary:

At home with God!
In such brief hours of parting
Your pilgrim dress was folded,
Laid aside.
Free as a bird
That in the darkening shadows
Soars high in search of light
At eventide,
So fled your soul
through earth's dark night of pain
To dwell with God again.

"Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard; neither hat entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

Sister Aganetha Wiens was born near Inman, Kansas, on June 2, 1891. Hers was the privilege of a simple Christian home and the fellowship of a large family circle.

She opened her heart to the call of the Saviour early in youth and confessed Him in baptism on May 3, 1909, joining at that time the Defenseless Mennonite church near Inman. Later she became a member of the Bethel church near the same place. After she made her home in Newton, she transferred her membership to the First Mennonite church in that city.

Sister Aganetha received her preliminary education in the district school near Inman and later the academy in Bethel College. On September 22, 1922, she entered nurses' training at the Bethel Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing. It was during her years of training here that she felt the call to serve her Lord as a deaconess, and wishing to give her life unto this service, she was taken into the Sisterhood on September 25, 1925. She entered the work with a gladness of heart and found a deep satisfaction in her calling. She grew in grace and in the knowledge of her lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and ministered unto Him in faithful, loving service. On May 29, 1927, she was ordained as a deaconess. It can be said of her: "They that have served well, gain to themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." (I Tim. 3: 13)

Her life was not spared its trials for those whom God loveth. He leads through manifold tribulations for the testing of faith. in spite of various operations and an illness of long duration due to a fall, Sister Aganetha was able to regain her strength; and in her quiet, unassuming manner, she continued her duties, always remaining thorough and dependable in her work. There was a sympathetic touch in all her ministry, a tender kindness and understanding that endeared her to those whom she served so unselfishly and so joyfully.

She will be greatly missed, not only in the Sisterhood but by her family as well over whom she had watched as a mother and with whom she remained in close touch even after her entrance into the Sister hood. Sister Aganetha was on the way to visit a nephew when god allowed her body to be fatally injured in a car accident on June 8.

Her last days were spent in painful suffering for which there seemed no relief. Through the hours of pain, her spirit founr [sic] refuge in her Saviour to Whom she called again and again:

"Jesus, Healer of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly!"

Tuesday night, June 9, at ten0thirty o'clock, the great longing of her ehart was stilled. Her redeemed soul was allowed to return to its home where she now sees that which in faith she had believed and cherished.

How much we should like to have kept her! How much we shall need her in the work! How much we shall miss her in the Sisterhood!w With her sorrowing family we bow in humble submission.

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah."

She leaves to mourn her passing the Bethel Deaconess Sisters and the following brothers and sisters: Maria Wiens, Newton, Kansas, Mrs. G. F. Kroeker, Lebanon, Oregon; John J. Wiens, Buhler, Kansas; Gerald E. Wiens, Hillsboro, Kansas; Jacob E. Wiens, Abraham E. Wiens, Meade, Kansas; Mrs. Peter F. Nachtigal, Mrs. Henry Grochowsky, Newton, Kansas, and a host of other relatives and close friends.

Funeral services for Sister Aganetha were held Saturday, June 14, 1941. Immediate relatives gathered with the Deaconess family and the members of the Bethel institution household in the chapel of the Deaconess Home at 1:30 p.m. with the Reverend A. Warkentin officiating. The services were continued at the First Mennonite church at 2 p.m. with the Reverend J. E. Entz, the president of the Board of Directors in charge, assisted by the Reverend Peter T. Neufeld of Inman. Following the song, "Jesus, Heiland meiner Seele, lass an deine Brust mich fliehn," by the congreagation, a double quartet from the church choir sang, "What e'er my God ordains is right" and "Near to the Heart of God." Members of the Board of Directors of the Bethel Deaconess Home and Hospital Society served as honorary pallbearers. The active pall-bearers were her cousins, Dan Wiens, J. C. Wiens, Alvin Wiens, J. E. Epp, J. R. Epp, and August Epp. Sister Aganetha was laid to rest in the Bethel Deaconess Family lot in Greenwood Cemetery with the Reverend H. J. Dyck of Elbing having charge of the committal service. Mrs. Roy Black sang as a solo, "Jesus I Come to Thee," at the graveside.

"Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself since; but if it die, it beareth much fruit."

The Mennonite obituary: 1941 Jul 15 p. 13