Resource Leaders: 2007 Mennonite Heritage Cruise
Paul Toews and Rudy Friesen are founding & continuing leaders of the cruise
Additional Resource Leaders: Alan Peters is the leading Mennonite genealogist
Plant scientist John Martens continues as Resource Leader
Victor Martens returns as Music Leader

Rudy Friesen in the Mennonite Villages - 1996 - a gathering of serious reseachers
(link to Rudy's Web Site)
The two Wiebe brothers (left) helped their historian sister Leona (Gislason) to the definitive Rueckenau history,  Medical Doctor & genealogist Tim Janzen (just right of Friesen) has since significantly added to the Mennonite archival  record in Crimea and other places.

Rudy Friesen is a practising and award-winning architect in Winnipeg. His parents immigrated to Canada from Russia in 1926. He received his architectural training at the University of Manitoba and has been active in numerous professional organizations.

Rudy Friesen is the author of the popular 1996 Mennonite book, INTO THE PAST: Buildings of the Mennonite Commonwealth. A new version of the book BUILDING ON THE PAST was published in Spring, 2004. He has written over a hundred articles on Russian Mennonite architecture and visits to the area for Der Bote. On the 2006 cruise Rudy presented one of the best ever illustrated lectures on the cruise. He has since given versions of this lecture to various Mennonite Colleges and Universities in Canada and the USA.

Paul Toews (link to Center for M B Studies)

Paul Toews is Professor of History, Fresno Pacific University. He is also Director of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary and Fresno Pacific University. He is the author of many articles and books on diverse aspects of Mennonite History including Mennonites in American Society, 1930-1970: Modernity and the Persistance of Religious Community, published in 1996. Like other leading Mennonite scholars today, he is involved in archival research projects in Ukraine and Russia. Currently he is leader of the international team which is creating the new Siberia Mennonite Archive and will supervise an international scholarly symposium in Siberia in 2009.. He has spent a year in Ukraine as a Fullbright exchange scholar. Dr. Toews gives four major illustrated lectures and hosts other significant cruise events. His presence on the cruise is much respected and universally loved. Passengers often comment that he uniquely symbolizes the spirit and excellence of the cruise.

On the last six cruises Alan has presented computer-assisted seminars on genealogy that had passengers riveted for two hours, thanks to his profound knowledge of Mennonite genealogy and familiarity with genealogical software. He also pioneered the first Mennonite cruise theme bus tour - "Steps of Johann Cornies", which was the most popular route in 2006. It is a combination of villages and private estates.

Having retired after a distinguished career in California Social Services, Alan is much sought after for workshops in genealogy.

John Martens

 John Martens - far right- with 1998 passengers, telling the Eichenfeld story on site

John Martens is a native of Manitoba. His career was devoted to agriculture, first as a farmer, then as a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, working on cereal improvement and then as national coordinator for cereals and oilseeds research. He is also a field naturalist and backpacker with a strong attraction to the Arctic.

John has a strong affinity to Ukraine and has visited there twice with the Mennonite Heritage Cruise before he became a Resource Leader and Cruise Administrative Assistant in 2001. His family comes from Schlachtin Baratov and Yazykovo, and his father was an agronomist in Ukraine in the 1920s. The home his grandparents built in 1910 in Kamenka (Steinfeld) still stands and now serves as a school.

Victor Martens of Kitchener-Waterloo was our musician in July, 1997 and again in 2006 when he helped to re-enact aspects of the first Russian Mennonite Sängerfest of 1893 in a spirited and memorable performance in Ukraine.

                                            Volodymyr Kuzyk, videographer; Olga Shmakina, sr. guide          Lyudmilla Karyaka, sr. guide; Irina Kuzyk, videographer; Larissa Goryacheva, trip mgr; Galyna Zadorowska, cruise director

The success of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise has depended largely on the excellence of its Ukrainian partners. Here key members are on the ship sundeck as it sailed from Odessa on the Black Sea in early October 2006. Along with colleagues, they have all been involved in the cruise since its inception back in 1995.