File 4 - Alexander Peter Dirks

Alexander Dirks (1891-1985)was born in Gnadenfeld, Molotschna as the fifth child of Peter Dirks and Elizabeth Fast. He completed teacher's training in Halbstadt in 1909 and assumed his first teaching position in at a Mennonite school in Orechov. During World War I he served in the Russian Forestry as well as the medical service. He returned to teaching in after 1917 in the village school in Waldheim. He was greatly influenced by Adolf Reimer, an evangelist among the Russian people, experienced a conversion experience in 1918, was baptized joining the Mennonite Brethren Church. In 1920 he married Agnes Warkentin. He immigrated to Canada in 1924 with his wife and two children. He taught at the Lyman School near Arnaud, Manitoba for 13 years. He was ordained as a minister at the Arnaud Mennonite Brethren Church in 1929. In 1941 the family moved to North Kildonan where he became a member of the North Kildonan Mennonite Brethren Church. After his retirement in 1957, he became more and more active in ministries to Russian people. He preached regularly in Russian and German. He translated several works of the German evangelist Erich Sauer into Russian. His long-time marriage ended with the passing away of his wife in 1990. Alexander Dirks died in Winnipeg on Dec. 16, 1985 just 12 days before his 95th birthday.