Martha Friesen Neufeld

Our mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Martha Neufeld, was born in Speers, Saskatchewan, on Oct. 1, 1928 to Abraham and Margareta Friesen. She was child #6 (first girl) of 9 siblings. She talked about having to sleep at the foot end of her brother’s beds when she was young. Her family moved from Saskatchewan to B.C. in 1940, when she was 12 years old.

Mom accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior early in life and was baptized on July 28, 1946 by W. Martens, at the Mission First Mennonite Church. She was baptized upon the confession of her faith and the scripture given to her on that day was Mark 16:16, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

She met the love of her life in 1947 and was married the next year on April 30, 1948, to Dietrich Neufeld, originally from Tofield, Alberta. Their first child, Diana, was born a year later in May, 1949. Five more children were added to the family over the next 11 years, each one born in a different city, because they had to move to wherever Dad found work. Mom related that they had moved 17 times in the first 10 years of their marriage.

It was in 1955 that our parents decided to move up north to Flat Rock/Cecil Lake BC, north of Dawson Creek, to attempt grain farming. On the way there, the cube van, full of our possessions, tipped over into the ditch while taking a curve in the road. Praise God, no one was injured and the next day we kept going. The years up north were the hardest years of mom’s life. She had all the responsibilities of the children, plus trying to run a little store out of the living room, because farming did not work out for them. Dad went to work in the bush falling trees.

One day a helicopter landed on our yard with our injured father in it. They came to let us know that Dad had multiple fractures by a falling tree and was being taken down to Vancouver for surgery. Dad instructed Mom to take all the children by train to the coast to be closer to where he would be. It was at least 4 months in a motel in Mission City before we could go back to the north.

We were so very poor, Mom had to sew all of our clothes and Dad would go hunting to put food on the table. The fronts of our shoes had to be cut open so as to not stunt the growth of our feet.

We know that during her life of struggles and hardships, she would often look up thinking, “where does my help come from?”.... She knew that her help came from the Lord and that she had to depend totally on Him to give her strength, guidance and patience with all of the home responsibilities.

One day, Dad came home from the city and announced that we would be moving to Dawson Creek because he had just gotten a janitorial job in the Dawson Creek Junior high school. After a couple years there, our parents accepted the call to help our Uncle John Friesen start a Mennonite Church in Grande Prairie, Alberta. There Dad took on the janitorial job at the Grand Prairie High School and the three oldest children helped him each day after school with all the cleaning responsibilities with extensive thorough cleaning in the summer months.

When Diana and Rosetta became teenagers, our parents decided that it was time to move the family back to Mennonite country for the girls to meet and date Mennonite boys, which is exactly what took place. After moving to Abbotsford from the north, they attended and also became members of the West Abbotsford Mennonite Church, where mom started participating in a ladies group. Later on they moved to Prairie Chapel for some years and then on to Countyline Church where mom helped in various capacities as greeter, also cooking for the underprivileged and homeless. She baked for Campus life for years, which is a teenage ministry here in Abbotsford. She liked to serve the Lord behind the scenes and not be in the limelight.

It was in 1963 that they bought a small raspberry farm on Clearbrook Road and then some years later they purchased the farm on King Road, which Dan still farms today. Mom worked daily alongside dad for all the years that they lived on the farms. When the grandchildren started coming she would say, “I wish I had more time to help babysit the grandchildren,” but she made up for it later in life. During their years together, Mom and Dad enjoyed some good times vacationing together and one year they chose to take six weeks away to travel throughout the USA, driving through every state, even if it was just through a corner on some states. They decided to retire early from the farm when Dan took on the responsibilities there, as they wanted to take a YWAM DTS course in Kona Hawaii. Later dad took a construction course in Kona as well while Mom helped with administration in some aspect. From there they served on several mission trips. The first trip was to Tonga for several weeks. They later answered the call to help Mennonite Disaster Services wherever some sort of disaster hit in the USA. They also went to Transkei, Africa where they grew a fabulous vegetable garden for a Bible school there and taught the students how to grow and maintain a garden. Some years later they helped construct a church in Japan. It was there in Japan that Dad could not finish the 4-month assignment and had to come home early because of his diagnosis of esophagal cancer.

Mom loved to study and work on all of our feet and would diagnose our various health issues. Most of us received those infamous foot rubs. When she would have any type of ailment herself, out came the medical books and many times she would diagnose and treat herself. She lived a fairly healthy life for many years and would cook very healthy meals for all who came to her table.

Mom became a widow in 1991 at the age of 63, and lived on the farm for another 9 years before moving to her condo on Old Yale Road, (since the year 2000). Once there, she excelled in her ministry of helps, keeping busy helping with respite work, cooking and cleaning for people who needed her help. Mom loved the Lord greatly and ministered to many women and truly had a compassionate and mother’s heart, especially for those going through hard times. She would spend time and worked tirelessly in her kitchen. She would teach those grandchildren who wanted to learn how to make the various Mennonite foods, like Vereniki, Roll Kuchen, Crepes, Reiven (Cracklings) with apples, Portzelky’s (New Year’s cookies) and others. Her famous cinnamon buns were given out to anyone who came over or she would deliver them to whoever was extra busy. She had her children, grandchildren and friends and relatives over for meals a lot and loved having company. She would ask them “What would you like me to make for you?” She practiced her gift of hospitality right up until a few days before she was hospitalized on July 27, 2016. Mom lived a life of selfless service and caregiving. She was always willing to help when there was a need. Mom kept a calendar in her kitchen filled out with everyone’s birthday and anniversaries on it and each day she would check it and would make a call to the birthday child, if she had not sent a card.

Mom spent much time in the Word and reading books. She prayed a lot for her family and was involved in several prayer groups or just prayed together with her prayer partner, one on one. Just recently Mom studied through Revelations twice with a friend and wrote out every cross- reference scripture. That was a bit of a stretch for Mom but she did it and was so excited that she had accomplished it.

On July 27, mom was taken by ambulance to the hospital and was diagnosed with a stroke along with a brain bleed and had to be hospitalized for 16 days. It affected her speech and memory greatly and weakened her right side. The last 4 weeks while back in her home with 24/7 care from her family and home support, she was improving with her mobility, speaking and memory. Sharon and Diana were with her when she died suddenly from a massive stroke, passing away in her home on Sept 09, 2016. She got the desire of her heart to die at home.

Mom/ Grandma and Great Grandma passed away into the presence of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016 at the age of 87, just 3 weeks short of her 88th birthday. She will be greatly missed and lovingly remembered by her 6 children, Diana (husband John Dyck), Rosetta (husband Hans Krahn), John (wife Donna), Sharon (husband Phil Lichty), Sandra (husband David Frazier), Daniel (wife Audrey), her 20 grandchildren and their spouses, her 52 great grandchildren and 1 great-great granddaughter. Mom kept records and there were 104 of us on her list at the time of her death.

Mom left us a legacy of faith in Christ and perseverance through trials and hardships in life. She set for us an example of untiring service, modeling dependence on the Lord, through a life of prayer. She prayed that each one would persevere and that we, the next generation, would be strong and unwavering in our faith in Jesus Christ, loving Him with all our heart, and that we would continue to carry this legacy on to our children.

We will miss you Mom, Grandma and Great-Grandma!

“The Family”

Arrangements under the direction of Woodlawn Funeral Home, Abbotsford, BC.