God in a God-Forsaken Land

I had never wondered before if I would see another summer. Yet on that day the question crossed my mind.

The frontier town of Alexandria, Minnesota in 1874 attracted immigrants longing for land and freedom. Yet the newcomers to this wild, beautiful, and dangerous landscape needed the stability, love, and peace found in the Word of Life.

Pastor August Hertwig, called to this ministry and dropped from a stagecoach into a stunning, yet hostile place, faced isolation, severe weather, and plagues of locusts as he struggled to bring the permanence of Church and Faith to settlers striving to carve out a life in this new land. God led him to the love of his life in the strong, determined Elizabeth and together, in faith, they forged a powerful ministry based on the eternal Word and manifested in vibrant Christian congregations.

Pastor Hertwig tells his own story of immigration which takes him from his childhood Germany to the very ends of the earth. Traveling on foot and by horse, his ministry covered several counties where he started 16 congregations, many of which still exist today.