Book Review of Our Peace Guardian by Ilze Keikulis West and Anna Keikulis Johnson
My husband, Allan, and I knew a wonderful refugee family from Latvia years ago in Texas. This family consisted of a mother and her five children. The pregnant mom, Helga Zidermanis, had had to escape her homeland in a hurry with her four-and-one-half children near the end of WWII approximately when the Soviets took over. She had to leave behind her husband and their father. On a mission trip to Mexico in the early 70s, I was once the roommate of her last child, Maritza, who was “in the oven,” during the escape. Helga was well known as an outstanding Christian teacher and is mentioned by the Christ for the Nations Bible school co-founder Freda Lindsay of Dallas, TX, in her autobiography, My Diary Secrets, p. 188. Helga never remarried.
So our interest was immediately piqued when a local friend recently gave us a copy of Our Peace Guardian about a Latvian family’s triumphant endurance through Latvian persecution for their off-brand church. Later, they also faced Russian and German occupation, prison camps, and emigration ALL TOGETHER as a family unit. We were immediately intrigued by the book and its lessons.
The oldest daughter, Anna, gives written and vocal testimony of the tremendous legacy left by the Keikulis family at https://www2.cbn.com/article/hope/relying-faith-through-horrors-wwii. But we are getting a head of our story.
First, let’s take a quick look at the tragic history of Latvia at Wikipedia’s site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Latvia. Little Latvia has been bullied for centuries by nearby neighbors in its Baltic region and overrun by Germans and Russians and others.
Meet the Keikulis family, our heroes in the book: father – Arvids, mother – Cilite; children: son, Janis; daughters, Anna, Judite, Modra, and Ilze, approximately 3 years apart. The back cover of the book says it so well:
The true story of the Keikulis family – their trials, persecutions, and discouragement. It is also the story of faith and hope - perseverance, worship, witnessing, and triumph – told from the pages of their father’s journal, their mother’s words, and their own memories. It is the story of a family’s unique, courageous journey.
The father, Arvids, was the ultimate role model of peace during chaos. His countenance in the face of danger and hardships calmed the fears of others. The Keikulises gained an adopted older daughter named Mariana because her own father was dead. The widowed mother cried tears of farewell after the family yielded to her pleas to take care of her daughter so that the evil Nazis would not deport Mariana as they had done other nearby youths. She was an invaluable help to the family and learned to sew skillfully. She made the girls dresses in the photo above, making the stylish clothes without a pattern.
The parents’ earlier trials were brought on by their own countrymen, and were the result of their faith. Why was their faith such a trial? Their Baptist faith was considered a sect of heretics by the Latvian state church. Neighbors were verbally abusive and often ridiculed them. Teachers belittled the Keikulis children, and their peers were cruel to them.
Then, there were healing lessons to learn as they fasted and prayed for physical healing from God from tuberculosis, blood poisoning, boils, comas, shock, and extreme weakness. The family passed those tests triumphantly. The local doctor was antagonistic.
Despite these trials, the book is not depressing but faith building as God Himself comes through with provision, healing, or a specific “word” to Arvids and Cilite for direction or gives them just the right scripture [always transcribed for us] that is perfect for the occasion. They won the respect of others through their perseverance. A house church developed in their home with Arvids as their pastor.
When WWII struck, Latvia was again occupied successively by Germany and then Russia, as in numerous times of its history. A summary on the back cover reads: “In war-torn Europe, a desperate family learns faith and reliance on their Heavenly Father as they endure persecution, starvation, sickness and disease, prison camps, bombing, and other atrocities – while following their earthly father on a perilous journey to freedom.”
Some of the faith building accounts leave us saying “wow” as we read of…
- Loaves of warm bread are mysteriously left on a stump or floor of the forest when needed desperately.
- Cruel Nazis allow the adopted daughter, Mariana, to work extra hours on weekdays in order for her to observe the Sabbath to honor God.
- Arvids’ tuberculosis is cured when no cure existed at the time.
- Jobs are provided.
- Cilite is baptized in the icy Baltic Sea and didn’t mind the cold. One pastor officiated 15 baptisms there and never got even a sniffle.
- Arvids is spared being forced to join the German Army because of his bold testimony that he was already in another Army (the Lord’s).
- Mariana learned sewing skills. The little white pinafores in the photo above are made from flour sacks. She also made the dresses without a pattern.
- A stellar daily prayer life is observed faithfully, especially for needs and decisions.
- Clear directions from the Lord are given to the family that show His knowledge of future dangers, and He spares the family from being in the wrong place. For example, He would not allow Arvids to own a business offered free of charge to him. When the enemy came, they punished shop owners as the first order of business.
- Arvids and family members walked through bomb explosions in a field with no harm. Wow!!
- On May 9, 1982, having lived safely in the US for many years and having pastored a church of Russian émigrés, Arvids (in his early 80s) called his impending death from leukemia his “last trial.” He said he wanted to be alone. He excused himself from Cilite. She complied and later found him at peace with a smile on his face. She would not cover his lifeless face so that others could see how a Christian can die. She attended church that night in order to testify to her church members: “…your church has a new widow! But she is happy widow, because Papa won the victory and he is with Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!”
My husband and I competed for time to read “what happened next” in a book that was graciously placed into our hands by our neighbor, Shirley. She explained that one of the two Keikulis sisters who co-authored the book, Ilse West, had been married to a former missions director at her church, the evangelical Lakeview Baptist Church of Auburn, AL. (https://www.lakeviewbaptist.org/)
Recently, I found myself overcoming a few minor doubts by reminding myself that I was not walking in a war zone with bullets around me. Surely I could stand strong and model the peace of Arvids Keikulis. His faith is till comforting and contagious.