Job 19: Gravestones That Proclaim Hope

Introduction

In the summer of 2021, Taras is walking with his family in a park on Khortytsia Island, in the middle of the Dnipro (Dnieper) River, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. There he finds a memorial made of old gravestones. Some date from 1793, others from 1806. Many are damaged, but on several of them you can still read Bible verses, written in German.

One of them stops him: Job 19:25. "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end he will stand upon the earth." These words touch him deeply. He wants to know who these people were, how their lives unfolded, and why their gravestones are in a park.

This is the investigation that this brother from Ukraine shares with the Église Protestante Évangélique de Namur, during the service of October 25, 2026. At the end of the road, a simple conviction: Christians have been forgotten, but the Word they left behind still speaks, and their God is alive.

Outline of the message

1. A verse from Job on a forgotten stone

Khortytsia Island is about 12 kilometers long and 3 to 4 kilometers wide. It is the great island of the river, in the middle of Zaporizhzhia.
In a small park, a memorial gathers old gravestones. The inscriptions are in German.
On one of them, Taras reads Job 19:25: "my Redeemer lives." He ends his reading with these words: "He is alive."
A question is born: who were these people, and why are their graves here?

2. Who were the Mennonites?

These stones belong to Mennonites. Their groups came from different countries: Germans, Dutch and, of course, Flemish.
The Mennonites were one of the currents of Anabaptism, which appeared in the 16th century at the time of the Reformation, in the territories of the Netherlands and northern Germany. Their name comes from Menno Simons, who became one of the important figures of the movement.
Their migration to Ukraine took place in three waves. The first, in 1789: 228 families from Friesland and the Netherlands, who were then living in Prussia, in the region of Danzig (today Gdansk, in Poland).
At the invitation of Catherine II, they settled in the south of the Russian Empire to develop the region, work there and live there. They founded the Khortytsia colony (Chortitza), near the city then called Oleksandrivsk, on the right bank of the Dnipro.
In 1803 and 1804, another large group settled farther south, near the Molochna River, toward the Sea of Azov. The Zaporizhzhia region, Taras explains, is roughly the size of all of Belgium.
A last wave arrived around 1870 and founded new villages and daughter colonies in southern Ukraine, as far as the Kherson region.

3. A faith that shaped the whole of life

The Mennonites practiced farming and developed crafts and industry. In Zaporizhzhia, they had a few large factories.
They built schools, hospitals and factories. Taras tells how he himself was hospitalized in an old building built by Mennonites.
They contributed greatly to the development of the region, and notably to the spread of the Protestant tradition in southern Ukraine. They preached the gospel.
"Their faith largely determined their way of life. They sought to work, to serve God and to live according to their Christian conviction."

4. Erased from memory, then found again

Until 2019, few people knew that a large number of old gravestones lay hidden under an old abandoned building.
A local historian who worked at the local museum discovers under this building a stone that looks like a gravestone from an old German cemetery. Later, part of the building collapses and more stones appear.
The historian gathers a team of volunteers. Together, they recover about 200 gravestones.
The explanation is sad. Until the 1930s, a Mennonite cemetery stood not far from there. The Soviet government decided to erase all memory of this group of Christians: the cemetery was destroyed and the stones were used as building material.
This did not happen only in this place. Elsewhere too, Mennonite gravestones were used in construction, and some roads were even paved with them.
Men and women had lived on this land, worked, started a family, raised children and believed in Jesus Christ, and then they were forgotten. Nearly a hundred years later, their stones have resurfaced. After the excavations and restorations, a memorial was set up. Taras admits that for several years, he did not know this story himself.

5. A message of hope carved in stone

Standing before the verse from Job, Taras wondered what God wanted to show him. Above all, he saw in it a message of hope and trust in God.
"These people are our brothers and sisters in Christ." Judging by their inscriptions, they believed in God, hoped in his promises and awaited eternal life. "They believed that death was not the end and that one day they would see their redeemer, their savior, our God."
This recalls Romans 8:38-39: "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"These words remind us that God's love is stronger than death and that nothing can separate us from his love in Jesus Christ. Because our God, he is alive."
We do not know what trials these people went through, what difficulties they lived, or what prayers they offered to God. But some of the words they left behind have reached us.
Another stone looks like an open Gospel, covered with passages: Genesis 3:15, Matthew 7:7 ("Seek, and you will find"), Revelation 3:20 ("Behold, I stand at the door and knock"), John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world"), 1 John 1:7 on the blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin, and Philippians 1:21: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
"These inscriptions are much more than simple historical evidence. They let us discover the faith of people who lived long before us."
"Their names may have been forgotten, their graves may have been destroyed, and their stones may have been used to build buildings. But the words of God that they chose to leave behind have reached our time."
Taras sees in this a good example of Jesus' words: "the stones will cry out" (Luke 19:40).

6. Foreigners who put their hope in Christ

Taras does not want to impose any conclusion: "You can draw your own conclusions. But personally, I have already drawn mine."
"These people were like me. Foreigners." They left their homes and their country to live with another language and another culture.
They worked hard and contributed to the development of the region where they lived. They did so by putting their hope in Jesus Christ and trusting God fully, whatever the circumstances of their lives.
In one of the photos he shows, a golden symbol represents hope and faith. Taras wishes to have the same hope and the same faith as his Mennonite brothers and sisters.
The Protestant and Baptist movement in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions appeared thanks to the Mennonites: they were its source, before the great Baptist movement in Ukraine.
For him, it is the example of a life and a legacy first lost, then found again. He concludes: "My God is truly alive." And Jesus is alive.

Key takeaways

Christians may be forgotten by people, and their graves destroyed, but the Word of God that they left behind keeps on speaking.
Job 19:25 and Romans 8:38-39 carry the same assurance: our redeemer lives, and death cannot separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
The Mennonites' faith shaped their way of life: working, serving God, building schools and hospitals, proclaiming the gospel.
Foreigners, far from their homeland, put their hope in Christ and became the source of a Protestant movement in southern Ukraine.

Personal application

If a single verse had to sum up your hope, which one would you choose, and why?
Does your faith shape the way you work, serve and live day to day?
What in your present life makes you doubt that nothing can separate you from the love of God?
What legacy of faith have you received from those who came before you, and which one do you want to leave behind?
If you live far from your homeland, or if you rub shoulders with foreigners, how does the example of these Mennonites change the way you see things?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Who were the Mennonites mentioned in this sermon?

The Mennonites are one of the currents of Anabaptism that appeared in the 16th century, at the time of the Reformation, in the territories of the Netherlands and northern Germany. They take their name from Menno Simons. At the invitation of Catherine II, Mennonite families settled in the south of the Russian Empire, in what is now the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.

What does Job 19:25 engraved on a gravestone mean?

For Taras, it is a message of hope and trust in God. Those who chose this verse believed that death was not the end and that one day they would see their redeemer. Romans 8:38-39 confirms it: nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Why had these gravestones disappeared?

A Mennonite cemetery stood near this place until the 1930s. The Soviet government wanted to erase the memory of this group of Christians: the cemetery was destroyed and the gravestones were used as building material, sometimes even to pave roads. About 200 stones were found starting in 2019 under an abandoned building.