Death at the Grass Huts

Growing up in the vast Paraguayan wilderness of thorn trees, snakes, and unreached indigenous tribes that threaten his family’s survival, Rudolf Duerksen takes the reader on a journey of the harsh realities faced by Mennonite settlers in South America.
Told from the perspective of the first generation born to Russian Mennonite refugees that settled in the Gran Chaco, Death at the Grass Huts is a memoir about human endeavor and reliance on God’s grace in the face of adversity.
There are stories about making first contact with tribes to developing a thriving economy alongside them””stories about misfortune and great personal sacrifice to turning Latin America’s “green hell” into a prosperous community.
Along the way, Rudolf finds himself cutting wheat fields in Kansas to delivering groceries on the narrow streets of old town Basel in Switzerland””from loading a plane in Texas headed to South America full of cows to starting a home for abandoned children on the gritty streets of Asuncion.
In the end, these poignant and often humorous stories serve to reveal our shared humanity and what’s possible when following God’s leading.