Offering a unique window into the Old Colony Mennonite community in Saskatchewan, this biography of Herman D.W. Friesen reveals the life of a man who attempted to modernize his community, often in opposition to traditional religious beliefs. The story begins on the Hague-Osler Mennonite reserve in the 1910s and 20s. At this time the government was pressuring Mennonite communities to send their children to province-run schools. This set off a series of migrations, in which Mennonites left for Mexico, Central America, and other parts of Canada. During the watershed decade of the 1960s, Friesen was elected as a minister, and later as the äeltester (Bishop). Despite growing up in an environment filled with intense governmental conflict and considerable suspicion towards "the English outsiders, " he did not try to organize another migration out of Saskatchewan. Instead, taking a unique approach to leadership, Friesen tried to navigate a gradual process of accommodation to the changes taking place in the province. Included in the book are Friesen's sermons, translated from German, providing a unique glimpse into the Old Colony Mennonite theology that aided him in guiding the church in a strategy of gradual cultural accommodation.