It was a life-long dream of Frank “Carl” Peter Zacharias to be on the radio, said his daughter, Lisa Zacharias, in the eulogy she gave at her father’s funeral on May 2, 2012. That dream became a reality when he started his own radio ministry about three years ago. Zacharias Fetalt, was a half-hour weekly Low German program that aired from 30 radio stations in seven countries.
Zacharias, who died on April 26, 2012, at the age of 52, “was a people person,” said Hedy Falk, a member of Blumenort Mennonite Church, where Zacharias was commissioned as a lay minister two years ago. “He loved people.”
The scripture passage that guided Zacharias’s ministry was Ephesians 3:16-21. “It speaks about the endless boundaries of God’s powerful love,” said Lisa. The mission he brought to his radio program was to “let people know they had worth and value, were not alone and were loved unconditionally.”
The audience for his radio program was primarily the Low German-speaking people in Mexico, Central and South America, and Germany, said Falk. “He knew the challenges people in those communities faced and through these programs he tried to reassure them of God’s love. He would incorporate news from Belize, Bolivia, Mexico and Canada to help people keep in touch with each other. He included Bible instruction, stories and once did a series on ‘Who is a Mennonite?’” He aired his last program in September 2011 before he became too ill from Multiple Myeloma to continue.
Zacharias spent much of his childhood in Paraguay and Belize where his parents, Frank and MaryAnne Zacharias, served as missionaries. The family moved to Manitoba and Zacharias completed his high school education at the Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna. After graduating with a degree in agriculture, Zacharias married Esther Elias in 1983. Together they lived and served in Belize in the mid-1980s under the EMM Church, teaching, managing a credit union and filling in wherever they could, said Zacharias’s cousin, Ingrid Friesen. They served two terms under Mennonite Central Committee in Bolivia from 1990-94 and 2000-03. “He was always very passionate about his Christian witness and this was borne out in his passion for living, working, playing, everything he did,” said Friesen. In Reinland and Winkler Zacharias was involved with real estate, woodworking and farming.
Zacharias is lovingly remembered by his wife Esther, children Matthew, Lisa and Kristina, and mother MaryAnne Zacharias. Donations in his memory may be made to the MCI where he served on the Board for many years.
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