A TRIBUTE TO OUR BELOVED MOTHER

Anna Luetta Jungas

How can we capture in words her life as a daughter and young girl? We cannot. We have only memories of Nutkya stories told us as children about her early life which we must now fill out with our imaginations:

• The joy in her mother Helen's voice when she told her husband John that they were expecting their first child
  
• The agony and ecstasy of Anna's birth
  
• Her first step, her first word
  
• Her head nestled against her mother's breast
  
• Her hand clinging to her father's finger as they went to pick strawberries in the garden across town
  
• Her first snow fight, her first day in school
  
• Her first grade, second grade, third grade experiences in the Mt. Lake elemenatary school
  
• The terrible fire that destroyed the security of her home
  
• The years of working in the hotel after school keeping the population of bedbugs down
  
• Her graduation from High School
  

Anna Jungas Hiebert

How can we capture in words her life as a woman and a wife? We cannot. We catch only fleeting glimpses from the old photographs that freeze her form for a moment, and our imaginations of her vibrant life.

• Her first sight of a young man named John Hiebert
  
• Her first date, her bated breath as she listened behind the door as John asked her father for permission to marry her
  
• Her wedding when everyone in Mt. Lake was invited to the wedding meal
• Her joy at the birth of Phyllis
  
• Her leaving the security of Mt. Lake and home to live in student barracks at Nyack
  
• The big barn chapel where she and John sat on hard wood chairs for chapel services--a chapel that still stands and where I had the privilege of sitting where they once sat
  
• The long sea voyage to India
  
• The birth of Grace and Helen
  
• The agonizing death of her third child, and her sorrow when she buried the body in a foreign, but her adopted land
  
• Her many years together with John in a shared ministry
  

Mother

• She gave us life and nourished each of us,
  
• She changed our diapers, dried our tears, taught us to speak, to think, to sew and crochet, and not to say "I can't," but "I'll try and see if I can,"
  
• She was our refuge when were afraid of the dark,
  
• Wherever we went, her presence transformed houses into home at Wanaparty, Nagerkurnool, Mt. Lake, Salem, Kalvakurthi, Reedley, Mahbubnagar and Hillsboro.
  
• She and Dad are the threads that bind us here together as one family.
  

Anna: Missionary and Friend

• She dispensed medicine to the sick who came to the door, toured the villages to share the Gospel with women shut up in homes, and taught Bible classes.
  
• And everywhere she went she formed friends, I remember visiting the home of a Mill owner in Madurai. The couple proudly showed me the guest bedroom which they called "Grandma's Room" and kept ready in case mother would show up. There on the dresser was her picture.
  
• Today as we gather, a host of people in the towns and villages of Andhra, in Kodai, Reedley and Mountain Lake, and in places we don't even know join us to grieve the loss of our mother.
  

How do we account for our mother's full life?

1) Some will say that she had strength of personality which enabled her to bear the sorrow of losing her husband and daughters, and to raise you children alone,

2) Some will say she had moral fortitude--a sense of moral duty that kept her going when things were black,

3) But whenever I asked her about her strength, she always said her strength came from her faith in Christ Jesus. It was this that made her willing to go to India, to come through sorrow, and to find meaning in life. It was this faith which carried her through the hard experiences of her life.

This faith, for me, was captured in one of our family rituals. Whenever we parted, whether to go off to boarding school, to go on furlough, or off to the United States, Mom and Dad gathered us around and read Psalm 91. These were the last words I heard when I boarded the ship in Bombay at 17 to go to the U.S. to enter college.

I would like us to read this passage today as a family to say goodby to mother. I would also like to read this Psalm as a testimony to the faithfulness of God, and of mother's faith. This is a Messianic psalm, but I will take the liberty to apply it to Mother, for she is a child of God. And I will take the liberty to read it in the past tense because mother has completed her journey and these promises are now fulfilled. And I will note how these promises were fulfilled in her life.

Psalm 91:

"Mother, you lived in the shelter of the Most High, you dwelt in the shadow of the Almighty.
You said of the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.'

"Therefore God delivered you from the deep waters:
-in 1938 when our ship, the Hiye Maru tossed for three days in a typhoon on the North Pacific, and the captain despaired of saving the ship,
-in 1942 when we were evacuated from India on the S.S. Brazil past enemy submarines that torpedoed the ship behind us,
- in 1950 when you, Joanne and Lois escaped from the van that was dumped into the Krishna River.

And from the deadly pestilence:
-of small pox, cholera, typhoid and plague during your many years in India.

He covered you with his pinions, and under his wings you found refuge.
His faithfulness was your shield and sword, and you did not fear the terror of the night.
Because you made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place,
No evil overtook you.
And now he has commanded his angels concerning you and they have lifted you up to your final home."

Mother:

We your children, grand-children and great-grand-children gather to thank you--
-for being our mother who gave us life, and loved us and stood by us in all our lives
- for making a home for us wherever we were.

We want to say we love you--
- we are not always articulate in expressing that love but it is deep within each one of us.
- we have not always said it enough
- but we do want to say that deep within each of us is a lasting love of you.

We honor you--
- for your years of ministry to so many around the world who also call you mother and friend.

We bless you--
- for sharing with us your faith, and modeling for us Christian faithfulness.

We look forward to joining you--
- we say goodby, but by faith we affirm that this is a temporary parting. Now we say goodby, but the final word will be a great Hello when we join you and dad and Grace and Helen.

Mother, we miss you, but you are written deep in our memories, and those memories none can take from us.