Moyer, Metta Habegger (1891-1970)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1970 May 14 p. 3

Birth date: 1891

text of obituary:

Retired Missionary To India Dies

Mrs. S. T. Moyer, retired missionary to India, died at Bluffton, Ohio on Monday after a brief illness, according to word received at the General Conference central offices in Newton.

Mrs. Moyer, the former Metta Habegger of Berne, ind., and her husband served in India for 36 years, from 1920 to 1956. They founded the Jagdeeshpur Station.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1970 May 28 p. 11

text of obituary:

In Appreciation--

Missionary's Life Rich, Full of Challenge By Rev. S. T. Moyer Bluffton, Ohio

TO SPEND 50 years (1918-1970) in active Christian witness and fruitful service was the rare privilege of Mrs. S. T. Moyer, who was called to her heavenly home on May 11, 1970. What rich, eager years they were, for her spirit seemed to know no bounds.

When Metta (Habegger) was 18 years of age, a junior in high school at Berne, Ind., her mother died. As the oldest of eight children, she had to drop out of school and care for her four sisters and three brothers and her farmer father. When she finally could go on to Bluffton College, her leadership abilities became apparent. As her senior year opened, she became president of the YWCA.

After graduating she served one year at Freeman Jr. College as Dean of Women, coach of the girls' basket ball team, and teacher of English. Until the way to India opened up she taught one year in Tiffin (Ohio) High School.

IN THE LAST YEAR at Bluffton College she met S. T. Moyer, who had come to attend the Mennonite Seminary. We were married on June 20, 1920.

About four months after our wedding we sailed for the India mission field. We were assigned to open the fifth mission field, 60 miles in the jungles. We endured many hardships until we won out over the jungle. Here she used three clods as a cooking base. There were no modern appliances such as refrigerators. Food was difficult to obtain. Twice we were pelted by flying clods and broken brick, under cover of darkness, by persons who had tried to drive us out of that area.

With ignorance and disease on all sides, Metta opened a dispensary. Intestinal parasites, tropical fevers, burns from open fires, difficulties at child birth, and many other ailments claimed her loving care.

BEFORE going on furlough she gathered her little group of locally trained helpers to pray for a doctor from America. When she arrived home at Berne, Ind. she was met by a young man just out of medical college. "Could a medic such as me find a place of service in India?" humbly asked Dr. H. E. Dester. Their prayers were answered.

We spent one year of furlough in study at The Biblical Seminary in New York. Her practical work assignment was at a fashionable Fifth Avenue church with a class of business women — quite a contrast to the jungles of India!

That autumn we returned to India for our second term. As she went up the gangplank she carried a precious bundle, our son Theodore H., born July 13, 1929. The second term started off with four years of depression, and salaries of all missionaries were reduced. For eight years of that term we blanketed many villages and hamlets with Bible teaching campaigns designed to bring decisions for Christ. The church grew in strength and numbers.

WE WERE stationed in Janjgir for the third term. What a field of labor there — 100 Christian girls in the Funk Memorial School for girls, the Bible School with students from half a dozen different missions. She taught Bible, and when I was called to America, she became principal.

The fourth term we were stationed back in Jagdeeshpur. I became principal of the Janzen Memorial High School. Now we worked with the children and grandchildren of the first raw converts. How Metta enjoyed working with young people. She supervised the girls' dormitory, and for a time taught. Needy orphans and widows always claimed her special concern. During this term, because of the heat, all missionaries were driven to the cooler Himalaya Mountains. For two or three seasons Metta was asked to serve as supervisor of the Hindi section of the Landour Language School.

LEAVING INDIA after 36 years of witness and loving service, she came with her husband to Bethel Mennonite Church at Pekin, Ill. where we served for nine and a half years. Here she was chosen as national advisor of Young Mission Workers which brought her in contact with these groups from coast to coast and Canada.

In May 1967 we came to Bluffton, Ohio and she continued teaching Bible classes in the local church and Memorial Home for Senior Citizens, and visited shut-ins in hospitals and nursing homes.

The hymn, "My Jesus, I Love Thee," was fittingly sung in the services in Bluffton. Final services and interment took place at Berne, Ind.

The Mennonite obituary: 1970 Jun 2 p. 377