Sprunger, Lilly Bachman (1907-1960)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1960 Sep 15 p. 6

Birth date: *1907 Jan 1

text of obituary:

. . .

— A telephone call to the General Conference Mission Board here reported the death of Mrs. Vernon Sprunger at Elkhart, Ind., Monday Sept. 12, at 6:00 p.m. Mrs. Sprunger and her husband served as missionaries under the Congo Inland Mission for many years. She had been in ill health for some time. Funeral services were to be held Thursday, at 2:00 p.m., in Elkhart.

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The Mennonite obituary: 1960 Oct 11 p. 651

text of obituary:

In Memoriam

They laid the body of Lilly Bachman (Mrs. Vernon) Sprunger in its final resting place. But like other workers for the Lord, her works follow her.

As I stood in the Elkhart cemetery, there came a flood of memories. The first went back to a back-country farm house. I was visiting the members of my church near Pulaski, Iowa. It was Sunday. Lilly was the oldest of the four children. I remember that Lilly's mother, Elisa, went upstairs and brought down some Edelweis which had come from the Alps of Switzerland. She gave them to me and explained that the Edelweis grows right on the fringe of the melting snow high on the Alps of her native land.

Then I remember so distinctly a beautiful balmy May afternoon. The children were going home from school. Lilly, then an eighth grade girl, going home from the Pulaski Public School, came down that village street which led past the Mary Augspurger home. I had made my home with Grandma Augspurger during my ministry of less than one year in Pulaski. It was here that a thirteen-year-old girl, Lilly, stopped in to tell me that she had given her heart to the Lord Jesus. She asked for baptism.

Lilly, together with Agnes Willier (now a pastor’s wife), was baptized in the Pulaski Mennonite Church in the spring of 1920. Lilly was the first of hundreds whom I was privileged to baptize.

That fall, my bride and 1 sailed out of New York on our honeymoon. Our destination was India. About two years later, as a high school girl, Lilly kneeled down with her mother in customary evening prayers. Her mother had so much wanted to be a missionary. God had not seen fit to open the doors so that she might fulfill her heart's desire. They prayed for the mission fields and that God would send workers. As they arose from their evening prayers, Lilly said, "Mother, why cannot I help God to answer our prayers?"

All through the years Lilly's letters have followed us — first during high school days, then during college days, and then from the Congo. She and her bridegroom, Vernon Sprunger, left for Congo in 1931. They entered into that harvest which ultimately brought the church membership to 22,000 when independence came this year.

In late years cancer came. She fought it valiantly. During furlough, it seemed to be arrested. Back to Africa they went. Again it flared up, and they returned to the United States. Again there was an operation and treatment. But again the cancer flared up — until she finally entered the hospital for the last time, from where she experienced the triumphant home going.

Through the labors of Lilly and Vernon, the light, power, and hope of the gospel through Jesus Christ has been planted into the hearts of hundreds and thousands. Two sons have served on the Congo mission field. Surely her works do follow her. What a tremendous harvest — because Lilly as an eighth grade girl yielded her life unto the Lord.

— S. T. Moyer.

• Find a Grave Memorial ID: 87409199