ELKHART, Indiana (Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission/Mennonite Mission Network) – Anna V. Liechty, 101, died May 7 at Swiss Village Retirement Community in Berne, Indiana, where she was a resident. She was ahead of her time in mission strategies, and her kindness and integrity are two frequently mentioned characteristics when people describe her.
Many of the Mennonite leaders in Congo, including Adolphe Komuesa Kalunga, national president of Communauté Mennonite au Congo (Mennonite Church of Congo), have fond memories of her as a teacher who frequently invited them to her home for a meal.
Born to Albert and Ida Moser Liechty on Nov. 19, 1915, in Adams County, Indiana, Liechty graduated from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Goshen (Indiana) College, and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She also received certification from Ecole d’Administration in Brussels, Belgium.
Before beginning her mission career in what is today Democratic Republic of Congo, Liechty was a seamstress at the Berne Overall Company, a graphotype operator at Moody Bible Institute, taught in Three Hills, Alberta, and worked at the Goshen College library.
In 1946, she began four decades of teaching ministry with Congo Inland Mission (now Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission, a Mennonite Mission Network partner). She served in five locations and taught in elementary and secondary schools. During her final 11 years, she taught at Kalonda Bible Institute.
Ruth Keidel Clemens grew up in Congo as the daughter of Liechty’s coworkers, and currently serves as program director with MCC U.S. (Mennonite Central Committee). She remembers that Mama Kapinga (Liechty’s name in the Congolese language of Tshiluba) always took great interest in the children. When Keidel Clemens’ family traveled to Congo on the same ocean liner as Liechty, "she had prepared elaborate Sunday school classes for each of the three Sundays we were on board together."
After a school holiday that Keidel Clemens had spent with her parents, she was at the airport trying to return to classes at a boarding school in the capital city of Kinshasa. "The officials in the airport wanted to search me for diamonds. I struck up a conversation with them about how I had just had breakfast that morning with Mama Kapinga [the respect the officials had for Liechty apparently covered all who associated with her], and they let me go without a search," Keidel Clemens said. "She had the purest heart and motivations of anyone I know."
The trust that her Congolese acquaintances and coworkers had in Liechty was reciprocal. She also had confidence in their ability to step into leadership positions. In a 1967 letter, Reuben Short, executive secretary for Congo Inland Mission, wrote commending Liechty for the ease with which she taught in a school with a Congolese principal.
"This is a big credit to you to work in this way," Short wrote. "More and more, we may be finding some of our missionaries working under the administration of Congolese, and this is the way it ought to be. I hope all of them will be able to do it as graciously as you have."
Liechty retired from ministry in Congo in 1984, but continued to be an active member of First Mennonite Church in Berne.
Liechty’s parents; her brother, Paul S. Liechty; and sisters, Mary J. Augsburger and Ruth B. Habegger; preceded her in death. She is survived by nieces, Martha Showalter of Harrisonburg, Virginia; Miriam Griffin of Oak Ridge, Tennessee; nephew, Jonathan Habegger, of Tucson, Arizona; and great-nephews and great-nieces and their children.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 27, in the Swiss Village Auditorium at 1:30 p.m. Gifts may be given to Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission, Mennonite Mission Network, or Swiss Village Samaritan Fund.
