Worldwide Family Activity Report - Tribute to Liberty
FAR006 - GP
October 1994 by The Family, Zurich, Switzerland
The Family
Making a Difference!
TRIBUTE TO LIBERTY
1955-1994
Liberty was the first Eastern European national to join the Family as a full-time missionary, and she faithfully served the Lord with us for the past 20 years. In the early morning of September 7, 1994, the Lord took her Home to be with Him. She died of a brain haemorrhage which her doctor did not recognise, so her passing to the Next Life was sudden and unexpected. Following are excerpts from the eulogy which her former husband, Will, and eldest son, John David, delivered at her funeral:
Will: When I received the phone call letting me know that Liberty was gone, I felt like the very heart and life went out of me. I believe we've all shed quite a few tears this past week. But in spite of the heartbreak we feel, I don't think that Libby [Liberty] would want us to sorrow for her. If she were able to convey one thing to us at this time, I believe it would be the same thing which she dedicated each day of her life to: sharing the love and joy that she found in Jesus with others. That love and joy is found in God's promise from the Bible: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
A gift for making others feel loved
When I think of Libby, the first thing that comes to mind is her loving smile which would literally leap from her heart and was able to fill the darkest room with joy. I remember her hugs and touch and her laughter and her way of making one feel so comfortable and relaxed. She had a tremendous gift of giving comfort and encouragement to those in need. She often told me she felt Florence Nightingale was somehow helping her from the spirit world. People who had only known her for a few minutes would be surprised as they found themselves telling her the innermost thoughts of their hearts. They knew they were with someone who loved them and was really concerned about them. She was a true friend to all who came to know her.
She had modest beginnings, yet Libby's loving open manner and approach to life seemed to transcend all differences of class and culture. Libby had a tremendous gift of sensing the need of people's hearts and would reach out and offer the comfort or help they needed.
Remarkable missionary accomplishments
Liberty was born and raised in Yugoslavia, and at the age of 12 moved to Holland with her parents and brother Igor. They all became Dutch citizens. At the age of twenty, Libby dedicated her life to Jesus and entered full-time missionary service. From that point on, she always expressed a deep love and concern to reach the peoples of Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia with the Gospel.
Libby and I met and married in Spain. While Libby was still pregnant with our younger son Michael, we moved to Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. Tito was still in power. In spite of the anti-religion stance of the government, we found a tremendous hunger for Christianity there and we were able to start a missionary outpost in that country. Our time in Yugoslavia served to fan our desire to reach more of what was then the East Bloc with the Gospel.
We moved back to Western Europe, where we helped to co-ordinate a large missionary thrust into East Europe. We also helped with the organisation, translation and production of Gospel material into the major East European languages. As often as we could, we made missionary visits into Yugoslavia and the other countries behind the Iron Curtain: Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.
In spite of the dangers and risks involved, we began making missionary trips into Russia in 1983. There we found an enormous vacuum for the Gospel among the youth. We smuggled hundreds of Bibles, New Testaments and piles of Gospel literature into the country--mostly strapped to our bodies. We must have looked like well-fed foreigners indeed, as we each had our legs and torsos strapped with 15 or 20 kilos of literature each time we crossed the border.
Once inside, we helped organise an "underground" church of Russian youth, some of whom are still doing full-time missionary work in Russia. Conditions were rough, and sometimes we and our converts were followed or harassed by the KGB, who were aware of our missionary outreach and tried to stop us. A number of our members were interrogated and jailed for their faith. Nevertheless, the Lord's Work went on to grow and prosper in spite of everything that stood in its way.
The happy, loving, bubbly girl
Recently I had the opportunity and pleasure to meet Dr. Gordon Melton, the well-known American scholar and religious historian, and founder of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, in Santa Barbara, California. Recently Dr. Melton travelled Eastern Europe in order to conduct an extensive study of the history of the Family's thriving missionary work there. That work now includes several hundred East European nationals who have dedicated their lives to become full-time missionaries to their own peoples.
Later, Dr. Melton was in Denmark attending an international conference of academics who study new religious movements. There he shared something very beautiful, which I feel was somewhat of an accolade to dear Libby.
Dr. Melton asked one of his colleagues if she had had the opportunity to meet Libby, whom he had recently spent a few days with here in England. He went on to describe Libby as the "happy, loving, bubbly girl." He said that during his travels throughout Eastern Europe, where he met many Family members in the course of his study, in each country he visited, he was told repeatedly by East European Family members that they considered Liberty to be their "spiritual mom"--the one whom they had first met and the one who nurtured them along in their new-found faith.
Dr. Melton also delivered the keynote speech at that conference, and in it he described the Family's missionary accomplishments in Eastern Europe. Interestingly enough, in that speech he mentioned Libby several times as one of the main people who was instrumental in opening and shaping the Family's work there. That Work continues to bring spiritual hope and comfort to thousands. It also helps to provide material assistance by gathering and distributing humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of needy people across Russia.
Libby's heart was broken by the war in the former Yugoslavia, and she felt the Lord was calling her to return to her homeland. She was recently making plans to join other Family members there who offer counselling and distribute goods and services to the refugees, soldiers and others whose lives have been devastated by the war. Our son John and his wife Kezia now feel the Lord is calling them to go there.
Closing words
John David: I don't think I could express in words what I felt the day Mom left us. It's been one of the saddest, most sobering and heart-rending experiences of my life. That day I felt as if I had lived one hundred years. As Dad shared, Kezia and I are hoping to be able to join the Family's missionary Work in the former Yugoslavia. Had we gone before Mom went to be with the Lord, I don't think I could have possibly had the needed compassion or understanding to be able to relate to what the poor people in Bosnia are suffering; nor could I have grasped the depth of sorrow they feel after losing loved ones had I not experienced Mom's departure.
Mom was a remarkable person. She had a way of fitting in with young and old, rich and poor. Proof of this lies in each of you, as I see so many different faces before me--all of whom have felt her love touch their lives. She shared the same message with everyone she met: that God loves each of us personally and wants to be a very real part of our lives.
In closing, I believe that if there were one thing that Mom would like to convey to us all at this time, it would be the joy which she found in the love of Jesus. For those of you who haven't received the Lord as your Saviour, on behalf of Mom, I would like to extend the opportunity to do so now. Let us all join in prayer together, as we repeat the prayer which appears in the memorial leaflets you've received.
Dear Jesus, I thank you for Your love and for promising Eternal Life to those that believe and receive You. I ask you now to please fill my life with Your love and Your Spirit. Please come into my heart, forgive my sins, and help me to love you, and share Your love with others. Amen.
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"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116:15).
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ... that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13).
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7,8).
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family