SEABOCH, Helen Lucille c1921-1998

SEABOCH

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 5/21/2014 at 21:50:10

[Waterloo Courier, January, 1998]

Nearly 500 people are expected to attend funeral services Saturday for a former Cedar Falls resident who spent nearly 50 years as a Christian missionary in the Philippines.

Because of the large crowd, the funeral for Helen Lucille Seaboch will be held in the pavilion at the National Cattle Congress grounds.

Seaboch, 76, was killed instantly after being hit by a truck in Sucat, Rizal, Philippines on Dec. 27, 1998.

Beginning her evangelist work in Iowa as a young woman, she moved to the Philippines in 1959.

"She was a very unassuming person and lived very meagerly. Her main concern was to spread the teaching of the Bible as she thought it was to be taught," said brother-in-law Lavern Patterson.

She traveled to remote areas of the islands there, learning three native languages and supporting herself through the charity of others.

"She would live with people who believed as she did or would rent a room or a little apartment and teach the gospel," Patterson said.

Seaboch did not affiliate herself with any denomination of the Christian church and chose instead to meet with worshippers in their own homes.

She never married, but corresponded regularly with friends and family in Iowa.

"She was a very happy person and I think that was because she had peace in her heart," said her niece, Charlene Chestnut, of Cedar Falls.

A service for Seaboch in the Philippines held on Jan. 2 drew more than 400 friends and colleagues. Her services Saturday begin at 11 a.m.