wfn.org | Ruth Ressler, missionary and teacher, dies

[BethAH <BethAH@mbm.org>]

May 16, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

May 16, 2001

Ruth Ressler, missionary and teacher, dies

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM) – The second generation of Mennonite
missionaries lost a faithful worker on May 1, when long-time
teacher and mission worker Ruth Ressler died at Brennfield
Nursing Center in Orrville, Ohio, following a series of strokes.
She was 94.

The daughter of the first Mennonite Church overseas missionary,
Ressler answered her own call to international mission at age
43.  She also dedicated many years to serving in the North
American church and ministering as a teacher.

At a May 4 memorial service at Oak Grove Mennonite Church in
Smithville, Ohio, participants remembered her teaching and
servanthood.  “Her life was characterized by mission, service,
and complete dedication to God, people and the church,” said
Charles Shenk, a former mission colleague of Ressler.

“She loved and served God,” said Oak Grove Pastor Norma
Duerksen.  “I’m grateful for the … example she gave us.”

Born June 5, 1906, in Dhamtari, India, to missionary parents
Jacob A. and Lina (Zook) Ressler, Ruth spent the first two years
of her life there.  In 1899, J. A. Ressler had become the first
overseas missionary to be appointed by the Mennonite Church,
along with Dr. W. B. and Alice Page.  Ressler married Lina Zook
while on a furlough, and they returned to India together.

The family returned to North America in 1908 when Lina’s health
prevented them from remaining in India.  After another daughter,
Rhoda, was born in 1910, the family moved from Ohio to
Pennsylvania, where both parents worked for the Mennonite
Publishing House in Scottdale.

After earning a two-year degree from Millersville (Pa.)
University, Ruth taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Huntington
Township, Pa.  She later became a special-education pioneer when
she became a teacher for children who were unable to pass the
first grade after four years.

After her mother’s death in 1948, Ruth began considering a
mission assignment along with her sister.  They agreed to a
Mennonite Central Committee term in an orphanage in China.  Ruth
and Rhoda were on a boat to China when the Mao regime instituted
the People’s Republic of China in1949, making their entry visas
invalid.  They heard the news when the ship docked in Guam.

Recounting the story of the journey, Rhoda Ressler said:  “And so
we found that our town was gone.  ... We went to the governor of
Guam, and he said that we got a telegram from [the MCC office in]
Akron saying transfer to the Japan unit, which gave us that much
of an answer to our question of  ‘What next?’  And we talked to
the governor of Guam, and he said this:  ‘You’re going to
occupied Japan.  McArthur has the mosquitoes counted in Japan,
and he’ll know of any kind of religious work that is going on.’”

Ruth and Rhoda spent most of the next 25 years in Japan doing
religious work, with MCC for a three-year term and then from
1953-1973 with Mennonite Board of Missions.  For MCC, they taught
English in Kobe.  Then, after a brief return to the United
States, they moved to Hokkaido in 1953 and began an MBM
assignment in the then-remote village of Kamishihoro.

The sisters were instrumental in starting a Mennonite
congregation in Kamishihoro through their Bible teaching,
friendships and Christian presence in the life of the village.

In the Aug. 30, 1955, Gospel Herald, Ruth wrote:  “Now and then
someone asks, ‘Why did you come to Kamishihoro?’  And that is our
chance to tell them and to invite them to one of the little study
groups that meet every week.  We know well that, just as in the
old story, much of the seed will fall where people are busy or
worried or forgetful, and that many times we as his witnesses
here fail in being as wise as we should be, but we pray that God
may find in Kamishihoro those hearts that may prove to be good
soil for his word and that even in this little village, a nucleus
of believers may rise who will spread the gospel through this
lovely valley.”

The Resslers also served as mentors for other members of the MBM
Japan team.  At the memorial service, Shenk spoke of Ruth as key
to their process of orientation to Japan.  The Resslers had
already been in Japan for eight years when Charles and Ruth Shenk
arrived.  “Ruth and Rhoda were our senpai, our senior mentoring
colleagues in Japan.

“Ruth and Rhoda were not ordained for their missionary work
[because women were not ordained in that era], yet they were
expected to do everything their male colleagues did,” Shenk
said.  “Ruth and Rhoda were ahead of their time.  … Ruth won the
respect of many people in Japan – men and women.”

After Kamishihoro, Ruth and Rhoda spent 12 years in Osaka, again
teaching English, but their legacy in the Kamishihoro church
continued.

“We have received with sorrow the word that Ruth San has been
called to heaven, but we are filled with gratitude that her time
on this earth included important years among us.  We praise and
thank God for her life and ministry at Kamishihoro, work which
remains and continues to this day,” read a condolence letter from
the churches of the Japan Mennonite Christian Church Conference
in Hokkaido.

In 1974, when they reached retirement age, the sisters returned
to the United States, eventually settling in Orrville, Ohio.  Far
from slowing down, they volunteered their time to grade papers
written by prisoners, knit dolls for fund-raisers, and
participate actively in the church.  Duerksen said that Ruth also
took time to care for individuals.  To give Duerksen some time to
rest from her pastoral duties, the sisters would bring her a meal
each week, she said.

“God’s word, through Ruth, did not come back empty,” Duerksen
said.  “Surely God is pleased to welcome those who have served
faithfully … and God has welcomed Ruth home.”

Ruth is survived by her sister, Rhoda.

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Bethany Swope          PHOTO AVAILABLE