Ruby W. Enns May 23, 1926 – January 21, 2019 Share this obituary Send Sympathy Gifts Sign Guestbook| Send Private Condolences| Send Sympathy Card| Memorial Donation MEADE – Ruby W. Enns, age 92, passed away Monday morning, January 21, 2019, at the Lone Tree Retirement Center, Meade, Kansas. She was born on May 23, 1926. She was the daughter of Abraham J. and Margaretha Wiens Enns.
Ruby’s mother died when Ruby was two years old and to give some assistance to her father in caring for six children, now motherless, she and her sister Caroline were taken to live with Abe A. and Helen Warkentin Zielke. Caroline, after a period of time, returned to her father’s home but Ruby stayed with the Zielkes and became a foster child in their home. She was raised by the Zielkes, all the while maintaining a close relationship with her birth family.
Ruby attended two different grade schools, both just two miles from her home. She first attended McNulity grade school and than Sunrise school, where her birth siblings attended. She received her secondary school education, first at the Meade Bible School where she attended for two winters and then one year at Meade High School.
She then transferred to Tabor Academy in Hillsboro, Kansas and received her high school diploma after two years of study there. Upon finishing high school she enrolled at Grace Bible Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, graduating with a degree in Missions and Christian Education in 1949. During the summer months she spent time at various mission fields here in the states.
This included one summer teaching DVBS in the Ozarks in Oklahoma, two summers in Jaackson, Mississippi teaching DVB S, and one summer in Iron Mountain, Michigan, also teaching DVBS. Later that same summer she spent several weeks on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona, assisting the mission workers there. During these years at Grace she applied to go to India with a faith mission called The India Mission.
She was accepted by the mission but decided to get her degree in Education before she went. She enrolled at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, earning a Bachelor of Science in education in 1952. She returned to Meade to prepare to go to India and set sail on the SS United States on January 31, 1953.
After language study and orientation she began her work in South India. She worked in evangelism, assisted in medial work, and spent time in other parts of India as a teacher. Possibly her most significant contribution to the Indian church was her work in Christian Education.
She organized workshops to train Sunday school teachers and DVBS teachers. She was responsible for the purchase of a building that served as a headquarters for the distribution of Christian education materials. She retired and returned to the States in 1991 but was asked to come back to India to write and compile an instruction book for use by Christian Education departments in the local churches.
She returned to India in 1992 and wrote a book called “A Teacher’s Challenge”and is presumably still being used today. In 1993 she went back again to spend six months to prepare a Christian Education course for publication, something the churches there had not had before. Not only was Ruby an effective evangelist, teacher and mentor to the Indian church, but she was also a world traveler.
When her furlough time came she usually did not fly directly to the United States, but would arrange an itinerary that would take her to other countries, often to visit other missionaries. In her booklet, “My Life In India,” she provides interesting detail about her travels. When she came home on furlough it was always interesting and exciting to hear her tell about the places she had been, the sights she had seen, and the people she had visited.
The Meade Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church was faithful throughout her 41 years of service in its faithful support of her work. This support has continued into her retirement years and as a family we say “Thank You”. After her retirement she settled in Meade and was a faithful member of the church.
Graveside services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, January 24, 2019, at the Countryside Bible Church Cemetery, rural Meade. Memorial services will be held at the Countryside Bible Church at a later date. Fidler-Orme-Bachman Mortuary, Meade, is in charge of arrangements.
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