ELKHART, Ind. (Mennonite Mission Network)—Although Ruth Barbara Bauman lived in Ohio and Indiana for the last three decades of her life (after having served in Israel and three African countries), it would have never been correct to call her a former missionary. Bauman, 88, remained a missionary until a week before her death, March 23, at Greencroft Healthcare in Goshen, Ind.
“Ruth’s passion for Jesus gave her a deep love for people and compelled her to go out into the world,” said Kay Bontrager Singer, one of the pastors at Faith Mennonite Church in Goshen, where Bauman was a member.
According to Bauman’s brother, Harold, when Ruth could no longer make her rounds to read books and devotional materials to residents at Greencroft, she got a motorized scooter and continued to share the good news of Jesus until a few days before she was hospitalized with an infection.
Ruth Bauman was born Nov. 15, 1923, to Ella (Shoup) and Norman Bauman near Gettysburg, Pa., though she grew up in Columbiana County, Ohio. After graduating from Goshen College with an elementary education degree, she taught in the Leetonia (Ohio) schools. In 1968, she received a Master’s degree from Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pa.
In the fall of 1950, Bauman went to Ethiopia as a volunteer under the Mennonite Relief and Service Committee, a ministry of a Mennonite Mission Network predecessor agency, to teach in the Haile Salassie School for Girls. Two years later, she went to Mara Hills School in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), where she taught missionary and other expatriate children.
In 1954, Bauman returned to teach in the Leetonia school system and care for her mother, who was in poor health. After her mother’s death in 1970, Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, the agency with which Bauman had previously served, had no openings for teachers. At the urging of a high school friend, she went to Liberia with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
In 1975, Bauman interrupted her ministry in Liberia to respond to a call by the Mennonites to Nazareth, Israel, to teach missionary children. After two years in Israel, Bauman returned to Liberia where she taught for another six years.
Harold Bauman said that his sister’s faith was deepened by the spirituality of the places she served.
“Ruth was profoundly influenced by the East Africa Revival Movement. Also working with the Lutherans gave her an appreciation for liturgy and broadened her worldview,” Harold Bauman said.
In 1983, Ruth Bauman returned to Ohio, where she lived with and helped to care for an elderly uncle, while serving the Leetonia Mennonite Church as a teacher and an elder. In 1990, Bauman moved to Greencroft.
Bauman is survived by her brother, Harold (Carolyn W. Hertzler) Bauman; five nephews, Lee (Carol) Bauman of Vinton, Ohio, Dale (Christiana) Bauman of Columbus, Ohio, Philip (Connie) Bauman of Goshen, John (Susan Ebersole) Bauman of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., and David Bauman of Lancaster, Pa.; and four nieces, Barbara (Ed) Pfau of Monroe, N.C., Dawna (Jeffery) Hamrick of Bostic, N.C. and Rebecca (Jeanne Keenan) Bauman, South Pasadena, Calif.
She was preceded in death by her parents; an older brother, Norman (Lula) Bauman Jr.; a sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hershberger Bauman; and two grandnephews, Jeffrey Bauman and Woodrow Bauman.
Visitation will be March 30 at The Meetinghouse, Greencroft, from 2-3 p.m. and at Faith Mennonite Church from 6-8 p.m. A memorial service will also be held at Faith Mennonite on March 31 at 3 p.m. Burial of Bauman’s remains will be in Midway Mennonite Cemetery, Columbiana, Ohio, at a later date.
Memorial contributions may be made to Mennonite Mission Network, Faith Mennonite Church, or Greencroft Foundation.
###
For immediate release.
Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
