Ruth Margaret Mellis was born April 19, 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri to
Charles J. and Selina M. (Vollmer) Mellis. She attended Ritenour High
School (Overland, MO) and graduated in 1931 with a B.S. in Elementary
Education. She was a member of the Philalethean Literary Society, and
volunteered with the Y.M.C.A. In 1945 she left the city school system
and volunteered to teach missionaries' children in Africa as a
non-professional at the Empress School in Ethiopia. During this 3 year
short-term she assisted in the formation of the Wheaton Alumni
Association of Ethiopia where many grads worked in that country. In
August 1954 she sailed to Greece to be a teacher where she served
alongsideh Worldwide Prayer and Missionary Union as an independent
missionary ministering to grown ex-orphans around Athens. In a 1967
prayer letter she began to direct funds to ELWA Greek programs with
Sudan Interior Mission. The ELWA Ministries Association traces its roots
back to 1952 when SIM (then known as the Sudan Interior Mission) joined
with the West Africa Broadcasting Association that was attempting to
start the first Christian radio station in Africa. Radio ELWA (Eternal
Love Winning Africa), located in the Paynesville area east of central
Monrovia, started to broadcast in January 1954. By 1973 she had moved to
Puebla, Mexico with the Central Ameican Mission as a church planter
among internationals. In 1977 she "retired" after 33 years of foreign
service to St. Louis. For many years afterward she made many short-term
trips to Mexico and Greece. She died on January 15, 2007 in Saint Ann,
MO, three months prior to her 100th birthday. (additional BGC Archives link) |
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