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Ruth Adams Spear, age 93, passed into eternal life on September 20th, 2021, at Forest Creek Memory Care in Overland Park, Kansas. She was the fifth child of Richard and Belle Adams, born on April 2, 1928, at the Cache Creek Mission in Apache, Oklahoma. Her playmates were Native Americans, with whom she worshipped each week under her father’s preaching. In 1942, her father was called to pastor the RP Church in Beulah, Nebraska, where she graduated from high school. She earned a B.S. degree in mathematics at Sterling College, graduating as salutatorian in 1950. That’s also where she met Gene Spear, to whom she was married, in a gown of white Chinese embroidery, on August 16, 1951. Gene went on to seminary, and Ruth helped provide their room and board by assisting overnight in a school for the deaf and, after the birth of their first child, as a live-in cook.
Her parents had been missionaries in China as well as in Oklahoma, and her heart’s desire from childhood had been to take the good news about Jesus to other lands. This desire was fulfilled in 1955 when she and Gene sailed with their two children Carol and Bruce to Kobe, Japan, to serve under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. She learned to speak Japanese fluently and was mistaken sometimes on the telephone for a Japanese person. She and Gene were blessed with three more children, Mary Jane, Joyce and Bonnie. She nurtured them all, while hosting Bible classes and church in her home, providing countless guests and friends with meals, refreshments and gifts of homemade cookies. She taught Sabbath School and Vacation Bible School, found crafts for the Women’s Group, and was a valuable member of the Psalm Committee, searching far and wide for tunes to add to the Japanese Psalter. She devoted herself to helping Gene serve Christ, and every summer, setting aside her own comforts, she spent a month in a fishing village, without a refrigerator or washer and dryer, so the family could enjoy swimming and fishing.
Gene and Ruth retired from mission work in 2001, returning to Topeka, Kansas, and then moving to Olathe in 2005. Until Alzheimer’s Disease restricted her, she prayed for her many grandchildren by name every day, and for numerous Japanese friends.
She and Gene received the Distinguished Servant Award from Sterling College in 2005.
She was preceded in death by her husband Gene Wilfred Spear and her parents Richard Cameron and Belle Edgar Adams, her brothers Roy M. and Bruce E. Adams, her sisters Lois N. Graham and Marion E. McMillan, and by three grandchildren, Andrea Ward, Jonathan Weir, and Peter Spear. She is survived by her five children, Carol J. Wright (Christopher), Bruce A. Spear (Susan), Mary Jane Ward (Harry), Joyce A. Schofield (Charles), Bonnie E. Weir (David), fifteen grandchildren, and thirty great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at the Shawnee Reformed Presbyterian Church, at 5 pm on Wednesday, September 29th. The funeral service will be livestreamed on the church’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV2OszqbZDlOsfVNaQc2fPQ/featured). Immediately following the service will be a Zoom meeting for sharing of memories (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89686771227?pwd=RzA4Y0sxMkRzRUYyYzRtcjU4ZzQ2UT09).
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making donations in memory of Ruth to the Japan Presbytery of the RPCNA (checks payable to Shawnee Reformed Presbyterian Church or go to www.shawneerpc.org/give/--select General Fund and in the memo type “Ruth Spear Memorial”).
Funeral Ceremony
Start Date: September 29, 2021, 5:00 pm
End Date: September 29, 2021, 12:00 am
Shawnee Reformed Presbyterian Church
6835 Pflumm Rd
Shawnee, KS 66216
Final Resting Place
Lynne Creek Cemetery
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Ruth Adams Spear, age 93, passed into eternal life on September 20th, 2021, at Forest Creek Memory Care in Overland Park, Kansas. She was the fifth child of Richard and Belle Adams, born on April 2, 1928, at the Cache Creek Mission in Apache, Oklahoma. Her playmates were Native Americans, with whom she worshipped each week under her father’s preaching. In 1942, her father was called to pastor the RP Church in Beulah, Nebraska, where she graduated from high school. She earned a B.S. degree in mathematics at Sterling College, graduating as salutatorian in 1950. That’s also where she met Gene Spear, to whom she was married, in a gown of white Chinese embroidery, on August 16, 1951. Gene went on to seminary, and Ruth helped provide their room and board by assisting overnight in a school for the deaf and, after the birth of their first child, as a live-in cook.
Her parents had been missionaries in China as well as in Oklahoma, and her heart’s desire from childhood had been to take the good news about Jesus to other lands. This desire was fulfilled in 1955 when she and Gene sailed with their two children Carol and Bruce to Kobe, Japan, to serve under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. She learned to speak Japanese fluently and was mistaken sometimes on the telephone for a Japanese person. She and Gene were blessed with three more children, Mary Jane, Joyce and Bonnie. She nurtured them all, while hosting Bible classes and church in her home, providing countless guests and friends with meals, refreshments and gifts of homemade cookies. She taught Sabbath School and Vacation Bible School, found crafts for the Women’s Group, and was a valuable member of the Psalm Committee, searching far and wide for tunes to add to the Japanese Psalter. She devoted herself to helping Gene serve Christ, and every summer, setting aside her own comforts, she spent a month in a fishing village, without a refrigerator or washer and dryer, so the family could enjoy swimming and fishing.
Gene and Ruth retired from mission work in 2001, returning to Topeka, Kansas, and then moving to Olathe in 2005. Until Alzheimer’s Disease restricted her, she prayed for her many grandchildren by name every day, and for numerous Japanese friends.
She and Gene received the Distinguished Servant Award from Sterling College in 2005.
She was preceded in death by her husband Gene Wilfred Spear and her parents Richard Cameron and Belle Edgar Adams, her brothers Roy M. and Bruce E. Adams, her sisters Lois N. Graham and Marion E. McMillan, and by three grandchildren, Andrea Ward, Jonathan Weir, and Peter Spear. She is survived by her five children, Carol J. Wright (Christopher), Bruce A. Spear (Susan), Mary Jane Ward (Harry), Joyce A. Schofield (Charles), Bonnie E. Weir (David), fifteen grandchildren, and thirty great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at the Shawnee Reformed Presbyterian Church, at 5 pm on Wednesday, September 29th. The funeral service will be livestreamed on the church’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV2OszqbZDlOsfVNaQc2fPQ/featured). Immediately following the service will be a Zoom meeting for sharing of memories (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89686771227?pwd=RzA4Y0sxMkRzRUYyYzRtcjU4ZzQ2UT09).
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making donations in memory of Ruth to the Japan Presbytery of the RPCNA (checks payable to Shawnee Reformed Presbyterian Church or go to www.shawneerpc.org/give/--select General Fund and in the memo type “Ruth Spear Memorial”).
Events
Funeral Ceremony
Start Date: September 29, 2021, 5:00 pm
End Date: September 29, 2021, 12:00 am
Shawnee Reformed Presbyterian Church
6835 Pflumm Rd
Shawnee, KS 66216
Final Resting Place
Lynne Creek Cemetery
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Guestbook
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