About Us

07/20/07

We live and work at the Wycliffe JAARS center, located 5 miles from Waxhaw NC. Waxhaw is located 20 miles south of Charlotte NC

Ronald George Durie

Ron was born and raised on "Whispering Pine" dairy farm in Lafayette NJ. At 15 he left the farm with his family and traveled to Chicago. Ron's Dad went to Moody Bible Institute and Ron finished High School in Chicago.

Ron Attended LeTourneau College and majored in Aviation. He married Ruth and settled in Elgin IL. He worked for B&M Aircraft Corp as an Avionics Technologist.

In the summer of 1966 Ron & Ruth and son Dale attended Summer Institute of Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma.

Lee Anne was born and we moved to St Paul MN. Ron attended night school at North Western Electronics Institute in Minneapolis and worked full time for Northern Airmotive at the International Airport.

In 1971 we were accepted into Wycliffe Bible Translators and traveled to our first assignment in LimonCocha Ecuador. In 1976 we returned to Waxhaw NC to set up an Avionics Shop at JAARS.

After 20 years in the Avionics field Ron retrained and started to work in the Computer department at JAARS INC.

Today Ron works in the IT Sales Support area and receives 50 new email orders a day from Wycliffe people all over the world. Ron does the necessary research on each order to find the products on the Internet, enter the products into the JAARS inventory system, and send the orders on to our buyers. Ron also helps our missionaries decide what they should and should not buy.

Ruth Elizabeth Hollenbeck Durie

Ruth was born in Lakeview, Michigan, second born in the family after her sister Lois. Her father was a music teacher and her mother a homemaker. The family moved to Grand Rapids where her father continued his teaching at a nearby high school. The family increased to welcome a little brother.

Ruth’s parents heard the call from God to go to Kenya where there was a school for missionaries’ children and they were looking for someone to start a music program. In 1952 at the age of 11, Ruth and family left the States to go to Kenya. The 5 years there were filled with excitement and adventure and many good lessons in life. From the Mau Mau terrorist uprising, to climbing volcanoes, hunting wild game on the plains, traveling all over Kenya to visit mission stations and even going to Tanganyika, Uganda and Congo, memories fill her mind. The biggest life changing event occurred when a visiting evangelist came to Rift Valley Academy with a message of the love of God and eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ruth received the gift of salvation at the age of 14 and was baptized in a cow trough. During those years Ruth’s little sister Debbie was born. Ruth completed high school in Michigan at the same school her dad had taught in. From there she went to Moody Bible Institute. During her first summer she and Ron met at a church camp where they were both counselors. They did a lot of one on one counseling during that time and missed a lot of sleep! Before they met, each had already determined the Lord had called them to serve Him in missions. After graduation from Moody, Ron and Ruth were married in Chicago. Within a few months they contacted Wycliffe Bible Translators and began the application process where Ron would be able to use his technical skills in aviation. After their second child was born the paper work was completed and they were involved in training with Wycliffe. Dale and Lee Anne brought great joy and challenge to the family and we spent wonderful years of their young lives in Ecuador. Ruth’s assignments in Wycliffe have been varied. In Ecuador she worked preparing housing in the guest lodges and fed hundreds of people over the years. For two years she worked in the Bilingual Education Dept. where she helped keep school records and pay teacher salaries and send out materials to schools across the jungle in 6 different language areas. In Waxhaw she has helped prepare materials for those going on speaking engagements; helped Ron order equipment and materials in the avionics shop; worked as nurse on staff at the JAARS Clinic as well as administrator for a number of years. For over two years she cared for a bedridden elderly Wycliffe member and part of that time for the husband as well until their deaths. Although she doesn’t hold a working position, her time is well spent in prayer and support of Wycliffe. She is active in their church’s music program and prayer ministry. For many years she has been teaching a Bible class in the community. Over the past eight years she and Ron have been closely involved in the Suba Bible translation project in Kenya. Through mission trips organized at their church, they have had the opportunity of serving on four short term teams on Mfangano Island. Ruth’s main involvement has been in the medical area, traveling with doctors and seeing thousands of patients during those trips. She also had the privilege of teaching in a discipleship program during two of those trips. Branching off from the translation program a school for orphaned children began in 2003. Ruth serves on the Board for Gethsemane Garden Christian Centre, helping raise support for the children and staff and communicating with those in Kenya on a regular basis.

This site was last updated 06/02/07