Rock Hill resident who spent decades translating the Bible in Mexico turns 100
For decades, Ruth Bishop lived in a house with a dirt floor as a missionary in Mexico. She did not have electricity and didn’t speak the language.
Bishop’s purpose was to share the Word of God with the people who lived in the village.
Bishop turned 100 on Nov. 2. She now lives in the Park Pointe Village retirement community in Rock Hill.
Working with Wycliffe Bible Translators, Bishop and her coworker lived off and on for more than 30 years in Mexico learning the language and translating the Bible for them.
“It takes a lot of years,” Bishop said.
Wycliffe was founded in 1917 with a goal to translate Bibles around the globe for languages that do not have one, according to the organization’s website.
Bishop also worked with JAARS based in Waxhaw, N.C. JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Services) provides transportation, technology, training and other resources to make Bible translation possible even in remote locations, according to the organization’s website.
Bishop was with Wycliffe from August 1950 to March 1998, spending most of that time in Mexico, said Elaine Drake, spokesperson with JAARS.
Bishop still has one of the Bibles she helped write in the language of Totonac. Totonacan languages are spoken by people living in central Mexico.
Bishop and her partner also created a dictionary for the language that includes Spanish, another language common to that area.
“You have to learn the language by just hearing people talk it,” she said.
Bishop still remembers instances tied to words she learned. There was a time she heard a child calling to a friend, giving her the word “come” in their language.
Bishop learned the word for “slip” after she fell one day on the wet clay soil.
A house with a dirt floor, windows and a french door mark Bishop’s memories of the village where she spent decades. She still recalls children visiting and a dog that would sneak in while the door was open. Bishop also remembers walking to get the day’s water.
Living without power wasn’t something new to Bishop, who would often visit her grandmother’s house in New Jersey that did not have electricity.
“I didn’t mind being without electricity,” Bishop said.
It was her years in that powerless, dirt-floor house that Bishop said helps contribute to her longevity. She lived without TV and had to find entertainment in the village and its people.
“I think a lot of it was the years in Mexico,” she said. “Non-processed food.”
Bishop was born Nov. 2, 1919 in Dunellen, N.J.
When Bishop was six months old, her family moved into what would be their forever home.
“We never moved out of that house but we moved all around inside,” she said. “The bedroom became a dining room, the dining room became a living room and the living room became a bedroom.”
Bishop was part of the first graduating class of a new high school in Dunellen in 1937. She attended business school in New York City before taking her first job, according to a short autobiography she wrote for JAARS.
“I’d been fascinated about learning to type,” Bishop said. “When they had shorthand that was even more fun.”
Bishop later enrolled in The King’s College, which was in Delaware at the time.
“War broke out and took our chef plus all of our guys except pre-ministerial ones,” Bishop wrote in the autobiography.
Bishop heard from missionary speakers while in college. Bishop said one of them told her, “The command is go. What is your excuse for staying?”
Seeing none, Bishop began preparing for a role as a missionary and joined Wycliffe. She said a friend approached her about support for her work.
The friend was a member of the missions committee for his church and said they were looking for a missionary to support, Bishop said.
“They are still sending me money and supporting me,” Bishop said.
Following her years with Wycliffe, Bishop lived in Waxhaw before moving to Park Pointe when it opened in 2000.
After retiring from JAARS, Bishop took a trip to Cameroon in Africa. She got to visit Paris while on a long layover.
“I made it to (Cameroon) and enjoyed it so much I went back a second time,” Bishop wrote in the autobiography.
Bishop never married but remains in contact with her late brother’s wife and their adopted children.
Today, Bishop can often be found playing volleyball in Park Pointe’s pool.
“I go to the gym if the pool is closed, but the gym is work and the pool is fun,” she said. “I enjoy that, and I think that’s what keeps me going.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 12:00 PM.
