Happy Monday everyone! We hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. We are back today with another part in our What’s Your Story? series, this time with a story about Maurine Frost and one of her students Ruby Hill.
Maurine Frost served as director of the Baptist Literacy Missions Center at Baylor for more than ten years. In that capacity she was a Missions Service Corps volunteer. There she corresponded with literacy missions volunteers with questions. She sent materials to volunteers and promoted training for volunteers. She also helped with maintenance workers needing literacy help. Maurine began her volunteer service after retiring as a public school teacher.
She lives in Austin and is the mother of five children and grandmother of eight and has six great grandchildren. Maurine enjoys leading a Bible study in her apartment complex. Her dog Sugar keeps her busy and she enjoys reading and bridge.
While at the Literacy Missions Center Maurine enjoyed hearing the stories of church ministry volunteers. Some shared emergency stories such as calling 911 when a child swallowed a penny. She enjoys keeping up with friends made then through Facebook.
In her third year at the Literacy Missions Center, Maurine met Ruby. Ruby had been taking ESL classes at a local community college and was not happy there. She wanted to study English while becoming more familiar with her Bible. Maurine and Ruby used English Lessons from the Book of Mark. They spent about four years together. Maurine reflects that Ruby was very appreciative of the lessons. She gave Marine gifts and was also very generous with her time. Ruby was from Taiwan and already knew Mandarin as well as Taiwanese. She had some knowledge of Cantonese.
Maureen and Ruby discussed the Bible and application to life. Ruby came to class one day so excited with new understanding of not being vengeful. She quit working at a restaurant after her boss took her tips and was mean. He was in a court case and asked her to be a translator. She was so delighted that she was able to apply what she had learned. One thing she wanted to see was the Jesus video. She called the next day with news that she had prayed the prayer on the video. Ruby described how she had been placed in an orphanage as a child but did not want to be baptized out of fear. So watching the video helped her understand. She and her husband went a different church. She was baptized in 1996 at Maurine’s church. They continued as friends for many years before she and her husband moved to San Antonio. This is a picture of Ruby and her husband planting a garden while they lived in Waco.
Ruby and Maurine visited in each other’s home during the holidays. Maurine helped Ruby prepare for the citizenship test and drove to San Antonio when Ruby became a citizen.
We absolutely love hearing stories about your memorable experiences with students, the things you’ve learned, and the impact you’ve made. If you would like to share your story with us and other educators, please email info@literacyconnexus.org. We would love to hear from you! As always, blessings and happy teaching.