Regier, Rosella Ruth Wiens (1933-2022)

Harvey County Now obituary: 2002 Jun 9 p. B7

Birth date: 2 Dec 1933

Text of obituary:

Rosella Ruth Wiens Regier

Rosella Ruth Wiens Regier, 88, passed away peacefully on May 31, 2022. She was born Dec. 2, 1933, the 12th of 13 children of Henry W. and Anna Enns Wiens.

Her first years were spent on the family 80- acre farm southeast of Inman. The Depression had taken its toll. But, Rosella grew up in a family where the mantra seemed to go something like this: “Times are hard. Winter is coming. Economize. Scrimp. Save. Work hard. Help each other. And have fun doing it all!”

Rosella graduated from high school at Cen tral Kansas Bible Acad emy in Hutchinson. From an early age, she wanted to be a teacher. She took on her first teaching job at the rural Turkey Creek School near Inman in 1956. After graduating from Bethel College in North Newton in 1958, her public school teaching took her to classrooms in Indiana and Mississippi, as well as Newton and Walton in Kansas.

In 1957, Rosella married Harold Regier. To gether, they spent the ‘60s in Gulfport, Miss., in a mission-service as signment working in an African-American set ting. There, she was in volved with a variety of ministries, including the role of Summer Bible School superintendent, supervising volunteers who taught as many as 1,000 students in sum mer sessions. Other in volvements included teaching youth in winter Bible classes, helping create a community li brary, facilitating a “Fresh Air” program, teaching Head Start and finally teaching public school during the first year of school integra tion in Mississippi when racial tensions were running high.

While in Mississippi, Rosella became the mother of two children, Steven Douglas in 1965 and Sharon Janelle in 1967. Returning to New ton in 1970, Rosella con centrated on family life, soon balancing this with returning to the class room. In the Newton system, she taught at Northridge, Suncrest and Walton.

Rosella’s love for teaching and of children led her from the public school classroom to the Christian nurture of children in the church setting. In 1984, she was invited to become the di rector of Children’s Min istry for the General Conference Mennonite Church. In this role. Rosella led teacher workshops and provided congregational resources for children’s Christian education across the United States and Canada.

In 1990, the Anabap tist Curriculum Publish ing Council invited Rosella to be the execu tive director of a new children’s curriculum for sx Anabaptist denomi nations. The project, de veloping and publishing the new curriculum, “Ju bilee: God’s Good News,” was a two year rotation of Biblical stud ies designed for four lev els: early childhood, primary, middlers and Junior youth. The cur riculum was used 1994- 2006, a long life for Sun day School curricula.

Retiring in 1999, Rosella continued her Christian education ca reer as a presenter and workshop leader for the national body of the Church of the Brethren, based in Elgin, Ill. For three more years, she traveled to congrega tions and districts across the United States with sermons, workshops and seminars on the general theme of the care and Christian nurture of children.

In retirement, Rosella stayed very active in a local church and commu nity leadership. Church leadership included such roles as church modera tor, chair of the 50th an niversary celebrations planning committee for Faith Mennonite Church, president of mission circle and mem ber of church council. At the district level, she served as a member of the Western District Conference “Vision 2012” steering commit tee and prayer partner coordinator. For more than 10 years, she served as a facilitator of a sexual abuse women’s support group. In 2009, she was selected as one of three Newton women honored as “Woman of the Year.”

A significant role dur ing retirement years has also been that of a grandmother. Rosella nurtured a relationship with grandchildren that was reminiscent of her life’s career of nurturing children in both public school and church set tings. Her grandchil dren in her retirement years were her pride and joy.

In 2009, Rosella suf fered a devastating stroke that left her with acute aphasia. Robbed of words to communicate her thoughts, she painted some 250 pic tures to tell her stories. Then, with stories cast into an “aphasia-friendly reading” format, she was able to articulate a few words to participate in a co-reader technique that enabled her to tell some of her own stories. This gave her much satisfac tion, making it possible for a pre-stroke storyteller to be a post-stroke storyteller.

Rosella was preceded in death by her parents, H.W. and Anna Enns Wiens, and her siblings Nick, Leonard, Simon, Adolph, Eva (Ruben Wedel), Mary (Bill Goossen), Esther (Walt Juhnke), Anna Grace Wiens and four siblings who died in infancy.

Survivors include her husband, Harold, son Steve (Marilyn), daugh ter Sharon and grand children Madeline Regier, Drake Regier and Claire Schultz.

Memorial service was at 4 p.m., Saturday, June 4, at Faith Men nonite Church in New ton. Private family interment will take place at a later date.

Memorials can be made to “Spring Forth,” a Sunday School cur riculum, or Kidron Bethel Village. Contri butions can be mailed to Faith Mennonite Church, 2100 N. Ander son Ave., Newton, Kan., 67114. Petersen Family Funeral Home in New ton is in charge of arrangements.