Beyond the Margins
An attorney by profession, Ellen Loth Foell is good at taking notes. Now, the notes she has made in her Bible during years of study have become a book.
The former Cantonian is author of ‘’Notes in the Margin," in which she relates life experiences to scripture.
"It's intended to be a kind of earthy and real-life look at how faith and life intersect," she said. "Specifically the way the Scripture intersects with life. It started out as a series of essays I was writing for a blog that no longer exists. Because I feel sometimes in our culture, the reality and the significant impact of scripture ... is overlooked because we don't understand what scripture says."
Loth Foell said the book is an answer to a prayer.
"I've been wanting to write a book for so many years," she said. "In a fit of frustration, I said 'God, if you want me to write a book, I will write a book. If you want me to do something, I'll do something else. but just please let me know because I'm tired of thinking about it.' That's a dangerous, prayer, right?"
Meanwhile, Loth Foell had been reading through the Bible over a year. It's something she's done for the past 50 years.
"The first reading that day was was in Jeremiah 30:1-2. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words I have spoken to you.' I thought, 'Well, I guess I can't get out of it," she said with a laugh.
A graduate of Case Western Reserve University and its law school, Loth Foell was born in Holland to parents who were World War II refugees from Indonesia. The family came to the United States when she was 3.
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Both of her grandfathers were prisoners of war under the Japanese, including one who was forced to helped to build the famed bridge over the River Kwai.
"My grandmothers and her children were in camps," she said. "When the war ended, Indonesia declared their independence. My family was forced to leave because they were not pure Indonesian."
After her family emigrated in to the United States, they lived in Boston and Cleveland, where she grew up.
"My parents never spoke about their experience out of bitterness, almost as if there was no time to be bitter," she said. "They had to move on with life. My mom was married at 19, and she had kids right away. There wasn't any time to process it the way we encourage people to do today. I'm not downplaying it; it was just the reality at that time."
Loth Foell said the lessons she learned from her parents' experience was more practical than spiritual.
"I think what my parents taught me out of their experience was more perseverance, resilience, " she said. "Character qualities, more than faith."
Loth Foell said she became a Christian when she was about 17.
"That's when I really began to understand that it's possible to have a relationship with Jesus," she said.
After college and law school, Loth Foell became a clerk in Canton for now-retired Judge John Milligan, who served on the Fifth District Court of Appeals. She went on to become the first female attorney at Vogelgesang, Howes, Lindamood & Brunn in Canton.
Called to the mission field
Loth Foell has practiced law on and off since 1982, taking out time to raise a family. The time off from law also spurred her love for missions. In 1986, she took a leave of absence from the firm to embark on a two-year mission to teach English at Prince Royal College, a Christian mission school in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
She was sent by Christ Presbyterian Church in Canton, where Milligan was an elder.
"They were terrific," she said of the law firm and Milligan. "They blessed me to go, with joy."
Loth Foell and her husband, the Rev. Philip Foell, whom she met after returning from Thailand, moved to Columbus in 2004, when he was called to pastor a Christian Community church.
Serving international students
In 2010, Loth Foell put her experience as the daughter of immigrants to good use when her husband accepted a position as city director for Friendship International, a ministry that has a chapter on the Ohio State University campus.
Founded in 1975, Friendship International is a Christian outreach that serves foreign students on many of the nation's college campuses.
"The goal of Friendship International is to make the world feel at home," Loth Foell said, adding that the mission is in keeping with God's instruction to welcome the stranger, and refugees.
"One hundred and fifty years ago, the missions' movement was pretty focused on sending people to the outmost parts of the world, but now the universities have become a drawing card for international students," she said. "Ohio State's campus has 66,000 students, but about 10% are students from about 119 different countries.
"As my husband likes to put it, the world is coming to our shores and our doors."
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Loth Foell noted that some of the students they serve come from "frankly, places you couldn't go as a Christian," so they have little if any exposure to the faith, and are genuinely curious about it.
One of best one of the best way to minister to international students, she said, is to simply make them feel welcome.
"We can choose to receive them," she said. "From the American side, we are friendly people but not always the most hospitable. We have met students who have been in the U.S. for four or five years, who have never set foot in an American home."
Loth Foell said the ministry's goal is to make foreign students feel at home through such acts as picking up someone from the airport, providing temporary lodging, hosting meals and sharing holiday traditions.
"It's just an easy way, and, honestly, so many international students long for an opportunity to learn more about not just culture, but Christianity," she said. "It's so simple. We have had the chance to share the gospel over teaching how to make a pumpkin pie. I have learned how to make their dishes. There's nothing like communicating the gospel over a meal."
Noting that it's exam time at Ohio State, Loth Foell said the ministry is preparing "goodie" bags for students.
"Anything that a parent may send a student who's away from home," she said. "In this case, it's not parents, it's more than 60 churches who partner with International Friends. It's really beautiful."
Loth Foell said she and her husband enjoy their work with Friend International.
"We believe the scripture, 'For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea,'" she said. "Both of us are engaged in international ministry and we love it."
Loth Foell said she holds fond memories of Canton.
"I loved being in Canton," she said. "I have extremely fond memories of people I met living here. It's such a great community. I'm so grateful for the law firm for which I worked, for Judge and Mrs. Milligan, and for the Young Life family which was there. They were really formative in my growing years as a believer. "
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Former Canton attorney shares thoughts on Bible, her love of missions
