Ruth Keidel Clemens’ memoir of growing up in Congo and Illinois, A Quest for Purpose: From Congo to Illinois, Cambodia and Beyond (Lucid Books), is timely, warm, relatable and layered with purpose and meaning.

Daughter of an Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission teacher and nurse, Levi and Eudene Keidel, Clemens matures from a conflict-surviving childhood to serving peacebuilding efforts in conflict areas around the world. Her story wrestles through deep inner conflicts, crossing cultures and complex life questions.

Wasp stings nearly kill teenage Ruth Keidel when she’s swarmed at a Congo lake and point to an overarching purpose for her life — as well as to a death threat when she was 4 years old. The preschooler puzzles over why her family is fleeing their beautiful Banga home, the only one she’s ever known, during the Belgian Congo’s 1960 struggle for independence.

The Keidel family returns to Congo, and their new home becomes a shelter during the 1964 Kwilu Rebellion, when several nearby missions are attacked and homes burned down. Toys are collected for the missionary kids who flee in nothing but their pajamas. Eight-year-old Ruth shares her bed with one of her escaped friends yet wishes her house would burn, too.

Her parents’ families also survived great loss, which helped develop their resilience, determination and intentions. Half of her grandma’s family was lost to the 1918 flu pandemic, and her mother’s sister was lost to polio.

Levi himself nearly died as a baby. When he returns from military service as a trained radio engineer — a key need in remote interiors — he asks his mother what she thinks of him becoming a missionary. Though her church attendance had lapsed, she recalled bartering with God at his infant hospital bed: “If you spare his life, you can do with him as you wish.”

Similarly, Ruth’s mom, Eudene, determines at age 9 to become a nurse. A year later, she watches her sister suffocate from polio. Her church hosts visiting missionaries, and Eudene’s vision sharpens into becoming a missionary nurse in Congo.

When EuDene later meets Levi on a blind date, her focus to follow her calling drives the couple’s decision to go to Congo in 1952. They develop schools, medical clinics and a literacy bookmobile, all the while concerned over colonial burdens on the people.

Ruth, a generation removed, mixes humor and wit with her quest message. After college, she returns to Congo to serve first as a dorm parent at the Mennonite hostel (where I boarded with her during our high school years). She then serves with Mennonite Central Committee as an administrative assistant.

She later meets Jonathan Clemens, who’d completed his medical residency, on a church bicycling tour of Maryland’s eastern shore. They marry in 1988 and serve with MCC in Vietnam-war-torn Cambodia. There they adopt Carla, an orphaned Cambodian baby, and begin raising their family of four children in a nation suffering under a U.S.-led embargo.

Special features of the memoir are photos from around the world, including Clemens’ time as International Program director for MCC. She lists how people in her community have found purpose in life, from peacebuilding clubs in Cambodia to nonviolent action in Colombia and supporting asylum seekers at Reservoir Hill House of Peace, which she and her husband helped found with North Baltimore Mennonite Church. The memoir grew out of Clemens’ ongoing efforts to help people find their purpose in life. It includes discussion questions for small groups, such as book clubs and Sunday schools.

Faith Eidse is the author of Deeper Than African Soil: An Honest Recollection of Growing Up as a Missionary “Third Culture Kid.”