Case Study: Ruth
A few years ago four teenage girls were brought to us to ask if we would sponsor a tailoring course for them. They were so sullen and disinterested we sent them away telling them we were not going to sponsor them with their ungrateful attitude. A few hours later they crept back looking very shame-faced, asking our forgiveness and pleading with us to reconsider. They promised to work hard. Ruth was the leader and spokesperson for the group. They didn’t all make it through to the end of the course but Ruth did and we bought her a sewing machine when she completed her training. We had heard that Ruth was working for a tailor some distance from New Hope but apart from that we knew little about her.
We were absolutely thrilled when a beautiful, smiling young woman who we hardly recognised came to visit us at New Hope a few years later. Ruth told us she had just started her own curtain making business in Nakuru, one of the larger towns in Kenya. She has a steady boyfriend who she hopes to marry when they have saved enough money.
She came to express her gratitude for what Abigail Ministries has done to help her be who she is to-day and to say how thankful she will always be to New Hope who took her in when she was brought there as a destitute little girl by her brother and sister who could not afford to look after her after their parents died.
Ruth’s story is just one of many that gives us joy and encourages us to carry on.
