I don’t remember when I first noticed Ruthie, but am pretty sure it was in our new building in the foyer.  She greeted me every service with, “Good morning, Denise!”  Then she would ask me how I was and I would always say “Goooood!”   Then I would ask her how she was and her response was always the same, no matter what condition her condition was in, “I’m blessed.”  Sincerely, and you knew she was telling the truth.  She is a genuine person that knew that her circumstance was not eternal, that Jesus is.  So knowing Jesus she knew, that He had blessed her beyond measure and she demonstrated it every single time I saw her, even in the last 2 weeks of her precious life on earth!

When the Lord blessed me enough to form a team of people to pray for His new believers, one of the first people that I thought of was Ruthie.  The reason why is because of her demonstrated love for Jesus’ people, her care & concern for His children and her desire to serve Him in all things that He set before her.  What a heart of an amazing servant!  She helped in teaching the first lessons to the new believers as well and I know that the ones that had her were very blessed by her love for our Lord and her love for them.  I am sure all that had the opportunity to be prayed for by Ruthie can attest to the true love that poured from her.  

On this very special week we celebrate the death & resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, isn’t it fitting to celebrate our dear Ruthie during Holy week?  I love you Ruthie and will see you later, girlfriend!

I dont remember when I meet Ruthie but she was always so loving and cherful person. I loved her hugs and her telling me she loved me. She cared for us all and I will miss her dearly. I'M so greatful to our Lord Jesus Christ that he put her in my life and I was apart of hers. You will be so dearly missed my sister.

When I think of Ruthie, pure love is what immediately comes to mind. When I saw her at church every week, she would give me a giant hug, then look me straight in the eyes and would say " I love you sister  " and I know she meant it with all her heart.

Mine and Mark's relationship with Ruthie started shortly after we started attending Northrock church together. There was something in the bulletin about a class for new Christians. We decided to go, the bulletin wasn't clear on the length of the class, we thought it was one night. Little did we know about the 8 month journey ahead of us that this class led by Ruthie and Connie House would take us on.
 
The class was called "First Things First" and we were mentored on the 8 facets of Christian growth. Faith, Moral Excellence, Knowledge, Self-Control, Patience, Godliness, Kindness and most of all Love.

These women poured their love over us no matter what, there were many weeks when Mark and I were not acting lovable, we were having a lot of relationship problems at the time and some weeks we showed up when we were not even speaking to each other.

We saw true unconditional love through these ladies at all times, they were there for some of our darkest times and held our hands without judgement as we worked through many obstacles.

Ruthie taught us of Christ's love for us, and what a shining example of that was she. You could just look at her twinkling eyes and see Jesus's love shining right through her.
Words can't describe the loss in my heart right now, but I take comfort that you are hugging our "Daddy" now, and that when it is my time to come join you, you will be waiting to greet me with open arms <3