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CLOSEup
Meet our
missionary ...
Ruth Armstrong
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If you think vacations should never be considered too important, then
maybe you need this "close-up" meeting with Ruth Armstrong. As a
child, Ruth and her family used to holiday near The Pas, Manitoba. Those
summer vacations turned out to be significant experiences in giving
direction for her life.
Ruth grew up in Swan River, Manitoba, the second of four children, in
a Christian home where Biblical values and standards were lived out. "And
we went to church every time the doors were open," she adds without
complaint. "I was taught the Holy Scriptures from infancy, which made
me 'wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.'"
At about six years of age Ruth accepted Christ as her personal
Saviour. Unable to sleep one night after a Sunday evening church
service, Ruth was thinking about heaven and hell, the topic of that
evening's message ("not fearful ... just thinking," she notes).
She came to the conclusion that she must ask Jesus into her heart, which
she did alone in bed. "To this day I can remember the peace that came
over me ... and I went right off to sleep."
It was those summer vacations at The Pas -- where Ruth's family
attended Sunday services at the Big Eddy (Reserve) Chapel and visited
the home of NCEM missionaries, Cliff and Ingeborg McComb -- that
provided early exposure to missions.
But there was more. Visiting missionaries often stayed in the
Armstrong home. And Ruth remembers listening to NCEM missionaries
singing and preaching on the Cree Gospel Radio Broadcast -- and wishing
to grow up and be like them, speaking Cree. Also, Ruth's folks had
been foster-parents to many Native children over the years.
Following high school, Ruth wanted to be a summer missionary with
NCEM -- but a minimum of one year post-secondary education was
required. And that's what initially motived her to attend Bible
school. Then, about a year after graduating from Peace River Bible
Institute, she filled out application papers for full-time service. "I
was listening to a song about 'harvest time,' and 'empty fields' " remembers Ruth, "and I decided to get on with it. There wasn't
any real consideration of a mission other than NCEM, because Native
people were in my heart."
That was 20 years ago. Ruth wanted to serve among the Cree, but at
the time that she joined NCEM there was a particular opportunity among
the Inuit of northern Quebec. (Ruth would also later serve for awhile
with the Tribal Trails television ministry in Prince Albert.) "The
Inuit were a people I had not considered before," says Ruth, "but I
was willing to go 'wherever.' And not long after, God filled my
heart with love for them."
Click here to meet more
of our missionaries
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