05 Aug A Few Words about Ruth Benner
Steve Dennie, Director of Communications
My heroes have always been missionaries. I grew up in United Brethren churches where United Brethren missions was emphasized, and names of missionaries from the 1960s and 1970s are firmly implanted in my memory. Working at our national headquarters, I’ve crossed paths with nearly every United Brethren missionary during the past 35 years, and have interviewed and written about a number of them.
One of the names from my childhood was Ruth Benner, a single missionary who served in Sierra Leone 1965-1972. Ruth passed away last week. Her funeral is tomorrow, August 6, in Port Colborne, Ontario.
Ruth, a Canadian, served a number of years in leadership with the denominational Women’s Missionary Fellowship and on the Global Ministries leadership team. In those capacities, she came through Huntington, Ind., (where I work) many times. I didn’t know her well, but I was around her quite a bit.
Ruth is one of those persons who always seemed to be in a cheerful mood. She had a distinctive voice, and a ready laugh. You enjoyed being around Ruth. Observing her relationships with other persons, especially former missionaries, it seemed she excelled at friendship. I can’t think of a single even slightly negative thing I ever heard about Ruth. She always struck me as a genuinely good person with a pure heart and an enviable sunny disposition. Ruth served just seven years as a missionary, but those years very much formed who she was and what she was passionate about.
Ruth made the world a better place, and she will be missed.
Dave Datema
Posted at 11:17h, 05 AugustI agree wholeheartedly Steve. Ruth was 100% unique and all to the good. She is easily one of my most admired women I’ve ever known. She will truly be missed by all of us who had the chance to know her. She was larger than life, from her 6 foot plus frame to her contagious personality. A GREAT story-teller, even the second and third time hearing it. The UB world has lost a gem.
Julie Burkett
Posted at 07:13h, 08 AugustRuth was a special person in my life also. When I was a young, new missionary in Sierra Leone, Ruth was there as a friend and encourager. We always enjoyed being with her. She just had such as positive outlook on life and as Dave said, had so many great stories to tell. A couple of good memories for me: Ruth asked me if I’d like to go along to Freetown (we lived in Bumpe then) to visit the UB primary schools with her, as she presented lessons in Religious Knowledge and took new materials to the teachers. We were gone for close to a week, I think, and it was such a fun time and I really enjoyed being with Ruth and seeing the schools, the kids and teachers. A few months later, Ruth was needing to write some new material for the schools and had a deadline to get it done, but she was in bed with a bad back and couldn’t sit up, which made writing difficult. She was staying at June Brown’s home, just across the compound from us, so we decided she could dictate and I could write. Our son, Billy, was about 3 months old, so he came along, lying on Ruth’s bed beside her, happy and smiling at her and she always remembered that. Even though we didn’t get to see Ruth much in the years since being in Africa together, it was like you had just seen her and picked up the conversation where you left off the last time — I expect it will be like that when we see her again in heaven!