It was good to welcome back Dr Ruth Butlin from The Leprosy Mission. Ruth told her story of how she came to be involved with the organisation.

Ruth admitted that she was a somewhat idealistic teenager and had been looking for ways in which she could change the world for the better!

When she was at school, she knew she was interested in mission work and working with persons with disabilities. Those inclinations found their focus when Ruth attended a conference with her youth group. The speaker was from The Leprosy Mission and Ruth was so moved and inspired by the message and work that she left thinking, ‘this is what I have to do’. After the talk she wrote to The Leprosy Mission to say that she wanted to work for them but their response was that she needed to finish school and get her medical qualifications first!

There happened to be a leprosy research unit attached to the university and Ruth had the opportunity to visit leprosy infected people in hospital in Oxford which was a great experience and helped to reinforce her desire and confirmed the call to serve with the organisation.

Once Ruth had her qualifications, passed the interview stage panelled by Eddie Askew, and had undergone further cross-cultural training with TLM, and had come to terms with the many doubts about leaving this country and all that entails to work abroad, Ruth set out for Maharashtra, India in 1982. She felt that it was very much God’s plan and God’s call for her life. Whilst she was there she worked as the Medical Officer for the Miraj hospital. Her time was split between treating patients and training medical staff at the hospital’s large training centre. It was whilst working at Miraj that Ruth also had her very first taste of clinical research, something that she continues to engage with today.

In 1990, Ruth moved to TLM’s Anandaban Hospital in Nepal. She served as the Medical Superintendent at Anandaban throughout the 1990s, where she was in charge of the medical work at the hospital. As well as treating patients, she was responsible for planning medical programmes, hiring and training staff, some clinical research, and supporting Nepal’s National Leprosy Control Programme, particularly through training.

After working at Anandaban Hospital, Ruth took over as Medical Superintendent of Purulia for a period of two years, from 2001-2003. Although Ruth did not share this, details about Ruth on TLM website informs us that one of Ruth’s abiding memories of her time at Purulia is of a plaque in the chapel which commemorated a missionary who had travelled to serve persons affected by leprosy in the days before there was a cure for the disease.

Ruth says, “Those were the real heroes, the people who left their lives on the other side of the world and came to serve people who had no hope of a cure. They had to watch their patients get worse and worse but continue to offer as much care as they could to soothe them. They did all this with the awareness that they could contract the disease themselves. Most did not, but this woman who was commemorated in Purulia did. The plaque told of how she continued to serve her fellow patients until she died.”

After this, Ruth went to Bangladesh for a period of 4 years where she became a Medical Advisor which she confessed was much easier than being a Superintendant!  In all, Ruth has served for 25 years overseas, bringing healing, hope and a future to so many needy people.

Today, Ruth is still very much involved with sharing stories and raising awareness to different groups, writing, teaching and research.

Ruth brought updates on many of the projects that we have learned about in past visits and is was so encouraging to see the progress being made. Even when things seemed to be on hold it is clear that God is in control.

Ruth’s reading was from Isaiah 61 v 4-11.  It speaks of renewal, repairing, rebuilding and rejoicing and no more shame! This was such a fitting reading to accompany Ruth’s story and reminds us that each life is beautiful and no situation is beyond God’s power. There is hope and a future.

There was an opportunity to bless Dr Ruth and the work of The Leprosy Mission with a love gift which will be held open for a few weeks.

It is wonderful to know that our gifts and prayers do make a difference to so many people and also encourage Ruth and her colleagues to work at improving the lives of the many thousands across of leprosy sufferers across the world.