Born at Kingston, New York to Archibald (Archie) Lawrence and Dorothy (Dot) (Kinkcade) Lawrence June 5, 1931, passed into glory February 6, 2020. The Visitation will start at 8:30 A.M and be held at Ankeny Free Church, 118 NW Linden St. Ankeny, IA 50023, Saturday, March 7, 2020. The Service will follow at 10:30 A.M. and Reception with food 11:30 A.M.
From her childhood Ruth wanted to become a nurse. She did well in a one room school, a close walk from their home in Stone Ridge, NY and finished High School with honors at Kingston, NY. She trusted Christ for her eternal salvation at the age of 16. She received a scholarship to study nursing at Syracuse University in New York, where she graduated BS as a Registered Nurse in 1953.
Her first work was in a hospital in Minneapolis, MN for seven years, where she first encountered the Navigators and began to influence many nurses and nursing students to put their trust in Christ.
Ruth then found employment in Fargo, ND where she taught student nurses for six years. She again used her profession to fund her own personal needs and to fund her outreach with the Navigators. This evangelistic / discipleship organization soon became an important part of her ministry avenue.
During the last days of her time at Fargo, the Navigators needed someone to minister the women at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD and Ruth moved on to serve there for three years prior to meeting her husband to be, Scott Spragg, a widower. They were married July 12, 1969. Ruth suddenly became mother of three young children 3, 5 and 10 years of age.
At the age of 53 years, they were called to serve together for twelve years in Tanzania, East Africa, where Ruth continued to use her skills in nursing to meet the health needs of secondary students, staff and villagers while also teaching English and Bible and caring for the school library. Both served as associate Navigator staff and recruited students who formed the delegation to sign paperwork authorizing the Navigators as a Christian ministry in that country.
Upon return to the USA, Ruth continued her ministry to women, serving alongside her husband at their home church, Ankeny Evangelical Free Church, in Ankeny, IA. Many women testify to the help that Ruth gave them in their walk with Christ and how to be good wives. Her absence from this ministry will be felt for years. She will long be remembered as a Bible scholar and her love, good humor and listening ear. She loved to pray wherever she was, whether riding in the car, walking, sitting with a group or alone. In heaven, she has now gone on to meet many of those whom she helped.
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