Read letters from Hunter and Ruth Farrell
April 23, 2007
December 20, 2006
June 20, 2006
February 15, 2006
December 2, 2005
October 6, 2004
Ruth Farrell
Email: Ruth Farrell
After more than 10 years of mission service in Peru and a year as a missionary-in-residence in Louisville, Ruth ended her term as a mission co-worker on June 30, 2008. She is now coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. Hunter has been director of Presbyterian World Mission since June 2007. Ruth is available to speak when her schedule permits. Email her to extend an invitation to visit your congregation or organization.
In 2002, the Farrells returned for their third term of service in Peru, this time to work with the Presbyterian Hunger Program. Ruth works with poor women, youth and men in Lima and Peru’s central Andes region in microenterprise development. Hunter is facilitator of the “Joining Hands Against Hunger” network of Peru.
Ruth accompanies poor artisans, helping them to improve product design and production, identify markets and increase sales, thus increasing family income. She works to provide artisans with both training and access to credit so that they can produce export-quality handicrafts, which are sold through the Joining Hands Against Poverty Network’s “Fair Trade Bridge.” In 2004, more than $80,000 worth of handicrafts were sold through this project, led by the Joining Hands Networks in Peru and the Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery (Missouri-Illinois). Many of the project’s participating artisans have been able to double or triple their income. In 2005, Presbyterian Women are providing a Women’s Birthday Offering grant to the project to enable the Joining Hands Network to train more artisans.
Hunter works with the “Joining Hands” Network, which is composed of 15 Peruvian churches, nongovernmental organizations and community-based organizations. The network has identified three key areas where the current trend of economic globalization has negatively affected Peru's poorest communities: economic development, the environment and human rights. The network is addressing some of the causes of Peru’s poverty: the unjust economic rules which govern Peru’s exports to other countries, environmental pollution by irresponsible companies and the weak commitment to democracy on the part of the Peruvian government.
Both Ruth and Hunter are well suited to their service in Peru. Before mission service in Peru, Ruth spent three years as the director for the Center for Micro-enterprise Development at the Jewish Vocational and Family Center in Louisville, Kentucky, a position which she created to help refugees and low-income women. Prior to this, Ruth taught English as a second language in the Jefferson County Adult Educational Program. For the seven years prior to accepting the call to serve in Peru in 1998, Hunter was the area coordinator for East and West Africa for the Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Louisville.
Before coming to Louisville, Hunter and Ruth spent five years as mission co-workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they taught at the Faculty of Reformed Theology of the Kasai (Ndesha) in Kananga. Ruth was also the treasurer of the seminary.
Prior to working in Africa, Hunter was a program officer for the Partners of the Americas in Washington, D.C. From 1981 to 1982 he was a volunteer in mission for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.to Zaire.
Hunter received his B.A. in political science and Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He spent a year studying in Lima, Peru, at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. Hunter graduated with a M.Div. in cross-cultural studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. He also studied at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, France, receiving a diplome d'etudes approfondies in African traditional religions. He is currently completing the doctoral program in anthropology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where his dissertation focuses on the impact of Peru’s political violence on an indigenous community in the central Andes.
While in Pasadena, Ruth was the director of financial aid at Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to moving to California, Ruth was the personal assistant/secretary for Senator Richard Lugar in Washington, D.C. While in Washington, Ruth completed her M.B.A. at George Washington University in finance and international economics. She received her B.S. in business administration and systems analysis from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.
Hunter and Ruth have three children, Ndaya, Billy and Andrew, and the family worships at the Iglesia del Buen Pastor.
Birthdays:
Hunter - February 25
Ruth - September 14
