09/17/2026
Evangel Home is blessed by people who believe in our ministry and support us faithfully. Month after month. Year after year.
Our interim director, Gerre Brenneman, shares her memories about one such person -- Ruth Fritz.
"I became acquainted with Ruth shortly after becoming director in 1988. Ruth wrote a note congratulating me on my new position and saying she would be praying. While I thought that was very nice, I assumed it would be a one-time note. Boy, was I wrong. Until I retired in 2018, those notes kept coming -- every month with her donation. Not just little notes scribbled on a piece of scratch paper, but full-page steno pad notes -- or sometimes pretty stationery. We got to know each other through her long notes and my short scribbles. Month after month. Year after year.
"I returned as interim director in August 2024 and recently realized I had not heard from Ruth. I assumed she knew I was back, but at some point she had stopped giving to Evangel Home and writing notes. I wanted to reconnect. I could still see her handwritten words of encouragement, and I missed them. So I did a little online research in early September and found that Ruth had passed away on August 31, 2026 just a few days before I began my search.
"On September 12, I drove to Riverdale for her funeral and witnessed the influence she had on that little Central Valley town of about 4,000 people. She was a church leader, choir director, Sunday School teacher, public school teaching assistant, librarian, bread-making, cookie-baking neighbor who delivered her "products" to friends and neighbors.
"Ruth lived her faith by seeing the value and worth in everyone and believing that the mark of a Christian is service. She did everything she could to lift up others and to tell them about Jesus. Month after month. Year after year."
"Ruth, saying thank you doesn't seem adequate. So I write this note on behalf of thousands of Evangel Home women and children that you never met but whom you helped. Month after month. Year after year."
