Baby Ruth Elton at 3 years of age (pictured here with her parents, Pa Sydney Granville and Mama Elton in Ilesa in the late 1930s). She clocked 86 on 7th September 2020 and is still doing kingdom stuff in Ilesa. The Elton family has given more than 160 missionary years to the advancement of God’s Kingdom in Nigeria.
Church Gist celebrates Mama today.
This veteran missionary clocked 86 years yesterday. I had planned with my brother, Ojueromi Tayo, to pay her a visit in her Ilesha home today but she later called to say she has an appointment with her eye doctor and would not be available. But as the Lord planned it, her eye doctor was just at my backyard. So I was able to stroll in midday and personally give her my birthday greeting.
Her spirit is still very strong but her body is not as strong. Pls remember her in your prayers. She deserves good health, peace of mind and stress-free aging years.
Just in case you don’t know who she is, she is the only child of the late Pa S.G. Elton. She came with her parents to Nigeria in 1937 at the age of 3. She followed the footsteps of her parents to become a missionary for life, labouring in Okene, Koto Karfi and other areas of now Kogi state. Her commitment to this work made her to bear the cross of remaining single and at some point, naturalizing to become a full fledged Nigerian (her British citizenship limited her in some ways, so she let it go! What love for Nigeria).
She made disciples for Jesus and established them in small groups which have all grown to become a strong church with branches in different parts of Kogi, Kwara, Niger States and Abuja. But because she herself, like her father, does not believe in denominationalism, she refused to be identified as the Founder/G.O: though the Church made her the matron/spiritual adviser to the denomination, as part of their different ways of acknowledging her role in their existence.
Mama speaks 3 different Nigerian languages and like her father, has such an unparalleled passion for the coming Kingdom. Only eternity will reveal the volume of impact she made to the spread of the gospel in the middle belt of Nigeria.
Happy birthday, Mama Ruth O. Elton.
We love you.
Courtesy: Adeyemi Temidayo
