Presbyterian Church in Ireland - Mission Overseas - Tribute to Shirley Rutherford who died this week

11th February 2010

Shirley Rutherford, who served in Malawi with the Overseas Board of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland from 1997 to 2000, sadly died on Monday (8th) of this week, after a long illness.

During the three years Shirley was in Malawi, she served as Programme Manager at the Naming’azi Farm Training Centre, in the Blantyre Synod area of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP); she was also very active in the local community.

Following her return home from Malawi and marking the occasion of her resignation from what was then the Overseas Board (now the Board of Mission Overseas), fellow PCI mission worker, Maurice McNicholl, wrote:

"Shirley Rutherford's service in Malawi was marked by the quality outlined by Paul in Philippians 4:4, where he says: 'May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord.'

When Shirley visited our offices in Blantyre her arrival... was always marked by joyful noise and laughter; her own hearty laughter and that of each friend she greeted. As friends, who had the privilege of sharing our home with her from time to time at weekends, we also got to witness that joy on every visit. Her work was not always easy, nor her stay at Naming'azi Farm easy, but her joy was undiminished by that.

Her joyful spirit in the Lord carried through into her work and endeared her to her colleagues at Naming'azi, and in Blantyre, because it was impossible to work with her and not be involved in that spirit. It extended to her relationship with the beneficiaries of the work at Naming'azi, the villagers whose lives she worked to improve and with whom she became involved in a committed and wholehearted way. The same laughter and warm was evident in village settings when... the poor families she sought to serve often felt the better for her arrival in their village or home.

Shirley's training and professional contribution was in agriculutre but this is not diminished by the fact that her focus and concern was on evangelism. Whether with colleagues, villagers, friends or passing acquaintances, she always sought to share her joy in the Lord. I have known her to share with policemen at road blocks, with salesmen in stores, children on the street and close friends, whom she sought to convince about her Lord and Saviour."

Sometime after arriving home from Malawi, Shirley returned overseas, serving with Samaritan's Purse and involved in women's work in a Muslim country in Central Asia.

Shirley was a very special person and her passing will leave a huge gap in the lives of all who knew her but we praise God that she is free from all pain and suffering and that she is now rejoicing in the presence of her Lord and Saviour. 

Her funeral service takes place tomorrow, Friday 12th February, in Orangefield Presbyterian Church, in East Belfast, beginning at 12.00 noon.

Google Map link: Orangefield Presbyterian Church