Ruth Coggins wasn’t present when she was honored with the 2018 Outstanding Alabama Baptist Missions Volunteer award Nov. 13.
Coggins, a member of First Baptist Church, LaFayette, works closely with a Korean congregation, and one of the ladies she ministers to there had five heart bypasses just days before.
“Today they were getting her up for the first time, and she said she would not get out of bed if Mrs. Ruth was not there to help her,” said Scotty Goldman, director of the office of global missions at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “Mrs. Ruth is there now doing her ministry.”
Coggins is an individual who has worked in all areas of the Acts 1:8 commission — Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth, Goldman said.
She has missed only 10 Sundays at church in 30 years — one when her mother died and nine others when she was deployed in disaster relief. Through the years she’s served in Haiti, Mexico and Venezuela. She also has served faithfully in ministry at the county jail, the Christian Service Center and as an interpreter for the deaf.
Goldman presented the award to her pastor, Scott Ferguson, who accepted it on her behalf.
Ferguson said that even if Coggins had been there, she wouldn’t have gone up on stage.
“She told me that she is only doing what we are supposed to be doing,” he said. “I pray God would raise up more like her. May her tribe increase.” (Grace Thornton)
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