I serve regularly at the YWAM center in San Francisco. My friend Ruthie started a wonderful ministry there called, Because Justice Matters. This is the origin story of BJM.
Bright Stories: 15 Years of Because Justice Matters
Lush green countryside. Arched brick bridge over a babbling brook. Cobblestone streets through a tiny village. The distant sounds of mooing. A modest family home filled with love, two parents, a boy, and a girl, named Ruthie.
Little did she know her life’s call would take her far from her British home.
While on a school trip to Paris at age 13, God started to tug at her heart. Overlooking the city of lights, something welled up inside of her and she started to cry. All at once she was overwhelmed with God’s love for cities. He believed in cities. And he was for them.
This powerful moment compelled Ruthie to join YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and move to San Francisco five years later when she was 18.
It was everything her village was not. Busy. Loud. Chaotic, even.
But it was also beautiful.
And Ruthie fell in love with San Francisco and the people of the Tenderloin. It was her home for the next eight years.
Two significant moments marked Ruthie’s first year in the Tenderloin. And it would shape the way she did ministry forever.
“Two significant moments marked Ruthie’s first year in the Tenderloin. And it would shape the way she did ministry forever. ”
On her very first day in the Tenderloin, Ruthie encountered a woman working in sex work. Perhaps it was her long red hair that first caught her attention. She was beautiful. She made her way down the sidewalk, approaching men and ever so slightly pulling up her skirt.
In this moment, Ruthie knew that no matter what her past had been or what issue had led her to be alone on the street, that Jesus cared about this woman more than she could describe. She was precious and valuable to Him.
And Ruthie was angry that she was on the street.
But it went further than that. She remembered a message from when she was sixteen. Matthew 25: “When you fed someone hungry, you did that for me.”
This wasn’t a woman caught in expoloitation…
This was Jesus.
And from every moment on she would get to minister to Jesus. Every day.
Then, her brother, her only sibling, died suddenly. She didn’t get to say goobye. It was her first significant loss and it was gut wrenching. After such a deep and painful trauma and a season of grief, Ruthie wondered if she would ever find her feet again. It was disorienting and disheartening to say the least.
God used these moments to open Ruthies eyes to her neighbors in the Tenderloin. To see Jesus in her neighbors. Neighbors, who like her, had experienced tragedy, trauma, and grief. But unlike her, these neighbors experience a type of poverty not often considered. A poverty of community, connection, and authentic relationships. Ruthie saw how friendship was a powerful way to transform communities.
“God used these moments to open Ruthies eyes to her neighbors in the Tenderloin. To see Jesus in her neighbors. Neighbors, who like her, had experienced tragedy, trauma, and grief. But unlike her, these neighbors experience a type of poverty not often considered. A poverty of community, connection, and authentic relationships. Ruthie saw how friendship was a powerful way to transform communities. ”
The needs of women, particularly those who were abused or exploited became a common thread for Ruthie, whether she was on the streets of the Tenderolin or leading outreaches in Bangkok.
Fast forward several years and Ruthie needed to take a break because she was experiencing a season of burnout. But instead of pulling back completely, she volunteered at La Casa de las Madres and completed a Faith and Domestic Violence training course. A lot of concern was raised that the faith community was not responding to women in need.
Ruthie came home to her husband and said, “We have to do something.”
That something began with designing sweatshirts to sell to the various youth group teams coming to serve in San Francisco and raise money for the La Casa de las Madres shelter.
But what to put on the back of the sweatshirt?
It came to her one night in bed.
Because Justice Matters
That summer she sold hundreds of sweatshirts and raised thousands of dollars for women experiencing domestic violence.
But that wasn’t all.
Youth, who were buying the sweatshirts, started to disclose their own encounters with abuse and violence.
Ruthie discovered that youth pastors were ill equipped to address these needs, so she started training them. This developed into a local pastors’ training conference called Speak Freely where leaders were trained and resourced to support women and families experiencing violence.
It felt like something new was starting.
Ruthie remembers that moment.
“I don’t really know what this is. But I know it’s Jesus. And I know it’s justice.”
““I don’t really know what this is. But I know it’s Jesus. And I know it’s justice.” ”
And the rest is history.
A beautiful history of brighter futures for women, girls, and families in San Francisco
I love that we are connected to this story. The teenagers who bought those sweatshirts were on Mission Adventures outreaches in the city. I love that “our kids” gave so generously to La Casa de las Madres, and that this led to the foundation of BJM. This story is © 2023 BJM and was originally published in, Bright Stories: 15 Years of Because Justice Matters. This small booklet has 15 stories of transformation in the Tenderloin and is available from BJM for a $15 donation.
