The Rudd Family
The Rudds are the first missionary family with The Good Word Ministry. Mike and Martha celebrate 25 years of marriage this May and have been blessed by God with 5 awesome kids.
The family got involved in missions in 1993, and has been serving the Lord full-time as a missionary family since 2002. Their first field of service was in Jamaica, where they lived in a community for Deaf adults.
Mike was in charge of work teams and construction. Martha served as Hostess and "mom" to all. Sarah interpreted the most for the teams and church services. When she left for college, Esther stepped up as the main interpreter. Martha and the kids filled in as needed when Esther left for college.
Mike, Martha, Ruth and Grace now live in Siguatepeque, Honduras. Centrally located, they work in nearby towns teaching sign langauge to deaf children and their families.
Sarah has earned her A.A. degree with honors from Weatherford College. She is a senior now, majoring in Deaf Education at UNC - Greensboro in North Carolina. She has special ability to pick-up sign language quickly and has used it to good effect in serving the Lord. She is engaged to be married to Drew Fortney in June 2009.
Esther is in her senior year of studies at Moody Bible Institute, where she is majoring in Linguistics. She loves children, music and praising the Lord. She married Josh Swanson, a Moody graduate, in August 2008.
Michael attends Weatherford College, with a deep interest in Classical Literature and has a Drama scholarship. He has been very active in serving the Lord in the USA as well traveling to Romania.
Ruth is finishing her senior year of high school. One of her fond missionary memories is helping her dad when he assisted with a team of NASCAR Motor Racing Outreach folks in Costa Rica.
Grace is in her sophomore year of high school. She was the "one man welcoming committee" at the Jamaica Deaf Village - often spending long hours to go the airport and make people feel welcome. She continues to serve by helping with the outreaches in Honduras.