Gospel for Asia: Their Newborn Daughter Was a Disgrace to Them. “If It’s Possible, You Kill Her,” the Father Fumed.

Oct. 11 marks the International Day of the Girl Child. According to the United Nations, it’s a day meant to bring awareness to the “challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.”

Worldwide, girls are more likely than boys to be illiterate, to experience higher levels of physical and sexual violence, and to be targeted for infanticide.

Ruth, a Gospel for Asia-supported missionary, knew the struggles of being a girl since the day of her birth.

Once a Beggar for Love

“I don’t want this girl. If it’s possible, you kill her,” the man fumed.

Before him stood his wife and, in her arms, their newborn daughter. This child was a disgrace to them—especially because she was their fourth girl. In their culture, daughters are deemed worthless, only bringing financial burden to their families.

Father Devastated by Daughter’s Birth

When the father realized this child was not the son they desired and had sacrificed to their gods for, he erupted. Their newborn daughter, Ruth, survived that day but would live her entire childhood paying them back for the son she was not.

Ruth began working in her parents’ fields when she was 5 years old. She watched her older sisters wear nice clothes while she dressed in rags. Her father wouldn’t let her eat, so her mother had to smuggle her food.


Hope Rises in Abused Girl

When Ruth was 14 years old, she met a Gospel for Asia-supported pastor and some women missionaries in her village. They visited Ruth’s family often, discussing spirituality with her parents. Afterward, they would spend time with Ruth, showing her something she had never known before: love.

‘You Should Have Been a Boy’

One night, Ruth was allowed to eat dinner in her father’s presence, and she mustered up courage to ask the question she had been wondering about for years.

“Why are you not loving me?” she asked.

Her father exploded, “You should have been a boy!”

He threw his dinner at Ruth and got up, shouting abusive words at her. Afraid for her life, Ruth hid behind the house the entire night.

Ruth Finds the Father

When she told the women missionaries what happened, they comforted her and invited her to a worship service. While there, Ruth listened to the pastor share John 1:12 and John 3:16.

“These two verses touched me so much,” Ruth shares. “I cried out . . . ‘This many days I was like a beggar for love, [hoping] somebody may love me, somebody will care for me, somebody can ask me, “How are you?” . . . but [they] never did.’ After knowing these [missionaries], I came to know Somebody loves me.”

That day was the beginning of a new life for Ruth. She grew in knowledge and spiritual understanding of her Heavenly Father, the one who faithfully loved her and desired her when her earthly father did not.

Woman missionary Ruth (pictured) knew the struggles of being a girl since the day of her birth.

Hated Before They Are Born

There are many others who come from similar situations as Ruth’s. Thrown away, cast out, unloved just because they were born a girl. The United Nations once estimated that more than 200 million girls worldwide go “missing” due to gendercide, the systematic killing of members of a specific sex.


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