When she was in Primary 6, Ruth Seah faced a different kind of pressure from most of her cohort.

Ruth’s father was addicted to gambling and had amassed a pile of debt. Her mother had to work as a hawker in the market to provide for the family.

“I felt resentful about the state of my family and helpless, because as a 12-year-old, I couldn’t help my parents,” said Ruth, now 57. 

She kept her feelings bottled up and had few close friends at school, preferring to stay away from people lest they find out about her family’s secret.

“I felt trapped and envious when I saw my classmates doing well,” she admitted.

So the young girl made herself a vow: To stay away from the “curse” of gambling.

“I was hungry to do well and break the cycle of poverty to provide a better life for my family,” she said.

But the turmoil at home was affecting her ability to focus on her studies. In her mid-year exams, Ruth came in 42nd out of her class of 45 students.

“I was fourth from bottom,” she said.

“I wanted their glow”

Ruth was in Primary 4 when she was transferred to Raffles Girls’ Primary School. The school had moved to Holland Grove Road around the time her family moved to Ghim Moh.

“Everyone said it was a good school and my mother decided I should go there. So she went to see the principal with my report book,” Ruth recalled.

Ruth through the years, including in her primary school years in top middle photo.

By Primary 6, Ruth was in the A class.

In this class, two classmates stood out: The head prefect and the assistant head prefect. And not because they were the leaders of the school.

“There was something different about them. They had this glow and this peace. I liked being close to them,” Ruth recalled.

One day, during a particularly chaotic incident at school which caused a frenzy among the schoolchildren, Ruth noticed the two head girls retreat to a corner.

“While the rest of us were running around and making a lot of noise, they bowed their heads and prayed. Afterwards, they dealt with the issue in such a mature, calm way and got everything sorted out,” she remembered.

At that time, Ruth did not understand prayer. But she sensed that “there was something or Someone bigger that was in control through them”.

“I wanted what was giving them this calmness and glow. So I went to ask them about it.”

Comic books about “the Source of power”

In response, the head girls explained that they were Christians, and that their belief in a loving God gave them an inner peace that did not depend on circumstances.

When Ruth wanted to know more, they shared reading material, including The Crusaders, a comic-style faith-based magazine popular at the time.

“Some of the magazines were quite scary. They showed how real Satan is,” Ruth recalled.

But they also introduced her to a different figure – Jesus, described as a source of power and love that anyone could draw from.

At a school reunion in November 2025, Ruth (centre) reconnected with Lim Suat Pek (left, the assistant head prefect) and Tan Mei Lan (the head prefect) whose behaviour inspired her some 45 years ago.

Ruth, the practical thinker, worked it out for herself: “If the devil is so real, there must be a God. If there is evil, there must be good, too.”

Something shifted for her. With her exams looming, and home life still a mess, Ruth began drawing on this new source of hope. It gave her a new confidence.

“With Jesus, I no longer felt alone. By the time the preliminary exams came around, I had gone from the bottom to 10th in class.”

A year later, a street evangelist led Ruth through a simple explanation: That God loves her, that there’s a distance between humans and God, and that Jesus came to close that gap.

“There, outside the old National Library, she led me in saying a prayer where I invited Jesus into my life.”

Exposure to lead

Ruth aced her Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and went on to a top girls’ school where her leadership potential quickly emerged.

She served on the prefectorial board. She became vice-captain of her sports house, and was swimming captain, too – despite not being the strongest swimmer. Not only that, she became chairman of the Red Cross.

In Secondary 3, Ruth’s Red Cross cohort were double champions at the annual inter-school foot drill and first aid competitions, beating the hot favourites. Ruth (right) led the first aid team and collected the trophy on their behalf.

Ruth (kneeling, second from right) was a recipient of The Rafflesian Award, the most prestigious honour bestowed by her school to graduating students who demonstrated all-round excellence.

“I think God gave me a passion to lead, and my school provided me with a lot of opportunities to do that,” said Ruth.

The boy next door with a Pastor’s heart

In Secondary 3, Ruth’s faith became personal, thanks to a polytechnic student, Raymond Sim, who was lodging at a neighbour’s home so that he could get to school easily.

Ruth’s family was unhappy when she and Raymond became a couple because he was “the Christian boy who took her to church”.

Raymond himself had also grown up in a challenging home environment. But Ruth’s relationship with Raymond was marked by something she had never experienced.

Their early dates were not exactly conventional.

Their first of what would be many mission trips together – to Sabah with Faith Methodist Church, 1988.

“Raymond would teach me about the Bible and faith, using follow-up materials from Cru,” she said. “He would also play the guitar and we would sing together, using a songbook that put Bible verses to music.

“That’s how I grew spiritually, and we became more aligned – not just emotionally, but in our values as well,” she said.

“Even though he was just a teenager then, I could see that he had a Pastor’s heart.”

Choosing a different story

Ruth and Raymond dated for nine years and married when Ruth was 24 and Raymond, 27.

From the start, they anchored their marriage on the Bible verse: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

It was a deliberate break from patterns of addiction, brokenness and pain that they had grown up watching, patterns that seemed to repeat themselves through the generations in their families.

Ruth and Raymond got engaged when she was 23, and he was 26.

“We wanted the cycle to stop with us: No more gambling, addiction, unfaithfulness,” said Ruth.

Ruth pointed to another passage in the Bible that shaped their marriage.

Ruth, Raymond and their three children (centre), flanked by their spouses.

“… For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)

“I like to joke that God’s math is a bit messed up,” Ruth said.

“God warns that the consequences of harmful choices can affect three or four generations. Then comes the punchline: But God promises something far greater. His love doesn’t stop at three or four generations, it goes on for a thousand.

“Sin has its consequences. But obedience releases blessings on a scale that outweighs the damage.

“And that’s why we made a deliberate resolution: That we would serve the Lord, and bring up the children that God gives us in His ways.”

To Ruth, this was not about fear or punishment. It was about hope – the belief that intentional choices, grounded in love and faith, can reshape not just one family, but generations to come.

How it played out

From growing up in a home marked by financial instability, Ruth went on to become a corporate high-flyer at MNCs IBM and Microsoft – careers that enabled her to provide for her family.

She was the main breadwinner when her husband decided to become a full-time Pastor. Today, Raymond serves as a Pastor at St Andrew’s Community Chapel. 

Ruth on a work trip to France in 1998, the year Raymond answered God’s call on his life.

At one stage, Ruth, with the help of her sister, supported 12 people in their family. (Read Ruth’s story here.)

Ruth was in a global leadership position at French multinational Schneider Electric before recently joining Christian news platform Salt&Light and Thirst Collective as the Executive Director of GROW The Marketplace. (Read about it here.)

Life still has its trials, including health scares, but Ruth finds them easier to bear with Jesus in her life. Over the years, Ruth has also seen God’s blessings pass on to her own generation – and the generation before hers.

In answers to her long-held prayers, her parents, two siblings, and mum-in-law have since become Christians, each in an unexpected way. 

And it all started with a 12-year-old noticing two classmates praying in a corner, and wanting to know what they had.

A version of this story first appeared in Stories of Hope.

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