Help 88-year-old Pittsburgh Woman Fulfill Promise to God, Orphans 73 Years Later

Article by Kristy Kauffman

When she was 14 and frightened for her life as flood waters threatened the second floor of her Johnstown, PA home, Ruth Delaney (name was changed to preserve anonymity) did what many people may have done – made an impassioned promise to God.

Sick to her stomach with fear, the teenager vowed to God that if she survived the disastrous 1936 flood, she would one day build an orphanage to take care of other children who were also afraid.

Unlike many people who make promises to God, Delaney is making good on her promise… 73 years later.

Less than a month ago, Marc Stein, president of Gospel Light Worldwide, made an annual trip to Chicago to visit a ministry where he used to work. It was there Stein first learned of Delaney, 88, of Pittsburgh, and her God-inspired dream to create a haven for orphaned children, in, of all places, South Africa.

Stein learned that an opportunity with another organization had just fallen through for Delaney. She was reaching out to different ministries, as she had been doing for years, determined to find another way to fulfill her promise to God and care for some of his youngest children.

Amazingly, Stein knew of a project to do just that. It was two years in the works and half a world away. It was amazing because the project was not known to the public, the two years construction preparations were almost complete, and, it was in none other than South Africa.

When Stein contacted the leaders of the Lonehill Village Church project, he learned they were a single signature away from having all of the permits in place to start construction.

“They were working under the belief that the Lord was going to provide the provision when the process was completed,” Stein said.

That two-year process involved detailed plans, proposals and prayers for a new type of orphanage. Lonehill’s plan is to create foster homes for children who have lost parents to HIV and AIDS, of which there are almost 2 million in the country of South Africa alone.

Under a Nelson Mandela mandate, instead of institutional-type orphanages where older children were known to bully and abuse younger ones, orphans would be provided a more traditional family type of environment.

Lonehill’s proposal builds three four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes, which will each hold eight children and two house parents, in Cosmo City, South Africa. The corner lot and two adjacent parcels will be fenced in together, adding security in an already safe neighborhood for children who have had anything but.

Three local churches will each adopt a home and bring up the home’s children in its church family. Instead of a cold, institutional setting, these children will grow up in the closest thing possible to a real family.

They were one signature away, and after 73 years, Ruth Delaney was now one phone call away.

With her gift established, Gospel Light Worldwide was soon working to arrange her trip to the Cosmo City site.

Stein continued to be amazed by how every detail for the trip fell smoothly into place.

“I believe it was literally being held for her,” he said.

“He (Stein) called it a divine appointment,” Delaney said, “and I agree with that. It seems God is taking care of everything.”

Travel visas, a passport and other sometimes frustrating travel details worked out with ease.

Delaney leaves November 15 for nine days in South Africa in the midst of its rainy summer. Groundbreaking on the three foster homes will occur at the season’s end in late January or early February. Project leaders say it will take 20 weeks from the day of the groundbreaking to the day the children and house parents move in. Delaney plans to be back in Cosmo City in June to work at the site.

Stein calls Lonehill Church’s first 3-home development in Cosmo City a “beautiful model that will be replicated across South Africa.” He hopes other churches will do similar projects and calls Delaney “the catalyst.”

According to Delaney, this 73-year chain of events was entirely the work of God – from the frightened teenager in a historic flood – to Marc Stein’s visit to Chicago – to the orphanage construction project ready for funding.

God provided her a way out of the flood. Now God is using use her to provide a way out to other children in distress.

For it all, Delaney gives the glory to God, from start to finish.

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$24,000 is still required to complete these Foster Homes, please call (805) 535-2424 for more information.