Ian Andrew North
Ruth Ann North
Ian North and his wife, Ruth Ann, started Refugee Arts as a ministry to build healing connections between the Christian, creative, and international communities in the city of Atlanta.
Ian mentors young immigrants and refugees to tell their stories through art, music, and writing. Ruth Ann leads Refugee Beads, a ministry which provides community, discipleship, and economic opportunities for refugee women through jewelry-making.
They live and minister in Chamblee, GA, one of America’s most diverse neighborhoods. Three days a week they open their home to provide homework help, mentoring relationships, and hot meals to over twenty children from low-income families.
Ian spent his childhood in the Philippines, where his parents served as missionaries. After returning to America, he attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He majored in Biblical Studies and Video Communications. While at Moody, he volunteered with several local ministries, mentoring inner-city youth, writing church communications, and practicing street evangelism.
He then worked in the public relations industry for three years, heading up book promotions for Christian and business writers, including Larry Crabb, John MacArthur, and Greg Vaughn.
Aside from his work with Refugee Arts, Ian is involved in several creative ventures. He has co-written a CD of offbeat folk music called Ghost Town Revival. His short stories and essays have appeared in print and online publications, and he is a member of the Atlanta Writer’s Club. He is slowly writing his first novel.
Ruth Ann North
They live and minister in Chamblee, Georgia, one of America’s most diverse neighborhoods. Three days a week they open their home to provide homework help, mentoring relationships, and hot meals to over twenty children from low-income families.
Ruth Ann was raised in a suburb of Atlanta in Georgia. As a sophomore in high school, she reached out to the poor in her community by starting an outreach at a local trailer park. She went on to run an afterschool program for immigrants and refugees who lived in an apartment complex twenty minutes away.
She moved up to Chicago, Illinois to study at the Moody Bible Institute. While studying Bible and Educational Ministries, Ruthie began making jewelry and selling it at craft festivals and in neighborhoods around the city.
When she moved back to Georgia with her husband, Ruthie began using her knowledge of beading to minister to the wives of international pastors. She works with a small group of women from Burma, Bhutan, Egypt, and Sudan. As they make jewelry to provide income for their families, the refugees develop basic business skills, Christian community, and support for ministry to their own people groups.
When not doing ministry-related work, Ruthie enjoys shopping at thrift stores, designing her own jewelry, and caring for her pets, which include a rabbit, a bird, several fish, and an iguana.
