In December 2021, the charity Ruach Resources was founded to be the home of God for Kids app and the Animals of Eden Valley books and any other resources created under the God for Kids brand.
Meet the Team
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Joanne Gilchrist
Founder and Director
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Kirsty Dronfield
Social Media Manager
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Susan Box
Design Artist
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Fiona Walton
Author
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Andrew Blench
Chair of Trustees
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Sharon Turp
Charity Trustee
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Nathan Goodearl
Charity Trustee
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Carol Barwick
Charity Trustee
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Charlotte Patrick
Charity Trustee
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David Kuiavskii
Animals of Eden Valley Illustrator
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Krisztina Hannaford
Serbian & Hungarian Translator
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Eileen Barrett
German Translator
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Tainese Orivaldo
Portuguese Translator
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Sarah MacKenzie
Admin Support
We are currently looking for volunteers who are
between 18 and 100 years old. Are you young and looking for work experience? Or do you have a lot of experience that you can share with us? We welcome you!
interested in helping children discover the goodness of God for themselves and supporting families who want their children to grow up in a spiritually nurturing environment.
We are flexible but here’s an idea of some of the ways you could support us
digital marketing (up to 10 hours a month)
general administration (checking policies, responding to emails etc. from 5-15 hours a week)
grant application (up to 5 hours a month)
events (occasional support at conferences for 1-3 days at a time. All expenses provided.)
translators for Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, Turkish, Romanian, Croatian, Norwegian
native speaking, voiceover artists in all above languages (we would especially welcome children who are interested in this role. Parental supervision essential. Please contact us for our safeguarding and volunteers policies).
If you would like to join our team in Sheffield or virtually from home, please get in touch with Joanne today.
History of God for Kids app…
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Joanne Gilchrist is inspired by her two pre-school children to write a devotional just for them, teaching them all about the character and nature of God from the Bible.
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Joanne wonders if other kids might be interested and tests her home-made, ‘printed devotionals’ with her friends’ children. She finds that not all children engage with the printed word. “What about an app?” Someone suggests…
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A year of app development… writing, editing, recording, meeting illustrators, testing and feedback… such fun! Huge thanks to the tech company ‘Appt’ for all their hard work making God for Kids a reality.
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In February, God for Kids app is launched on the App Store! It has just 82 downloads on the first day and is full of bugs! In October, it is launched on Google Play and Amazon Apps for Android users. It has just 2 adventures and the Space Adventure is an in-app purchase.
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We celebrate 1 year of God for Kids in the app store with a pancake party! We also run a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the second and third ‘adventures’ based on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. All required funds are raised! Joanne and Fiona Walton write the first drafts of 7 books called ‘The Animals of Eden Valley’.
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In January, the second and third adventures are finally released and all four adventures are unlocked and made available free of charge to everyone. ‘Why Can’t I See God?’ (first edition) is published on Amazon. By the end of the year, we celebrate 50,000 downloads!
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There’s a global pandemic, schools shut and family life suddenly goes online. Joanne creates daily devotions, live on Facebook, to help children and families focus on God and grow in their faith during this troubling time. App downloads skyrocket…
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‘Who Made God?’ is published by Sarah Grace Publishing, an imprint of Malcolm Down Publishing. We receive a grant from The Lions UK to fund the re-vamp God for Kids app, in partnership with SunScool app, and we file an application to start a charity.
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Three more ‘Animals of Eden Valley’ books are published by Sarah Grace publishing and God for Kids app is updated with a new look, making it possible to add new features and languages. We top 100,000 downloads and celebrate a record number of active daily users and positive, 5 star, written reviews on Google Play. Praise the Lord!
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Our schools work begins to take off and we visit a number of local schools to deliver collective worship sessions and a writing workshop. We run our first “Faith at Home” workshop to trial the concept, we join the core leadership team of Hand in Hand conference and we continue to develop new resources such as the Advent I-Spy.