Do What You Do Best
Author:Â Craig Rutter
In October 1998, Craig Rutter, the baseball coach at Defiance College, visited Jamaica on a mission scouting trip for the college. It was a last minute trip put together for the Presidential Service Leaders program on campus. Craig had no prior interaction with the service program and had never visited Jamaica. The trip changed Craig’s life.
Do What You Do Best documents Author Rutter’s experiences, changes and growth as his love for the people of Jamaica and in particular, the teachers and students at Marymount High School, grew deeper and deeper with each return visit. Â
In short order, Rutter was determined to bring Marymount students to Defiance College even though the College had no program or funds for international students. Doing what he did best, Rutter found a way to bring the first Jaimacian student to Defiance Ohio in 2003. Since then, he has facilitated 21 recruitments giving students educational opportunities in the United States leading to law and medicine among other careers.
Rutter first visited Jamaica as a mission worker for Christian Service International and returned over twenty-five times, often with Defiance College Service students on mission trips. The students have built eleven homes, two schools and provided a myriad of services to those in need.
Preceding each chapter, there are 29, is a quotation. Most are from songs we know. I found myself wondering how many lyrics Craig Rutter knows. The quotations served as summaries of the chapter that followed.
The book is very easy to read; it is a quick read. Photos populate the written words, the images assist the reader in getting to know the characters, places and work done on the mission trips. The Epilogue is penned by various people featured in the book and adds another perspective.
This is a love story, one man’s love for the people of Jamaica and how that love changed him and helped others.Â
To read Do What You Do Best, contact the author at crutter@defiancecollege,edu to purchase a copy.
