Patricia Beall Gruits is one of America’s foremost lecturers in the field of Christian education and leadership training with an honorary doctorate in divinity. First a teacher of students, she became a teacher of teachers and an expert on church growth and ministerial development. It was from her perspective as an educator that she recognized an overwhelming need to systematically answer the questions that transitioned seekers to believers.  Inspired to explain and explore, she developed her trademark catechism style in her first edition of Understanding God in 1972, continued it in her second edition, Understanding God and His Covenants published in 1984 and in the current 2006 edition again titled Understanding God.  The simplicity of the “Understanding” concept and its Q&A format caught on and Understanding the Master’s Voice and Understanding Yourself followed. In more than four decades of distribution, the books authored by the Rev. Gruits have transformed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.

Simultaneously, Dr. Gruits saw and met other needs in the world. A call to help the poor led to her establishment of RHEMA International (link) to provide healthcare in impoverished Haiti.  In the face of daunting challenges, Dr. Gruits never abandoned the drive to build a hospital, equip it and staff it. Today, the medical facility and its doctors continue to improve and save the lives of Haiti’s poor in the Artibonite Valley.

Dr. Gruits is also CEO and Founder of RHEMA International Ministries, providing support to church educators with the Understanding Series books, seminars and ministerial training.

Joy Hughes Gruits is an award-winning educator with a Master’s degree in teaching.  As a gifted instructor, and a primary presenter of the Understanding God seminars, Rev. J. Gruits is well aware of the tools needed to convey each lesson.  In addition to assisting in the revisions of the new edition of Understanding God, Rev. J. Gruits developed complementary workbooks and study guides, appropriate for teachers, students, and small groups.  The study materials reinforce the text with object lessons, discussion starters and interactive learning activities.

Rev. J. Gruits is also a frequent speaker at retreats and conferences with a ministry of establishing believers in their faith and delivering God’s anointed Word with clarity and insight.