Ruth Black
Expressive painting of a Highland glen beneath a luminous open sky

A story of prayer and revival

Hill
Country

Set out on a climb through one family’s experience of revival, the making of Craig Lodge and the prayer that prepares the way for renewal.

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By Ruth Black

The new book

A climb into the wildness of God

Hill Country begins with a weather forecast. Expect sudden squalls, mountain mist and, Ruth hopes, the moment when the sun breaks through and a new vista opens before you.

Ruth shares the revival that changed her family and shaped the course of their lives. From a life-altering journey to Medjugorje in 1983 to her parents’ decision to turn their Argyll hotel into Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer, this is a story of faith becoming a way of life.

Along the climb, Ruth asks what makes a revival a revival, why these outpourings can provoke strong reactions and what Catholics and Protestants might discover by looking together at Pentecost and historic moves of God.

We have found our hill country; the place where we can enjoy his presence.

Ruth Black, Hill Country

The journey

From one family’s encounter to a life of intercession

Hunting Heaven

At nineteen, Ruth travelled with her brothers and friends to a back-of-beyond village in Yugoslavia. What she encountered in Medjugorje became a compass in her life, pointing her back to Jesus through every wrong turn.

A Crazy Decision

Changed by the same encounter, Calum and Mary Anne gave away the family’s home and livelihood as a hotel. Craig Lodge became a house of prayer, its former sitting room turned into the chapel at the heart of community life.

Pray, Pray, Pray

During lockdown, Craig Lodge’s days filled with worship, Mass and prayer. That hidden season sharpened the book’s central insight: great moves of God are preceded by people willing to pray, wait and trust.

Across traditions

What makes a revival?

Ruth returns to Pentecost and finds five hallmarks repeated across different places and traditions: Jesus at the centre, repentance, conversion, prayer, and signs and wonders. The outward manifestations vary; the deeper work is hearts reoriented towards Christ.

The book follows those marks through five movements of renewal, from an island at the edge of Scotland to a university chapel in Kentucky.

1906 Azusa Street Revival

1949 Lewis Revival

1967 Catholic Charismatic Renewal

1994 Toronto Blessing

2023 Asbury Outpouring

Let it start with me.

Perhaps your heart is stirring. Revival may touch thousands, but it is preceded by one, by two, by a few people deciding to pray. Hill Country asks whether we will become those people for our hearts, families, churches and nations.

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The author

Ruth Black

Ruth Black is CEO and ministry leader at Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer in Argyll, Scotland.

Ruth is the daughter of Calum and Mary Anne MacFarlane-Barrow, whose decision to turn their hotel into a house of prayer begins at the heart of this book. She previously worked with Mary’s Meals, including travelling to Turkana, Kenya, where the sight of women digging through a dry riverbed for hidden water gave her a lasting image of spiritual thirst.

She never planned to lead Craig Lodge. After saying yes to a minor role, she eventually found herself saying yes to becoming CEO. Today her work is shaped by hospitality, worship and a conviction learned over decades: prayer changes things, and it changes us.

Books by Ruth

Writing from a life of prayer

Expressive painting of a Highland glen used as the artwork for Hill Country

Hill Country

A Story of Prayer and Revival

Cover artwork by Calum MacFarlane-Barrow

Publication details to be announced