Renee Suhr
“The CCO pushed me to think about every single area of my life and encouraged me to be voracious about understanding the perspective of Christ as it relates to everything,” says Renee Suhr. “I’ve made life choices that I never would have made otherwise.”
Renee Dayan first connected with the CCO as a junior high school student in the suburbs of Cleveland. Her youth group leaders at Heritage Congregational Church, Jenny Penderville and Sue Sarver, were also CCO campus staff at nearby Baldwin-Wallace College. “I hung out a lot with Jenny and the college students during my junior and senior high school years,” Renee remembers.
When Jenny took a group from the church to Haiti, Renee went as well. “It was the summer before my freshman year of college, and the Haiti trip changed my perspective on poverty issues. Because of that trip, I was compelled to explore different issues in college—poverty, power, the environment, etc.”
When Renee headed off to college in 1988, it was Jenny who dropped her off and connected her to the CCO staff on campus. “Jenny took me to look at a bunch of colleges during my senior year, and she dropped me off at Messiah College that first weekend, where she introduced me to [CCO staff worker] Bonnie Jones personally.”
“I’ve learned so much from the CCO during different stages of my life,” Renee says. “During high school, through Jenny, it was social justice issues. At Messiah, I learned what it means to follow Christ as a student—academic discipleship. And my years of staff taught me how to love others as Jesus loves us.”
It was after she left CCO circles for a while that Renee recognized how influential the ministry had been in her life. “I realized once I got out there that most people don’t really think that deeply about their life choices in light of their faith,” she says, “at least not in the ways I’d been encouraged to do so.”
In the mid-90s, Renee married Matt Swanson, who had made a commitment to Christ during his years at Westminster College through the CCO. Renee and Matt met while they were both working for the CCO. After getting married and living in other parts of the country for a while, Matt accepted the job as Assistant Chaplain at Geneva College, they returned to western Pennsylvania with their two young sons. A year later, Matt passed away from colon cancer.
Three years later, in 2007, Renee married Hank Suhr, who also was deeply influenced by the CCO’s ministry during his years at Allegheny College. Hank and Renee live in Beaver Falls with the boys, and Hank teaches part-time at Geneva. They have recently purchased a house in downtown Beaver Falls, close to First Presbyterian Church, where they are actively involved.
“The choice to live downtown in a depressed former steel town is a direct result of the CCO,” says Renee. “The CCO’s ministry has affected every area of our lives—how we eat, how we shop, where we shop, how we raise our kids. Without the influence of the ministry, I would never have chosen any of this. We live in a very complex society. The CCO gave me tools to navigate, and maybe even made it more complicated, but in appropriate ways. It gave me the eyes to see how I am meant to live a faithful life.”