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Jennifer Pryor

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“My Christian faith has everything to do with everything,” says Jennifer Pryor. “The CCO helped me to understand that.”

Jennifer is a registered nurse at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and she lives with her husband, Byron, and their two sons in Pittsburgh’s inner-city East Liberty neighborhood. She admits that, had she not been involved in the CCO’s ministry during her college years, it’s unlikely that these two suburban-raised people would have chosen this lifestyle.

“I was raised in an amazing Christian family, but I didn’t have a lot of support in terms of my faith during high school, which is why I chose to attend a Christian college,” says Jen. In 1990, she showed up at Messiah College as a freshman nursing major. “Even if you choose a Christian school, it doesn’t mean all the people there will be Christians. I knew I needed to find my niche.”

She found it early on when she met CCO staff worker and resident director, Doug Bradbury. Jen became a charter member of the Issachar’s Loft discipleship program that Doug spearheaded, and that decision redirected her life.

“Doug had a gift for calling students deeper into their faith, and out of that, into service,” remembers Jen. “We not only met weekly for worship and Bible study, but we were required to do reading and writing assignments in between meetings. We volunteered in the community. Doug challenged us to not just go for the status quo and be complacent.”

To that end, Jen decided to participate on a mission trip to Haiti the summer after her freshman year. “I got to spend a day with a missionary nurse who was running a health clinic down there,” remembers Jen. “It was literally life-altering to catch a vision for the Third World and to understand that, just 700 miles off the Miami coast, children are dying of dehydration and lack of health care. Life is so different there from what I knew to that point. It widened my worldview and helped me to understand both my blessings and my responsibilities.”

Between her involvement in the Issachar’s Loft ministry and her experience of the CCO’s annual Jubilee conference, Jen’s worldview continued to widen. “Jubilee was amazing. It was so encouraging to be with students from so many different campuses, majors and backgrounds who were excited about their faith, and to interact with Christian adults who were wrestling with how to integrate their faith with their work. These people really cared about their professions and their faith, and the two were not mutually exclusive.”

Jen met her husband, Byron, through the CCO’s ministry at Messiah College, and the two married after her graduation. Byron worked for the CCO for 12 years, in ministry to college students at Kenyon College and the University of Pittsburgh’s medical, dental and law schools. The two continue to live in Pittsburgh where they are actively involved The Open Door, a Presbyterian church plant pastored by their friend and former CCO colleague, BJ Woodworth. Jen is also active with Community Bible Study, where she has been serving as Children’s Director.

“The outgrowth of the CCO’s ministry has directly informed our decision to live in community with other Christians, in an urban, racially-diverse neighborhood which is different from what either of us grew up in. It has informed our decision to send our children to Pittsburgh Urban Christian School, where they are learning the same all-of-life-redeemed perspective and which fosters a love of learning. It encourages me to share my reason for hope and joy with my neighbors and co-workers.

“The perspective on life that was shared with me by my CCO worker was that my faith in Jesus needs to touch every area of my life,” says Jen. “I came to an appreciation for the truth of that and I wrapped my life around it. I want to approach God about everything, to recognize that everything matters. There are no off topics.”