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Susan Post

Post-Susan.jpg“College was a time when I had many questions about what God was doing and what scripture had to say about life, God and me,” says Susan Post. “[CCO staff member] Nancy spent hours and hours discussing my questions and bringing a framework to my faith, not just theologically, but also personally. I could go to her to discuss questions, but also to talk about how my life ought to be different because of the gospel. I could confess things to her and she modeled for me that wonderful blend of exhortation to obedience along with graceful care and concern—as I’ve grown to know God’s nature to be.”

Susan’s first exposure to the CCO’s ministry came during her high school years, through the CCO staff members who worked through her home church in Erie, Pennsylvania. “At that point in time, Christianity was not a direct part of my life, even though I was active in our church,” Susan remembers. “But as I later grew in faith, I recognized that CCO staff members had been planting in my head and heart the idea to follow Christ. Because of this, when I went to college and met Christians, I immediately recognized the desire and need I had for a deeper walk with God and the fellowship of others.”

At Grove City College, Susan met CCO staff member Nancy Currid, who became her mentor, “particularly in the area of thinking though my faith, the Bible and its impact on my life. Nancy probably had the greatest impact of any person in my life regarding growing in my faith and having a solid desire to understand Scripture and relate it to life.”

Today, Susan is living out her Christian faith in very concrete ways through her work as Executive Director of Esperanza Health Center, a faith-based bilingual community health center serving Latino and other low income residents of North Philadelphia. She has also chosen to live in that community.

“Eleven years ago I believe God called me to live among the poor, and I moved to an impoverished African American and Puerto Rican community in North Philadelphia. I purchased a house in close proximity to my church so I could participate in what God is doing there. I am very blessed to watch God at work in my community. I live among very special people who teach me what it means to rely on God, what it means to find your joy in community, what it means to suffer for another and know God suffers with us. I don’t think many people in the United States get to see the connection between church, neighbors and gospel restoration. But I get the blessing of that every day.”

Susan also watches God work through the ministry of Esperanza Health Center. “We are a Christ-centered community health care ministry. Most health care in the United States is delivered in a very fractured way, based mainly on viewing a person in a primarily physical way. But Scripture teaches us that God created us in His image and that we are physical, spiritual, emotional and social beings. My belief in God’s restoring work in our world means that at Esperanza we look at health as physical, spiritual, emotional and social. We do what we can to address our patients’ overall health from all these perspectives; we pray with them, we care about them and their families, we treat them with dignity, we bring God into the picture as we care for them. That is a picture of the comprehensive nature of God’s restoration and God’s desire for wholeness in our lives.”

Susan credits the Jubilee conference for helping prepare her to live out her faith in such concrete, integrated ways. “I didn’t go to Jubilee until after graduating from college, and these conferences had a huge impact on my life. I was working in a hospital as a management engineer, and hearing people talk about redemption in the various career areas was extremely helpful for me. I began to see the idea of God’s redemption touching all of life, and that He uses His people to be part of that redemptive plan. I found it amazing that God would use me in His plans for the world—not just that it was personal to me, but that God’s character is to use His people to accomplish His plans. For five days, I was so excited about this that I was unable to sleep because of the joy of that. This began a different journey for me, integrating my faith with everything, and seeing God’s redemption in all areas of life.

“The journey I began in college continues today as I try to present myself to Him for His work each day. The joy I knew when I first discovered this in college has only grown more and more in the years since then as I see God at work in my ministry, my community and even in my own life. What a blessing.”