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ABOUT

A little bit about Sue

Meet Sue Hess
Executive Director at Reclaiming Hope

Sues Hess has a broad understanding of cultures, and how culture impacts individuals. That framework has well prepared her to lead an anti-trafficking non-profit located in Colorado Springs today which has a national impact.

ABOUT SUE

Raised in a Midwest farm community, in a home that hosted international visitors through a U.S. State Department program, Sues has lived in both European and American villages and cities, but she’s called Colorado Springs home longer than any other place. All along her pilgrim path, she’s trained helpers who bring comfort to those in crisis.

Sues is the youngest of 3 sisters, one who was a teenage mother of a son with cerebral palsy. Her family struggled to find resources to help her nephew, which launched Sues on the journey to find, and sometimes develop, appropriate resources to help others.

After graduating from Wheaton College (IL) in sociology, she served in areas which helped her become confident enough to later travel in and out of the “Iron Curtain” before it’s downfall in 1989. She learned about writing and publishing on the job, with the Christian Medical Society and World Championship Tennis, and later the International Bible Society/Biblica. Hosting a live radio program for the Dallas area pro-life movement in the 80s was almost as big of a challenge as her next assignment: helping refugees fleeing the brutal tyranny of the Soviet Union, where civilians were prevented from reaching the safe haven and religious freedom of European democracies. Living in Austria and Germany, Sues coordinated women’s and children’s ministries while starting her own family.

Sues found comfort in her faith in Christ through the abuse of an alcoholic husband, and then as a single mother of three boys. Her faith also sustained her through breast cancer, a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.

She married Tom in 2010. Sues enjoys a thriving marriage, 5 grandchildren, and good health.

 

RECLAIMING HOPE

When she returned to the United States, Sues coordinated emotional/spiritual care for victims of disasters globally. She led a residential program for single moms and their families in Colorado Springs. As an active member of First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, she has served as a deacon and on church committees, including missions.

Her first personal exposure to human trafficking was in 1977, when she worked at a Christian youth hostel in the Red Light district of Amsterdam. She has served Reclaiming Hope, a Colorado Springs ministry which journeys with human trafficking victims, first as a board member and now as Executive Director. She’s been active in the Human Trafficking Task Force of Southern Colorado meetings off and on since 2009. She has also opened her home to trafficking survivors.

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