Susan Ellis
On a summer trip in Europe in 1985, Susan experienced "life behind the Iron Curtain" and couldn't get the picture of hopelessness/godlessness out of her head. Upon returning to the States she enrolled in Bible school and set out on a path towards ministry. For a while, that meant working a marketing job by day and church youth ministry by night. In 1993, however, friends of hers started Josiah Venture and invited her to join. After much prayer, she felt called to reach the youth of Central and Eastern Europe for Christ and thus became one of JV’s first 10 missionaries in 1995.
Over the next 20 years, Susan lived in four different cities in Poland. Her country-wide ministry included discipling, training young leaders, leading youth groups, conferences for young women, English camps, evangelistic EXIT tours, and mission trips. She also put her marketing experience to use, marketing programs, helping brand JV, JV/Poland, and Fala (JV’s national organization), as well as helping create and fundraise for the Camp and Conference Center, h2o, in Poland.
In 2015, Susan returned to the States and is now working in her church as Director of Local Compassion, Global Outreach, and Congregational Care. JV is still in her heart and she is happy to be able to use her experience now as an ambassador on the A-team, fueling and assisting JV's mission of seeing young people in Central and Eastern Europe transformed by the love of Jesus.
