February 2023 Newsletter

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Samaritan Inn Manager Position

Susan Nelson is retiring from managing our women and children’s shelter, Samaritan Inn.

She made a midlife career change to ministry more than 20 years ago. After leaving behind a background of eastern mysticism, she had a new purpose to share the Gospel with others. She earned an Associate degree in a related field, then worked as a supervisor in a youth services organization. Then she saw an advertisement for Evening Supervisor at Eugene Mission.

Susan recalled the Scripture verse, “Here am I. Send me” Isaiah 6:8. “She said, “A lot of people want the Lord to direct them. Here is a tremendous opportunity, and you do not have to go around the world, its right here in our community. It’s a position where you are not only allowed, but encouraged to talk to people about the Lord, pray with them, do chapel. We feed them, provide a safe place, help them formulate a plan to move forward in life. I’m not just working for a paycheck, I’m serving the Lord, having an opportunity to make a difference in peoples’ lives.”

A year after receiving the position of Evening Supervisor, Susan became the Women’s Center Manager at Eugene Mission, staying there a total of 12 years. She then moved to Roseburg to manage our Samaritan Inn for a year, when it was still in residential houses. She semi-retired, moving north and working part-time at Portland Rescue Mission for three years. Susan left that position to return to Roseburg to be the full-time Manager of, what had by then become our commercial-sized, Samaritan Inn, these past five years. She is now semi-retiring, remaining here in a part-time position. Susan is retiring from managing our women and children’s shelter.

We are now recruiting for the Samaritan Inn Manager position. The ideal candidate will have education in a related field, a social service background, volunteering experience, and a good connection to her church. She will have managerial ability over staff, program, volunteers, chapel, food service. She will work with our Operations Manager (not on-site) to oversee facility needs. Fundraising and bill paying are done by administrative staff on our other campus. The manager lives off-site. She reports to the Executive Director. Above all, she needs to have a heart for women and children, a concern for their well-being now and their place in eternity.

Much of the ministry has become working with the Department of Human Services, helping mothers reunite with their children and keeping them together. It’s providing a safe, nurturing environment away from negative influences of hunger, homelessness, addiction, fear, abuse, and separation. This is a place of healing broken relationships, shedding codependency, learning wholesome independence. The generational cycle of children following their parent’s broken lives can stop here. This is a place of faith, hope, and love. And we need a manager.