Student Story: Sue
Sue Schabel on campus at Mary Andrews College
For Sue Schabel, studying at Mary Andrews College involved a leap of faith. Feeling called to change careers in her fifties, Sue left a career in health administration to pursue training to work in pastoral care.
After experiencing workplace bullying and being pushed from her workplace and career, Sue dedicated her time to looking to God for guidance. She shares, “I spent a considerable amount of time in prayer and said, ‘what is it that you want me to do God?’ There was a significant period of submission for me to try and trust where he was leading me.”
During this time, Sue was on long service leave, and her prayer led her to resign from health administration and take a new path. This was a difficult decision for her and her family, as Sue’s husband is a missionary and they had been relying heavily on her salary in health.
“Are you really serious Lord? I don’t think I’ve got the gifts or the skills to do pastoral care work.”
But, as Sue puts it, “I felt that I needed to trust God. And so I resigned and I felt a huge burden lift off my shoulders. And then he said, I want you to study pastoral care.”
The call to pastoral care was extremely surprising to Sue. Describing herself as blunt, or a person who says what it is, she thought, “Are you really serious Lord? I don’t think I’ve got the gifts or the skills to do pastoral care work.” However, God kept laying this call on Sue’s heart, so she searched for a place she could study, and found Mary Andrews College.
When investigating pastoral care subjects at MAC, Sue found out about the Certificate of Theology and began to consider it. She recalls, “I hadn't studied for 30 years and I was feeling quite apprehensive about it, but I had a long weekend to think about, and I went away camping with my husband and thought about it and prayed about it. When I came back I had decided to enrol.”
Initially, Sue thought she would complete the Certificate over two years, but family, life and world events intervened. Around 12 months into study, her mother fell ill, and Sue had to put her studies on hold to care for her.
She shares, “My mother is six hours away from where I am in Sydney. I pretty much spent the whole of 2019 going up and down to Coonabarabran and packing up a house and selling it and moving her into age care. But through that experience, God sort of gave me lots of pastoral care opportunities and, and observations through the lack of chaplaincy in hospitals.”
In 2020, Sue picked up her studies again and finished her Certificate of Theology amidst the pandemic restrictions, taking two subjects over Zoom and one face-to-face. After she finished, Sue turned to God in prayer to guide her in the use of her training, and he created opportunities for her as a pastoral carer in aged care. After her experience caring for her mother in illness and lifestyle transition, this is a role that God has very much put on Sue’s heart.
Sue shares, “I've gained a job as a pastoral carer in an Anglicare aged care facility and I'm putting into practice what I've learned at MAC in a practical way.”
Sue graduating from Mary Andrews College with her Certificate of Theology
Sue works three days a week for Anglicare and is also studying again at MAC this year, doing her Diploma of Ministry. She says, “I loved studying so much so I'm doing a Diploma of Ministry now to further deepen my knowledge of pastoral care and ministry to the aged.”
Despite her apprehension about returning to study after 30 years, Sue has thrived at MAC and credits the staff and students for her experience. She says, “The staff are amazing. They have all the time in the world for you to help you through understanding how to write an essay and understanding footnoting and bibliographies.”
Sue has also experienced deep fellowship through MAC and has made friends who will stay with her long after their experience of studying together has ended.
“There’s something very precious about the sisterhood and fellowship that you get, not just with the students, but the lecturers as well.”
The unique nature of MAC as a theological college for women is also something Sue values highly. She shares, “There’s something very precious about the sisterhood and fellowship that you get, not just with the students, but the lecturers as well.”
Studying at MAC also grew Sue’s confidence in her personal Christian faith. Before attending MAC she felt like other people had greater knowledge of the Bible than she did, which meant she wasn’t suited for small group leadership. But being equipped at MAC gave her the confidence to step in and lead a group that wouldn’t have gone ahead otherwise.
She shares, “Now 18 months into leading this women's Bible study group, they're all incredibly grateful. I've got 10 women that I lead that are all quite mature Christians, and I can lead them because of the study that I've done at MAC.”
Although challenging experiences brought her to MAC and family circumstances disrupted her study, Sue can clearly see the hand of God guiding her in study and work. As she continues to study at MAC and work in pastoral care, she trusts in God to make his paths known to her and continue to work in her all the days of her life.
This story first appeared in the Anglican Deaconess Ministries 2022 Annual Report