The Baby Sent Home to Die Who Grew Up to Reach Nations with Sue Corl

Sue Corl’s story is a powerful testimony of healing, identity, and purpose. Born with a severe cleft palate and sent home as a baby “to die,” Sue endured 26 surgeries, battled feelings of being less than, and learned how achievement could mask deep wounds. In this episode of Hope Unlocked, she shares how God rebuilt her identity, led her into decades of ministry in Hawaii, China, and Bangladesh, and birthed Crown of Beauty International. From Psalm 139 and inner healing to Bible studies, church planting, and even using goats to open doors for the gospel, Sue’s story reminds us that our past does not disqualify us from God’s calling.

Sue's contact info:

Website - https://www.crownofbeautyinternational.com/

Podcast - His Heartbeat with Sue Corl 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

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Welcome And Meet Sue Coral

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Sue Coral to the show. I'm so excited to have her here today. I had the honor of being on her podcast recently, and I thought, you know what, let's have you on mine. So here she is today. I'm excited to see you again. And before we get into your story, would you just share a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Thanks, Kristen. Thanks so much that I can be here with you and on your show. How exciting. I have very little time to be on many people's shows, so I don't even try. So I'm glad this worked out. Yeah, so I live now outside Philadelphia. But as I just shared with you before the show, I left this area out of college, went to Hawaii, was there for 10 years doing youth ministry work, and then went on to China. Well, I had one year in California, year roots, and in uh San Bernardino area, and then went to out to China, raised my family, came back to help mom and get my kids in college in 2016. So I've been here since then. I did have a little little blip of a time, a year and a half with my husband in Seattle when we first got married, because we met in China. And yeah, and we were actually at that point, we were working under Campus Crusade for Christ, and they wanted us to have a little time in America before we went overseas. So that's kind of how that happened.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

But you guys had to have time together in America first before Yeah, we actually felt more comfortable in Asia.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

I've been there so long that in the Asian culture at that point, but you know, you do what the boss says. So but we loved Seattle Nope. I'm so glad we had that opportunity. It was really, really fun place to be a honeymooner's.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

I bet, yeah, super fun.

Sent To Hawaii For Ministry

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Well, I want to go back a little bit to what age did you go to Hawaii? 22. You're 22. Okay. Yeah. So at that point, I mean, I think anybody would want to go to Hawaii. I would love to go to Hawaii. I still have never been there before, but at that point, were you like, what did that look like for you to go to Hawaii? Was there a mission at hand to go there? Yeah, other than going to the beach.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Yeah, I did a lot of that too. Um, what happened is I was mentored by Girls Penn State. I did not go there, I went to a small college, so we didn't really have a ministry. I had to start one. And so they were mentoring me long distance, and they and my brother joined Campus Crusade for Christ as a staff member. And so I thought, oh, that'd be cool because I was doing ministry at my college and loving it. But I was serious, field copy lacrosse, especially lacrosse player. And so I wanted to be on the East Coast and maybe play club while I was doing campus ministry and work with athletes and all that kind of stuff. And I specified that, but I also first actually that was my second ask. My first ask was to move to China, but they had they said, well, we aren't in China, and really hardly anybody is because it had just opened up. Really not been long. I'm older than you. And you know, they were like, No, you can't do that, but we'll send you to Hawaii, which isn't exactly what I was expecting, because it's an Asian culture, so it has to be somebody who really wants to work in an Asian culture or be Asian background. And we need a woman there. There's a single woman, and she really needs a companion. And so I agreed. And you know, you're thinking, yeah, of course you agree, but actually I I cried at first. I was like, I did because I knew I could only come home once a year, and I wasn't ready for that. Mentally, I'm thinking, ah, come back, you know, every other month or whatever. And uh you can't, it's far, it's it's uh six hours across, five hours from there, and then a layover. So you're talking, it's like living overseas. But then everybody and their mother that joined that summer with Camp Sursei was like, you get to go to Hawaii. Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

I mean, it seems like a dream, got it, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Or yeah, and it was really funny because my only picture being from the east coast here is hula skirts and Polynesian whatever. And I get there and I'm greeted by a Japanese American, takes me immediately to their weekly meeting, it was going on. I walk in the door, and it's all Asians, and they put flower lay over my neck, this guy, and gives me a kiss, and I was like freaked out. Like, what is going on? So there was one staff member who was a white guy, but everybody else was Asian, and then there was one white student gal, and so I went up to her, and turns out she was raised in Japan and was more Japanese, definitely, than American. So I'm like, okay, well, I'm definitely gonna learn Asian culture. My roommates were Asian, you know. I I I learned a lot of things how to, you know, the food, chopsticks, taking shoes off a door, being more indirect, and we definitely are very direct in Philadelphia. A lot of different things like that. So it was the perfect thing, and as well as I was helping with the writing, writing room, they called it, like kids that needed help with their writing at college. So I had a lot of Chinese students, tons. Well, I'd already had that heart, I told you, to go to China, and so that was perfect, you know. So I I got my master's in teaching English as a second language, which it had one of the best programs in the country, actually. And that helped could get a job in in China. That's why I did that, you know, because you mean I was a PE major, you're not gonna get a job in that in in China. So yeah, and and you know, it just made me a better teacher for sure. I did I did have an education background, but that was helpful.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Okay, yeah. Well, and I I was just curious too, you know, you had this desire at what point in your life, you know, you were 22 going to Hawaii, but prior to that, like at what age did you feel this draw to go to China?

The Family Story Behind China

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Do you remember?

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Like, yeah, it was it was in college and my family roots on my my let's see, grandmother or grandfather's side, I think my grandparents' side was if they had, yeah, it's my grandmother, her brother adopted a child who was related through marriage to to him. And what happened with that child is she was born in China to a young couple, so first child who are missionaries. This is way back in the earlier 1900s, okay. Probably around 19, I think it's like 1928, something like that. And at that point, the Japanese were invading. Also, Chairman Mao is starting to move up the country and kind of win favor. So all this is going on. So you never know. In fact, there was debates who actually entered the village where they had planted a church, led people to Christ and planted a church. But I think the final consensus was Japanese soldiers and they beheaded our relatives as a couple, young couple, but they had a baby, but they when they couldn't get out in time, right? Everybody's like, they're coming, they're coming. They were warned to leave, but they wouldn't leave the believers. So the mother hid or father hid the baby in a closet, and sure enough, soldiers came in and killed them. So after the soldiers left, the church members, you know, found their bodies, they're beheaded, and no babies. So they they started looking for the baby, afraid probably that the baby got kidnapped or something, but they actually heard the baby and they went and rescued her. One man put the baby in his rice pack and carried her through villages, would get women to breastfeed her, and then got to the border. I believe it was 300 miles. If it's been a while since I read that book, but and called my be my great uncle, my mom's uncle, and said, come get this baby. So they did, and they adopted her. And so I grew up hearing those stories. My mom had artifacts, which I now have from the missionaries, not just that that couple, the one related to us was the the what the wife, but the husband actually, his whole family was there. And I mean, insanely enough, I had a relative that grew up in China as a child and went to a school not far in the same province that I lived in, and then moved there and to a another city, which ended up being the city that I ended up in. But I have no idea of the kind of no, I didn't know, I didn't request that city. We were actually were sent to a city that turns out to be the police headquarters of China, and an American couple just been kicked out in the same apartment complex we were supposed to live in. So they they moved us, not the government, but the Christians, moved us to another location, another apartment, and said, you really shouldn't stay in this city. If you want to stay in this country long, you shouldn't stay here because this is okay if you're here for a short time. But if you try to be here a long time as a believer and you're, you know, actively not on the street corners, you know, no one can do that there, but you're actually involved in in your mission, in a mission, forget it. So they they suggested this city, and as we went there to visit. I'm like, okay, we're moving. It was right on the beach, it was stunning. Back to Hawaii, but I'm in China. I mean, it was so nice. We ended up living just two blocks from the beach, you know, it's really, really nice. Beautiful city. It was the the head of architecture for the whole country lived there. So he we had like a model, we were the model city, you know, it was it was a tourist city for for Chinese, not for foreigners. Okay, so it's really nice. So it's a great place to raise our family. So, anyway, what happened going back to my 20s? I read this book, and there's this part where John, their names are John and Betty Scam. There's many mission books written about them. And that's your great uncle and yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

I was gonna ask about the book. I heard you mention I haven't read the book for a while. It's just the book.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

It's called John and Betty Scam. Just look up that name and you'll find. So there's there's a few books out there. And the one book that I read, I read them all, but it said a quote from John in his journal, and it said, Lord, I pray that for generations in my family that our family will love God and love China. And as soon as I read that, I got this chill just all the way down my body. It was like a calling from God, like it was it was so from the Holy Spirit, and I just knew he said, This is where you're to go one day. So it was in my heart, and then it turns out, see, there's no coincidences, right? I actually just interviewed somebody that has that title in their book, but anyway, so the gal that discipled me from Penn Skate, she was my brother's girlfriend's roommate. That's how that connection happened. Okay. All right.

Revival Momentum And Open Doors

SPEAKER_02 13:39

She went to she went to China when she graduated, and so she's writing to me. She was younger than me, but so I'm in Hawaii and she's writing to me. And I'm like, I can get there.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

She knew your desire to get there.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

She did, and she helped plan it. And to tell you the truth, at that time, Penn State was having a revival, like for real. There were in Campus Crusade alone, there were 12 or 1,300 students involved at one time. Yes. And when I would go visit, they had a continuous 24-hour prayer chain in every stairwell of every dorm. They, which you see in many hour of the night, there were posters everywhere, there were people sharing faith everywhere. And they weren't the only, they were the largest ministry, but there were other ministries that were pretty big. And so I feel like I really got an experience in a revival, and it greatly impacted me. So because China at that point had just opened up, there was a real push in the mission field with mission agencies to go. And it happened at Camps Crusade. They did go, but it was another five years.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

So they were a little bit like slower to go in.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah, I think they had a few pioneer types who were trying things out, seeing what you could do, what was safe, what wasn't, what was I wouldn't say legal, but permissible, I guess you want to say. And then would they report, would they kind of report back? Yeah. Yeah. So I did take students there in '85. I took a group of students and we taught English for a summer to all the middle school teachers in that particular province. And then I went with a group in 88. It was a language study, and my husband to be was there. But we did meet. He was working with Campus Crusade for Christ. That's cool. He'd come from Penn State, he knew my brother again. Coincidence, not you knew your brother. Yeah. So many questions to your brother. I know, but we didn't actually decide, we didn't date. There was an attraction, but he was kind of just starting out, and I'd already been working for years and in the ministry. And so I ended up dating another guy, almost married him, but we didn't, so that's God's providence, you know. Because then five years later, Todd moves to China, and I meet up with him at a teacher's, it's like a teacher's training. So I meet up with him, and we ended up the story's a little bit longer, but basically after I met him, it was which was in January and April, I saw him again, and we decided this is gonna happen. We started dating and then got engaged in the summer and married a few months later. And yep, and so pretty quick. It was, but by then I was 34 because I was in China for or in Hawaii for almost 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah. So by that time you were in China for a couple of years at this point then?

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Yes, exactly. Yeah, and then we stayed another 19 more 21 years. Yeah. Our first year was actually Hong Kong at the time, it was not a part of China. Oh, really? And it it that year became a part of China, so we left because we were supposed to be the place that Chinese missionaries could come out and rest, have babies, see doctors, get a break from the security, a security situation. But since it turned back to China, it couldn't function that way anymore. They moved it to Singapore. And we we didn't want to be that far from China. It's too far and expensive to go in and out. So we decided, well, let's just move into China, let's find a way. So that's what we did.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

I wanna I wanna kind of go back a little bit because you know, I've I've read some books. Uh let's see. Have you read the book The Heavenly Man?

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Wow. That actually was um the prison he was in was in our province.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Was it really? I mean, I I read that and I think you know, I I just want to kind of hear more about you and just who you are to kind of

Risk Taking Faith And Cleft Palate

SPEAKER_00 19:01

you know, a lot of people don't take risks. Oh they want to definitely take risks. I'm a high risk person. Our our world tries to keep you safe, safe, secure. So I want to hear more about Sue and how you were created. Because have you always been this way? Did you like what birth order are you? Like, are you do you have like your other siblings? Like, what what are they like? Are they more safe or risky? Tell us a little bit more about all of this.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Okay, I'm definitely the highest risk person. I'm the youngest child of three. Okay. I have to say, I don't know who I would be had I not experienced what I did as a baby. Seriously, that really shaped who I am. So I was born with a very severe cleft palate. I had no nose, no upper lip, no upper palate.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Really?

SPEAKER_02 19:55

They sent me home to die after three weeks because they had no way to get food into me, and I was really getting tiny, like from eight pounds to six pounds. And my mother was a pediatric nurse, another one of these quote coincidences, because we had the number one cleft palate surgeon and plastic surgeon in the whole country at that time. And they were people were bringing babies from all over the country for him. But when I was born, I was even more severe than anything he dealt with. And I had a weak heart, and he said, I can't operate, she'll die on the outbringing table. Well, my mom had already been working there for two years with his babies. You know what I'm saying? So he was so specialized. They had her specialized with these babies because she was so clever at figuring out how to feed them, how to calm them down, how to take care of all the skitches so they wouldn't have lots of scars, you know, the whole comfort them, the whole thing. She became an expert, and then I'm born two years later. So she wasn't shocked. She knew she couldn't, she knew she's Christian, she knew it was God's plan. I know you're into about into that whole topic about God's plan. And she knew God had prepared her and that I wasn't gonna die, that I was God's gift.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

And so when he said that to her, she's like, No, she's not gonna die.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Yeah, I'll take her home and I'll get her strong and bring her back. So after three months, she did. She took me home, she figured out how to use a children's mask and attach through tape and elastic and all kinds of things, a baby bottle, keep it on my head, and I began to suck for the first time, which is why I have a normal bottom jaw, because if you don't suck, it just shrinks. So I had 26 surgeries for 15 years. So every yeah, so the first three years I mostly lived in the hospital. There are a lot of complications. I had breathing issues, heart issues, lots of I have a strong heart, but because I'd stop breathing sometimes. So she would at home, she would lay me in bed, which she does not normally recommend because you can smother the baby. But for that reason, she put me right by her ear. And if I stopped breathing, she'd wake up. They said, I'm I don't know if that's like mother's thing or God just the Holy Spirit or an angel or something woke her up. Yeah. And only one time did she walk away, like just go somewhere, and my grandmother was taking care of me. And she walks back in the room and she I was on my grandmother's shoulder, but I was blue. And she ran up the ground. Yeah, she grabbed me and got me breathing again. So anyway, you know, and then through all through school it was it was rough, especially elementary school. The kids were boys are really brutal. You know, I had speech impediment here I am a public speaker now as a professional. I mean we'll get back to that part in a little bit I know I know right you know so I I endure a lot but my neighborhood was really safe. We had a ton of kids and like very large group and they were good kids. And so it turns out I was God gave me athletic gifting and that was such a blessing because I it when I was young I just get home and neighborhood but then my dad he left us unfortunately when I was in middle school or just starting middle school and you know it was a lot of stress the financial aspect for mom you know but yeah she remarried within a half a year he remarried in a year and he he continued a relationship with us and even they had a good relationship at some point eventually pretty quick. So yeah it was good we moved into an area that sports was a big deal and I started and was very successful in it. Coach told me in ninth grade you're going to be an Olympian someday. So sure enough became my focus you know I'm gonna do this. Yeah yeah yeah and I I did I worked really hard at it went to a college a small private college back before Title IX just before so I didn't get any scholarships you know that kind of thing so it but that meant that even the small schools could have top teams so I went where there was like US coaches on as college coaches too you know and so sure enough I made the US lacrosse team my freshman year. So that became my focus you know and unfortunately I've been a Christian just two years. My my mom didn't know how to talk about her faith just it wasn't in she was like you know I don't I don't like to mention denominations. It's a good denomination but the focus was more on like love love people love your neighbor don't preach and she would pray for patience and stuff like that and we said our prayers at night and all that but my my grandparent my grandfather was a a minister so I did have that influence but anyway I heard

Sports Identity And Coming Back To God

SPEAKER_02 25:41

the gospel in high school and became a Christian but in college I fell away okay the first two years and it was very miserable and so my brother who I led to Christ when I was in high school he got involved campus crusade that's how that happened in college. Really yeah it's the I have two old I have an oldest brother who was in the drug culture and then I have my middle brother who was very close to Richard got out of it obviously eventually but so yeah so he had a big impact on me. He was raising support to go to Guam on a mission and helped introduce me to that friend and the whole thing. So I gave my life like 100% to Jesus went back we our US team led a hockey camp or sorry lacrosse camp and I I said hockey because it was that time of year but it was actually lacrosse camp and yeah it was really cool or hundreds of kids they put me in charge of the talent show so I yeah so I play guitar I wrote a song of my testimony and I shared in front of the whole US team and all these kids and that night we had to put it make sure everybody went to bed you know you go we were in a college dorm situation all these high schoolers everything they told me every stinking room was talking about Jesus so that was really cool. And that gave me courage so then we I started college and my friends all thought I'd gone off the deep end but one of my best friends was a football player and he he was a partier with me he gave his life to Jesus that summer so we started a fellowship of Christian athletes that's what we did and um like at the school or you started at our science no no no at the school and it was like you're you're quite the pioneer oh yeah no no no that that's been around I think so that was cool so we got that going lots of kids 50 kids eventually right away now pretty quick I mean within that year yeah for sure it was it was very cool and I want to say when you have a revival people who are touched and they go back to their area it often spreads into there and I I really believe that's what was happening because it was so supernatural. So my brother invited me to go he went from Guam to the Philippines where he stayed for 41 years and he invited me to come in the summer and show the Jesus film and I did so I was only one year walk the Lord and I go there and I'm like wow this is so cool. I knew nothing and yet I'm leading people to Christ you know we you said I know nothing and I'm leading people to Christ I think we need to like stop clarify that yeah so I I really knew very little but the Jesus film told it all and I was in charge of running the machine and then I played guitar right so I would you tell your testimony sing a song and tell my testimony okay so that's kind of mostly what I knew except I had done one year at the university and when I say I knew nothing I knew obviously I was being mentored some it was just by phone. I didn't know a lot but I had my little four spiritual laws booklet and Holy Spirit booklet all these things you know that kind of stuff and I had little books and I'd use them and and my other friend the two of us would work together.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Yeah and I want to I wanted to kind of like highlight that because I think a lot of times people wait to step into something until they have a degree in knowing everything. Right?

SPEAKER_02 29:35

You always know if you're a Christian you always know more than somebody else right and testimony yeah is powerful and true.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

And it impacts like like you've already shared right capture that Kristen I didn't share about my cleft palette until 20 years ago I mean it's obvious I had it but no very very common with people that have any kind of disability or handicap or disfiguring something is that you feel a lot of shame in it. And so you it was this feeling if if I don't talk about it no one will scare at me and you know that you know that kind of thing. And so I I really needed healing from that. When I got complete healing which again was probably 22 years ago from that aspect there were a lot of things I got healing from already but I'd say for the the 10 years of athletics my confidence came through that through the athletics. Yes it was almost like a mask and you know like you don't see the real me you just see this amazing athlete and then God wisely put me in Hawaii because not only preparing for Asia but if if I told somebody oh I'm a US lacrosse player they'd say a la what the what I had no idea I and I'd be like well I was field hockey what is that is that like on the ice you know you're like no it's kind of like soccer oh I know that you know because I was I was actually going to try out for field hockey but I made lacrosse first so that was a big part of my life too so it was really good because I had to find I had an identity outside of sports because so often y'all we for those listening we draw our identity from something or someone you know I'm a mother of these incredible kids. You know they gotta yell and they get harvent you know that kind of thing or my success or my profession or my talent but I had to learn that there was more to me than that that my my identity in who I am in Christ is you know where the glory to God is and where I can feel confident in that. But it's been a slow growing thing and you know I think at first yes there was this incredible excitement that I know Jesus and he loves me and I love him and he's with me and he thinks I'm worth it so I feel worth it whether a star athlete or not in fact kind of what brought turned me back was I was on tour with the US team in England. Well we went through all of Great Britain and we had this big audience and they played the American you know Star Spangled Banner anthem and everybody singing and all that kind of stuff and people cheering and I felt completely empty I thought I'm 19 I reached my life goal now what you know and I heard God say the answer's me you need to turn back to me. As you're listening to the Star Spangled Band. Yeah I just got tears in my eyes and had to suck it up and stopped and played the game but yeah and I knew like right then I had to turn back and so when just a few couple months later I was home with my brother when he was raising support and he helped me get back on track. Now did you did you stop being part of the team or did you still you did a both you did both then at that yeah so I did both but then when he asked me go to Philippines for the summer that was between my junior senior year I had to make a choice for me to go to Philippines I had to quit because we were training all summer I suppose yeah yeah so and at that point I really I'd done one year of ministry at my college I'm like I'm loving this I wasn't a hundred percent sure I do that yet I was still possibly thinking coaching you know but there's definitely a possibility and then Christmas time I went to Campus Crusade big Christmas conference and that it was there where God made it clear this is what I want you to do.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

And so I joined when I graduated that's amazing like I mean looking back here you know we're talking about this today can you imagine like had you gone because we we're given choices God gives us choices we don't have to like he gives us directives and we can be obedient or not can you imagine like how different your life would have been had you chosen that other path I mean I do think about it I think that environment was really bad honestly yeah it was very rare to find a Christian I mean maybe maybe like I had some impact but yeah it was not a helpful environment and I think I would have just stayed in that my whole worth and identity I'll be the best coach I'll be whatever you know but yeah he just I needed to have that time of stripping that away and you know learning what it really means to serve God and get trained in it.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I I will say I'm not currently with campus crusade I left just four years ago to start my nonprofit but I gotta say when in fact I help some campus crusade movements overseas and man those people are trained they are organized they can put on a conference they can they're very disciplined even in countries where that's not like a strength I'd say and yeah so I think because of that you know I could 20 years ago when he called me to start Crown of Beauty International I already know how to do that I knew how to build movements I knew how to disciple people I knew how to write a Bible study you know I was used to speaking up front the whole thing I it really did equip me so it's a great stepping stone I think to do where he has me today.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Yeah what I I want to I want to make sure that we capture this part of your story as well the speaking

Learning To Speak With Confidence

SPEAKER_00 37:04

so coming in front of people you know you were able to step out and you you crown of beauty I love the name of your ministry it's amazing what was that like for you did you ever struggle with speaking because I know like just for my own thing like I don't love getting in front of people it's not my favorite but like what did that look like for you because I think you'd mentioned a little bit about that I want to make sure that we capture the speaking aspect of what God's called you to do.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

Well interestingly you know often you can look back at your childhood I was just talking to somebody on a podcast about this where I would line up my stuffed animals because I had a million of them if y'all are not from the US listening I think what do you call them you don't call them stuffed animals sounds horrible but like little play toy yeah little animals so I would get a million of those in the hospital every time you go I get them from doctors and nurses and family and friends so I had over a hundred so I'd line them all up and I would preach to them I would read Genesis one only Genesis one over and over my grandfather gave me his Bible just a red Bible I still have it King James which I don't even use now but anyway and so I would read it over and over which is just kind of funny because I think you know I always had that heart to teach and as long as I had a cover I'm gonna say like athletics or in my neighborhood I felt very they were used to me I felt very accepted I was a leader I was the one I wasn't necessarily the oldest by any means I was probably about in the middle or little in the lower and younger and I would organize all kinds of things I would organize like we did a whole a fair country fair I organized all the 15 of us to put on different games and make money and get our parents to make food and did a whole neighborhood event I put on a dog show I put on I you know again everybody playing baseball I just always would lead everything so if I felt safe if I felt that environment accepted me I would take charge and I was very okay being in front of everybody and and doing that. So in school once I hit my ninth grade is when really my athletics just you know and everybody knew it I got the award best athlete all that kind of thing boys and girls knew it. So I was accepted I was on the cool kids table or whatever popular because of that and it gave me confidence. So it's funny because I still wouldn't look myself in the mirror and yet somehow I thought what people looked at as this great athlete they didn't it's almost like I thought they didn't notice this you know cleft palette or the you know the way my scars or this or whatever and by then my speech was pretty good may maybe maybe not perfect yet but getting there and yeah I had no I think it was okay by then so I I felt that confidence because again I was hiding right behind something ironically but that was of God he knows what you need what you can use you know maybe some listening right now when they think about it's like am I actually hiding behind this degree am I hiding behind this success am I hiding behind my children you know or whatever it is my titles but you know God uses that to get you where you need to be and and he's so patient right he's so patient with us so finally as he stripped that all away in in college or not college when I assume youth ministry but I was very successful and it was the same kind of things yeah boom right away I had like a ton of people receive Christ and went Bible studies and the whole thing and so and by my second year I became the associate director there and did that for years. So again I feel like I I still think I was growing in more and more

Psalm 139 And Healing Shame

SPEAKER_02 41:47

knowing the love of Christ but it was really in my early 30s by now I'd already gone to seminary and I knew how to study the Bible and I was reading Psalm 139 one day and I came to verse 1314 where it talks about where David says I praise you God because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made before that he says how he knit me together in my mother's womb and I realized that I didn't believe that that I was hiding you know in a way behind all these positions and success and that the Bible says that I need to believe it. Yeah I I finally recognize and that's what we talk about in our ministry is that there's lies that go on they're so deep they begin way when we're a kid you know and they can come from things people said from trauma from things you hear in media all the or just the devil himself just whispering these things in your ear and getting free from that you have to first recognize that it exists and that's what happened that day is when I saw I'm fearfully wonderfully made I heard myself finally saying in my head no I'm not I think I always felt it but I never heard it you never actually recognize no I like in my head I was like oh my goodness I do not believe that I am fearfully wonderfully made but then again what does that actually mean so I started digging into the Hebrew which I learned to do you know fancy little mechanisms to look that up and discovered fearfully really refers to the fact that made in an awesome way because I'm creating the image of God going all the way connected to Genesis 1 26 27 back to Genesis 1. Yeah all the way to chat Genesis 1 like what you're preaching to your animal yeah oh yeah that's so funny yeah I never thought of that till you said that so funny yeah see you can read these things over and over and I meant nothing I know in fact how many people really realize that if you're created in the image of God we talk about this at our conference it means that you reflect the Lord his beauty his personality his kindness his love his abilities his talents he gives that to you and he sees you as talented as beautiful As wonderful, as good, you know, all these things. So we're to see that. And that's why David could say that it wasn't because he looked himself, oh, I am good looking. Oh, I am an amazing guy. It wasn't, it's because he knew that he was reflecting this beautiful, amazing God. So I said, Okay, I'm gonna believe it. And so I you have to do it by faith at first. There's no feeling connected first, but by faith, Lord, I trust that you knew what you were doing and that I am beautiful in your sight. That's good enough for me. And that I am beautiful because I am creating your image. And let me reflect that to others. And shortly after, I think it was the same day actually, I took a walk along until we lived by the seaside by then. And I'm taking a walk, and the Lord just was there in my mind so strongly, like an image of him saying to me, You're beautiful, Sue. And yeah, it was I just start crying. I'm walking as dog, I'm like bawling on the beach. And I really I really am, and that's enough for me, you know. So people, you can think whatever you want, I don't care. It's like coming to that place where you care more about what God thinks, but also that that was so freeing, and that set the stage, I think, for me. It was about 10 years later that God really called me to start this ministry crown of beauty.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

So you're in your 30s when you had this revelation, like beauty. I mean, I think of even you know, David, a man after God's heart, right? But he was the one who was passed over in being chosen as king. I I remember I can't remember in, you know, I'm not gonna be able to quote it correctly, but he was passed over. He was like the others, I should here, let me quote this right. The others in his, you know, his brothers were actually passed over, even though they were handsome and stature and you know, all the things, and yet he was the chosen one, right? I just thought that was like as you were talking, I was thinking of that because I just I love this. Okay, so let's speed ahead. So you're four in your forties. What what happened in your forties then? You said that there was a ministry.

Launching Crown Of Beauty In China

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Yeah, so I was them by then and loving it, I had a ministry. I just taped my kids along with me where I visited missionaries around the country and it's in China. Everybody's doing it all secretly. But anyway, you we knew each other. So I would I meet with them as well as some pastors' wives in our city, the internationals, and they they're all having a hard time. Some are depressed, they're anxious, marriage issues, parenting issues, loneliness, isolation, feeling like a failure, all these things going on. And I found myself as I I was supposed to, my assignment was to meet with them and find out how their ministry's going. But I ended up just talking about how they were doing in their heart and their walk with God and their relationships, and found myself sharing from my own story, but also what I learned, you know. Like, let's see, this is the lie I was believing. What's the lie you've been believing? And you hear it as soon as they would tell how they were doing, you would because then I'd say, Well, how does that make you feel? You know, and they'd say, Well, you know, I I don't even have the energy to go out in the day. Well, why not? Because I'm just so depressed. Well, tell me more about that. What kind of thoughts are you having? Well, I just think I'm no good. I can't do this. I'm no good. So there's the first slide, I'm not good enough. And I'm just giving a quick illustration. So, so tell me about that. Have you ever felt not good enough before in your past? And 90% of the time, maybe almost closer 100, they'll say, Oh, well, yeah, actually, I often felt that way. Oh, well, tell me more about that. So we talk about that, and and we say, Well, let me tell you what God says about you. You know, we talk about how we are good enough that we're created by him, and he prepares us in advance to do the good works that he has for us, and he can we can do all things through him. So you are good enough, you know. So we we go through what scripture says, and and I say, let's pray and just reject those lies because they captivate you and their strongholds in your life. And sometimes there would be a sense of it was even they given in, which I had done in when I was uh single in China, to some lies, so much so that I actually was very oppressed or have really, I want to say unknowingly, invited demonic presence in into my life, and I had to get free a spirit of fear from a spirit of fear. So make sure that wasn't happening, and we talk about that and then pray together and then have a meditate on truth. Well, during those five years, what happened is those people now I'm focusing on their heart with God and with themselves and others, and yet then their ministry improves, right? Because now they're operating out of healthy thoughts and healthy emotions, and it's helping their relationship. Suddenly they don't want to go home, you know, that kind of thing happening. So after five years of doing that, one thing is my kids are starting school and all that, and it just got too hard to be dragging along. I didn't want to be leaving them much, so I knew I had to stop anyway. So I I knew it was time for a change. So I still was mentoring people. People were I started getting my master's of counseling actually, and in the summertime I come back to the US and take courses and some things online, and that was also helpful. And then how did that happen? Goodness. Yeah, I just I yeah, I came to that a point where I knew this is you know, I I need to put together something that will present these topics, you know. So actually how that happened was I just shared for five minutes at church, they had me share testimony. Okay, and this woman who was new to our church, it's international church, she was from Texas. She said that, hey, I just got here, but I'm an event coordinator back in Texas. And if you will be a speaker, I'll plan a conference here. And I'm like, okay. You just immediately said okay. Yeah, because what happened is when all this was going on, and I'm thinking, you know, I I really need to keep sharing this with people, but I was frustrated because now I'm not doing this other job and I got my kids here. How am I gonna do this? And and I'm in China, you can't do conferences in China, and now I'm not like in the organization to go talk to people about, you know, what am I gonna do? Yeah, and the Lord told me now it's not like I audibly hear these things, but they're so strong in your mind and they come out of nowhere. You can you you're not having these thoughts, and so I was on a bus carrying a lot of groceries standing up, crowded in with people and and kind of whining to God about this. Like I have no opportunity to teach, and because I'm here in China, and so the Lord, and that was my gift, I knew it was, and I had had a lot of experience in that. And the Lord said, You write a conference, and I'll bring the people, and I laughed because I I saw Field of Dreams, and it was like that, you know. Yeah, it was, it was almost the same. It made me laugh, and so I wrote this story. I wrote a book two books ago, Shaking Off the Shackles, and I so I had to finally look up the field of dreams thing when you know the exact wordings, pretty darn close. And so I he said, Don't worry about it, I'll write it, yeah, I'll bring them. You just write it. So I did spend that time, those like six months writing it, and it was shortly after that, actually a week after I finished, that this woman came up and told me that. So I of course I'm gonna say yes. Yes, that's and also it's kind of clever because it's the international community, and we were we were allowed to meet and we were allowed to talk about Jesus together. Okay, so she coordinated that, but right after that, one of the pastors in the community said, his wife said, Will you come teach this? Because I told her about to my church, so I got to do my first little house church one. That was really cool, and then unknowns to me, turns out they were fourth and fifth generation pastors, like their families went back very unusual, and they had networks all over the country, but so that kept me busy for the next let's see, 11 years. Yeah, we were just you know, I I couldn't do as much at first because the kids, but as they got older, and my husband was great, I gotta say. He was he would take care of kids, and everybody has helpers over there, so I always had these lovely Christian women that came in every day so they could help too, you know. Yeah, so it was pretty cool. Did that the whole time I was there, and we started a men's side to it called More than Conquerors in 2015. Okay, but I really felt like I had to move back to the states to help my mom and get my kids into college because they never lived here in the US, so they were not used to the culture here. So we had they had a lot of adjustments. So we came back and I got a team together started within the year. And yeah, since then it's just launched out. People from other countries invite us, and we start developing in other nations.

SPEAKER_00 56:12

Amazing. So if somebody were to want to hear more about this, where could they find you?

Books Bible Study And Where To Find Sue

SPEAKER_02 56:21

Yeah, so our website is crown of beauty international.com.

SPEAKER_03 56:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

I wrote so in 2005 was when I started it, right? 2009, I spoke to a large, the largest international church in up in Beijing, and they said, Do you have a follow-up Bible study for this? And I said, I'll get you one. So I already had I already had a skeleton for my master's degree in counseling, yeah, something like it. So I worked on it, and I don't know, is this a video? You know, maybe this is my video. So I worked on this Crown of Beauty 12-week women's Bible study. This is the leader's guide. The what the one you see in the middle is a participant guide. And started, I wrote that, we got it translated into Chinese. We gave out 6,000 copies there. 6,000? Yeah, yeah, I was busy. And then now that I'm here, we have it. I was trying to get the number. I think it's 14 languages now. We keep adding a language. Our next one, I think, is Creole. And someone right now is working. We have French participant book, but they're working on the leader book right now, just this week working on that. And I have a new book coming out. So I wrote my my life story. Okay. I decided, you know, when I do these conferences, yeah, which oh, you ask how can people so they can buy the Crown of Beauty 12-week Bible study on Amazon. And if you type in my name, Sue Coral, like Coral of the Sea, but without an A, C-O-R-L, on Amazon, then all my books will come up. I have eight, and then I have the Bible study is on Amazon in French and Spanish. But if you want other languages, if y'all speak other languages, I probably have it. You can just email crown of beauty international at gmail.com and I can get you that digitally. But this is my my newest. However, I have another one coming out in a few weeks. But this is my life story. Yeah, you can if you're seeing a video, you can see a picture of me as a little girl. Close up, you can see more of the cleft palette's pretty obvious. But so triumphant transformation, the subtitle Cleft Lip to Healing Lips. So it's very skinny. I wanted a really short, easy keep. I sell it for five dollars on at our conferences online. I think it's $575, is what Amazon charges, but it's my memoir, even has a few pictures. But yeah, I finally got that out so people can easily get it. And then if people want to host a conference at their church, you know, most likely we can come. So if I can't, I might I will come if I'm not overseas at the time. But otherwise, I have a whole amazing teaching team and they'll teach. Our conference is called Beauty for Ashes. When I first started the ministry, I called it that. When I came back to the skates, I saw that there's 10 million Beauty for Ashes. So I changed it to Crown of Beauty, which matches our Bible study book. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

Well, you are incredible. Thank you for for coming on and sharing your testimony. Like, what is what is new? Like, what's stretching for you? Because I know you're you've stretched a lot throughout your life, but is there anything else coming down the pipeline for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Yeah, I think what's challenging. So I'm the executive director of Crown of Beauty. Before I was doing all this

Bangladesh Church Planting And Goats

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

under campus crusade, and they warned me if you break off, it's a lot of work to be a known prophet. And the reason I did that was only because there were things starting to happen. We we I got connected with a pastor in Bangladesh, and he's been church planting in Bangladesh, which is 90% Muslim, 8% Hindu, 0.2% Christian. And he became a nonprofit the same time as me. He actually worked for Campus Crusader River. That's how I got connected initially. So he left and I left the same time, just quote unquote coincidentally. You can title this are there really coincidences? Um he has now planted 18 churches in just three years, 15 pastors, five other staff members. So I've been trying to raise funds for him to support him and to we build a cow farm. So I was getting people to buy cows. We build a goat farm, so it's getting people to buy goats. They use goats for evangelism. Like here, we pass out tracks, they pass out goats, and then people will listen.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:35

Do you have to explain? I can't not know what this means.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

So so we were, we were sorry, not we were, he was going into villages, like he only goes to ones where there's no Christian witness, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

So he's going into like Muslim villages, Hindu villages, and they end up getting their they try to build a a little house, tin shack thing, and it would get burned down, you know, or they'd be driven out, or they'd be beaten up, or or you know, they'd burn down their land, or it was it was bad. So it was very dangerous. So the Lord gave them this idea of well, we just need to do something physically to help the village because they're very poor. So we'll do this first. So they went in with 10 goats, they went to the head of the village, there's always a head person, and said, We want to bless your village. We are Christians and God loves you, and we want to bless your village from a gift from God to you. And they wouldn't say Jesus right away, so they were all kind of okay with it, you know. I mean, they they kind of knew they're Christian, but and they would pick out 10 poor people and and then they come in and they give each one a goat and then they pray over them, and then they talk to the whole village because the village would all show up to you know to thank the group that did that, and then boom, they could stay, they could be in the village. There still have been some persecuting times, but it's minimal compared to what it was, and usually even they have those threats, somebody rescues them because they've done these good things. So I'm trying to buy goats for evangelism.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

I love it, I've never heard anybody say that before. I'm trying to help buy goats, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

So it's it was 40, it's going up $50 for a goat. And the thing is, it's so cool because they'll give it to the family and they also help give little medical treatment if needed, they train them how to breed them and you know, with the other goats, the other neighbors' goat that we gave. And then pretty soon they can have the little ones can have up to three goats each time, twice a year. So they go from one goat to six goats, they they definitely eat goat meat and they drink goat milk. Okay. So they they can sell the goats that breed, they can sell the meat, they can whatever, you know, the milk. And suddenly they go from destitute poverty where they can't even put their kids in school because schools aren't free. Even if a place where it might, I don't think any are free, but they have to have uniforms and all this kind of stuff. So to doing well, and then they end up coming to their church and coming to Christ. So he's now had in these three, three and a half years, over 600 people come to Christ, be baptized, not just come to Christ, but have being baptized, you can come to Christ, you might get away with it, but when you're baptized, that's where the persecution begins. So these are serious commitments. It it's been beautiful. So each time I go to go every year, I get to distribute 10 goats, and it's so darn fun. Like this is the coolest thing. So if any of you're listening, you want to come on the mission trip and give out some goats, you know, we'll do our conference, our beauty for Ashes conference. I have another one called Thrive, not just survive, which is really good. We do that a lot a lot with refugees and poor people. Anyway, yeah, you can come, just go again to groundbeauty international at gmail.com, let us know, send you an application to go on a mission trip. But yeah, so that's that's what I don't know how I got into that. Oh, but that's so that's why I had to leave because crew's like, well, we're sorry, but we're not licensed to reimburse cows and goats or or even building churches and some of the things you've been doing. So they were great. Yeah, they're like you're not only that, but I'm all over the place, and that's not normal. Normally you're supposed to be one place, like I've been all along, yeah. And so I I just I couldn't do that. So so the challenge is, I think that's kind of what you asked me, is raising funds for that every time we go, it's it's about not even for our cost, just for them to bring in. Oh, usually a conference draws a hundred to three hundred people. You have to for three days, you're feeding them, you're paying for their bus fare or however they get there. And in some cases, having to house people. So it gets very pricey. And you know, so that's we go on, we have six or seven a year. You can do the math, it's a lot. And and then you've got, you know, like that, the goat farm, right? To build that was six sixty five hundred dollars and the cow farm is thirteen thousand. And but the cow farm is now after we're into like two years self-sufficient. And by the next year I'll start making enough to pay for some salaries for the pastors. They live on 200 a month, can you imagine? So yeah, and then we're raising support for that for that I have another organization I go through to for salaries for people. Yeah. So it can I make sure I listen to all the podcasts about overwhelm. No, I'm kind of teasing I've actually had guests talk about that. I listen really well. No the main thing I would say in that is

Fundraising Self Care And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_02 1:07:44

like one take care of yourself. I take better care of my health than I ever have. I I have a health you know my daughter's actually a health coach before I had another woman but yeah yeah so take care of yourself and you know learn learn how to really eat right sleep right yeah and that all that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:03

And so that would be like some advice that you'd give because I was going to ask you yes what would you say to the one who's listening in today like what would be like kind of your final piece of encouragement or advice I think you're starting to like lean into the thing right yeah like you I want to I mean I'm super excited to go to heaven someday but I want to be here as and do as much for as long as God ultimately desires right you want the best and just like in my athletic days you know I train for hours and hours and hours and hours every day even in college like eight hours a day.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

So you know now I'm like well how can I keep my body going right because I'm traveling every other month and these flights are 20 25 hours on planes and then eating who knows what right so so be in between I really try to get my body strong and healthy and of course just always I've always spent my first time of the day with the Lord and just keep keep keep pressing in and growing you know if work through stuff in your life you know see I'm a train counselor see I've seen counselors you know work through some of that have let whether it's through prayer prayer counseling or counselor whatever regular counselor I would definitely suggest Christian counselor though I definitely say that I think our Bible study is very deep y'all it's not your typical look up this verse what does it say it really asks why is it hard to believe this you know where is that coming from oh yeah definitely and so it's a very healing Bible study. So I would definitely suggest it Crown of beauty 12 week Bible study. And that's why people like it I was talking to my Sudanese we help Sudanese refugees in Africa and I was talking there yesterday and I go how's it going? Because we just came back from there in January and we trained we have 60 women how to how to teach this Bible study. But I asked so 10 of them are meeting first who felt confident leaders already they're going through it and then they're going to go into another refugee camp and start leading Bible studies there. So we're talking through that and I go well well how how do you like it? How is it and his now they're they're halfway through it and she said you know we've done Bible studies before we have but they they're often very American or very British or whatever you know they don't relate to our culture and their surfacey but this is really taking us deeper to bring healing to our heart and it's not very American it's it's kind of neutral and I think that's because I again no coincidence God's plan I lived overseas for so long the point I wrote that yeah you know I'd already been overseas for like 25 30 years something like that. And so I think internationally right I just I don't have your in fact living in America since I came back has been different a challenge at times and you know I mean I love it. I love it here and plenty of friends it's it's a blessing but they're definitely things I really enjoy honestly living over in Asian cultures. But so yeah so that's really cool. That's why I think um it's working in many different countries you know even in the Arab world and our most recent is work with Iranians who have are refugees in Armenia to help them through this horrible war they're going through.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:24

Well thank you for your yes I've I've just wanna like if you guys just take a moment to see what one yes can produce beyond the ripple effect. If you think about it I mean I just taking even five minutes to just think of Sue and the way that she's walked out her calling with the Lord the the impact and you know she'll see when she gets to heaven more of she probably has no idea at this point fully but I want to thank you for your yes thank you for coming on today. I will be sure to have Sue's contact information in the show notes. So head there if you didn't catch it and I am going to close this podcast today with the Hope Unlocked anchoring verse which is may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And that's Romans 1513. So thank you Sue for coming in and thank you let me mention that you were on my podcast his heartbeat so if you guys want to listen to that and we have wonderful guests like Kristen yeah thanks for mentioning that too I'll be sure to put the podcast in the show notes too like the main podcast page so thank you for being a brave voice who's setting so many things for having me yeah really fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:45

I love I love your chill I'm chill that's the other advice the more chill you are the more you can get you're amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:53

Well I will be back with another episode next week thanks listeners