Susan Gottshall

As associate executive director of Communications, Susan Gottshall says that her ultimate goal is that every American Baptist has an understanding of American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ (ABHMS) ministry and how it can be harnessed by congregations and individuals to support and enable the work to which God has called them.

“Many people don’t realize,” she says, “that ABHMS’ call is mission outreach—just like that of overseas missionaries but carried out closer to home in the United States and Puerto Rico.”

Of the many ABHMS projects and mission trips in which Gottshall has participated, she particularly resonated with her role as producer and scriptwriter for “A Church Stands By Its People,” a video about ABHMS’ dedication to Japanese Americans confined to internment camps during World War II.

“This video became a labor of love, as I grew to understand the depth of deprivation and alienation felt by Japanese Americans during this time,” she says. “It’s such an important story to tell every generation of Americans, so that it never gets repeated.”