Our Story

Sue Davis, ND, FNP-BC, APN
Founder

Many are interested in how the clinic was started. When I was about five years old, a missionary couple from Irian Jaya visited our church and showed pictures of their work with people that lacked help for their basic needs. I sensed that day that God had put a desire in my heart to someday serve Him by working with people who did not have all the many benefits in life that I experienced.

Over the years, God took that dream and grew it and merged it with the idea of using healthcare to care for the underserved. This idea kept growing as different people poured out their efforts into my life. In the health professions track at college, physicians came to talk with us about holding on to the dreams that God had given us. We were taught what it takes to stay on target, and to intentionally choose actions that could keep our goals alive.

While in college I spent a summer in Mexico with a healthcare team. I felt a special love in my heart for the Hispanic people who patiently spent time helping me learn the language that would later be so beneficial, since many of our patients at BCHC are Spanish speaking! Through nursing school, I had continued opportunities to be with the underserved and did a project with the Robert Taylor Homes in the southwest part of Chicago. Their amazing stories of strength in the midst of struggles in very desperate circumstances continued to reinforce a desire to come alongside people fighting to rise from difficult circumstances. I wanted to encourage them and share Christ with them. God kept bringing up opportunities to grow this idea in my heart. At this point in life, I got married and my husband Mark and I settled in Bolingbrook. We began attending New Song Church. Right away we felt the connection that God had put us there for a specific reason and felt the anticipation of what it might be.

People in our newfound church discovered I was a Nurse Practitioner student. After services, many people would ask me medical questions or to examine their children for health problems, or even take their blood pressure. Inside I was thinking they needed so much more; they needed quality healthcare. We realized that many people are marginalized by their lack of health insurance; they either worked part-time jobs, were unemployed, or they had injuries, were not able to work and lacked disability assistance. We wanted to offer our community more than what they were getting. With the encouragement of our small group at church, we wrote a health clinic proposal, thinking the church would laugh because we had no experience in this whatsoever. We were amazed when they did not laugh but said that when Pastor Marty Schoenleber had a vision for the church, part of that vision was to have a health clinic. All the people involved in that small group played very key parts in starting BCHC, each using special gifts God had given them.

We had many people interested in the clinic and so many people gave us valuable advice. One of the most rewarding calls we received was from Gary Campbell, an optometrist who was interested in opening an eye clinic for us. Once again, we went back to New Song Church and asked about adding an eye clinic and once again, they said that that was also part of their vision back when they started the church! How amazing was that! A few months later, Dr. Campbell said that there was an eye clinic closing in Iowa and we could have all their supplies and equipment if we had a way of hauling it. Of course, we jumped at the chance! Everything in the clinic was donated to us that way – there are so many great stories!

There were times when we were discouraged that things were moving very slowly. It took nine years to open the clinic. When it did open, we really knew that God was in control through the timing and the people that He brought to us. The volunteers who came to serve were and are amazing – doctors, nurses, pharmacists, office workers, translators, construction people and so many more; all serve for the glory of God. There were countless fantastic people involved in the opening and operation of BCHC, and we saw so many ways that God had His hand in it. We know that God allowed those nine years for us to gain a better understanding of how to develop a clinic and provide care in a manner that crosses the cultural and socioeconomic barriers that are present in our patients’ lives. We just could not thank God enough for His precious leading, step by step.

The theme verse for the clinic is Galatians 5:13—” Serve one another in love.” Our desire was to create a family atmosphere so when we treat our patients, we think, “How would you treat your family member or how would you want to be treated if you were the patient?” The fun thing is that as we love our patients, they love us back. We pray that the way they receive healthcare will help them encounter Jesus Christ and that that care would not be just about their physical health but also include their spiritual health. The two are so tied together that when we address both needs, we see amazing results in our patients. People who experience God’s love find it easier to see themselves as people of worth. In a world that often tells people they are not worthy or that they are excluded or unwelcomed, we wanted to embrace all who entered BCHC with an environment that demonstrates their great preciousness, uniqueness and value. We wanted this to be a key message in all that we do. It is our desire to be channels of God’s love to the people that come to us for care. Every night before we open, we pray that there will be an opportunity for our patients to experience that love.

I am grateful that serving at BCHC has shaped the person I have been becoming over the years. It has been a special joy in my life. Serving alongside volunteers from many ethnicities, caring for patients that have been marginalized in many ways, seeing God reveal to us courses of action to meet the needs of our patients in very complex medical situations and the generous gifts of those outside BCHC who offer specialty care or give financial gifts that change the equation of health inequalities has slowly and steadily deepened my understanding to the needs of others, the realities of cultural and racial differences and the need for all of us to come together in love to make a difference. I have watched the health center grow and change to meet the needs of those who trust us with their healthcare. It has been a special privilege to be entrusted with our patients’ stories, to meet their families and to work towards raising the level of health into their lives. We are entering a season of growth and God has been pouring out His blessings on BCHC in many ways. It is an exciting time at BCHC, and I am looking forward to seeing the many new ways the volunteers will be able to bring excellent healthcare to our patients in creative, cross-cultural ways.