❋

About the Author

Rev. Jennifer Collins devoted more than fourteen years serving as a healthcare chaplain, offering compassionate care to patients, families, and hospital staff. In her final five years in healthcare, she served as director of pastoral care at two hospitals, where her ministry reached from the trauma bays of emergency departments to the quiet rooms of intensive care units and everywhere in between.

Within those sacred spaces, she walked with hundreds of people, through moments of heartbreak and uncertainty, with grace and compassion. She sat beside patients as they took their final breaths and held space for those left behind to grieve. She organized memorial services for patients and hospital staff, led staff debriefings after traumatic events, and held nurses as they wept over the ones they could not save. From the young whose lives ended far too soon to the seemingly invincible brought low by tragedy, she has borne witness to both the fragility and resilience of the human spirit.

Jennifer’s calling began in 2001, following her own journey from abuse to restoration. Out of her healing emerged a deep desire to be a voice for the voiceless and to create space for those who are hurting. Her ministry and writing reflect that calling, to comfort others with the same comfort she received from God, as described in one of her life verses, 2 Corinthians 1:3–5 (NIV):

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

Drawing from years of walking with people through life’s most painful and transformative seasons, she brings a message of hope, healing, and restoration. Through her ministry and her writing, she continues to help others find courage in their brokenness and to discover that, even in the hardest places, God’s presence is tenderly near.

Jennifer currently serves as a pastoral counselor and executive director of Shepherd’s Staff Ministry Inc., a nonprofit organization in Richmond, Virginia, dedicated to offering counseling, coaching, and compassionate care to those seeking emotional and spiritual wholeness. She’s available to lead conferences and can be reached through the Shepherd’s Staff Ministry website: shepherd-staff.org.

Rev. Jennifer Collins received her master of divinity from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and her master of science in patient counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. She’s also a board-certified chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains.