North Carolina Headlines

MENIFEE, CA – September 22, 2026 – Susan Kay “Susie” Kimes, a pioneering leader in Christian women’s ministry, founder of the Network of Evangelical Women in Ministry (NEWIM), founder of Chosen Women Events, longtime mentor and spiritual mother to many, died September 15, 2026. She was 79.

Born May 19, 1947, in Bell, California, to Steven and Dorothy Reece, Kimes spent much of her life in Southern California. While her ministry would eventually take her across the United States and around the world, those closest to her knew that the center of her life was remarkably simple: she loved Jesus, loved her family, and wanted to help people.

In her own writings, Kimes summarized her philosophy of life in five words:

“Love God and help others.”

When asked how she hoped to be remembered, she wrote that her desire was to be remembered as someone who “loved Jesus, and served Him.”

That conviction shaped nearly every part of her adult life.

A Pioneer in Women’s Ministry

After becoming a follower of Jesus in 1979, Kimes developed a passion for discipleship, prayer and helping women grow in their relationship with Christ.

She later served as Director of Women’s Ministry at Calvary Church in Santa Ana, California. In 1985, recognizing the need for women serving in ministry to have meaningful relationships with others who understood their challenges, she began gathering women ministry leaders together for encouragement, prayer, friendship, and shared resources.

Those gatherings became the Network of Evangelical Women in Ministry, or NEWIM.

What began as a relatively small Southern California gathering grew into an enduring ministry serving women in Christian leadership. Kimes became NEWIM’s founder and first president, helping establish a network that continues serving women more than four decades later.

Her vision would eventually expand beyond conferences and leadership gatherings.

Kimes founded Chosen Women Events, including a landmark gathering at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, that brought women together for worship, prayer, biblical teaching, repentance, and spiritual renewal.

Chosen Women became one of the accomplishments she remembered with particular gratitude, although Kimes consistently resisted taking personal credit for the ministry opportunities she received. In her later writings she referred to them as “God-sized jobs” that Jesus had entrusted to her.

Her ministry also took her throughout the United States and internationally, including New Zealand, Singapore, and Cape Town, South Africa, as she taught, encouraged, and ministered alongside Christian leaders around the world.

Yet those who knew Kimes well understood that some of the ministry she valued most never happened on a stage.

Ministry One Life at a Time

For decades, Kimes personally discipled and mentored women. Many eventually regarded her not simply as a teacher or ministry leader, but as a spiritual mother.

She was particularly passionate about helping people experience spiritual freedom in Christ.

Through prayer, biblical teaching, spiritual counseling, and a process influenced by the Steps to Freedom in Christ, Kimes spent countless hours walking alongside people struggling with fear, shame, spiritual bondage, and wounds from their past.

In her own reflections, she described the years spent counseling, teaching, mentoring, and praying with women as some of the greatest joys of her life.

Her Christian faith was deeply personal.

Kimes wrote that she prayed throughout each day, regularly prayed the Shema and the Lord’s Prayer, and continually sought to become more responsive to the Holy Spirit.

She also possessed enough self-awareness to acknowledge her strong will. Even in her later years she joked that, despite praying daily, she could still sometimes “run amok.”

That combination of serious faith, humility, and humor was unmistakably Susie.

A Marriage Built on Partnership

Kimes was married to John J. Kimes for more than 50 years before his death on November 12, 2018.

She frequently credited John with making much of her ministry possible.

Their marriage was characterized by partnership, equality, mutual respect, and an extraordinary willingness to support one another’s calling.

John often worked behind the scenes while Susan served in more visible leadership roles. He encouraged her when she was uncertain, helped her work through difficult decisions, supported the ministries financially, and provided the wisdom she said she relied on throughout their life together.

The couple also loved traveling together throughout the United States and Europe. Italy held a particularly special place in Susan’s heart, especially Verona.

Their marriage provided their three sons with a lasting example of partnership, friendship, and commitment.

Family Was Her Greatest Pride

Despite the scope of her ministry, Kimes wrote that what made her proudest was not a stadium event or an organization she founded.

It was her family.

Susan and John raised three sons: Steven Kimes and his wife Diane; Michael Kimes and his wife Kristen; and Jason Kimes and his wife Ariana.

She was grandmother to seven grandchildren: Ian, Nik, Idea, Johnathan and his wife Kaylinda, Kenley, Reece, and Hudson Kimes.

During the final years of her life, Susan lived with Jason and Ariana and their children, Kenley, Reece, and Hudson. She described that season of her life as “life-giving.”

She prayed faithfully for her children and grandchildren, including a weekly prayer time devoted specifically to praying for the grandchildren.

She was also a wonderfully playful grandmother.

Giving money could rarely involve simply handing over an envelope. Susan might use an exploding gift box, a money gun, a cryptex puzzle, or an absurd succession of packages hidden inside other packages.

Behind the public ministry leader was a woman with a mischievous sense of humor who loved making people laugh.

A Life of Increasing Generosity

Generosity became an increasingly defining characteristic of Kimes’ later years.

After John’s death, Susan deliberately reduced many of her personal expenses so she could devote more of what she had to people in need and ministries she believed God had brought to her attention.

One ministry especially close to her heart near the end of her life was Hanan Medical Services in Uganda, which provides healthcare to vulnerable children, mothers, families, and elderly residents in communities around Nyendo, Masaka.

Susan’s support helped provide care to people she would never personally meet.

Leonard Ssemazzi of Hanan Medical Services described her generosity as an expression of her belief that the love of Christ should be demonstrated not only through words but also through practical acts of compassion.

Her family believes one of the clearest pictures of Susan’s character occurred during the final day before her death.

Even while facing the end of her own life, she learned that one of her nurses had a three-year-old son and a daughter expected to be born the following week.

Susan sent her family to Target to purchase gift cards for both children.

She was still encouraging people.

Still talking about Jesus.

Still finding someone to bless.

Her Story Continues

Susan Kimes died as she had lived, believing that her life belonged to Jesus and that what God placed in her hands was meant to be shared with others.

Her legacy lives through her sons and grandchildren, the ministries she helped establish, the women she mentored, the people she prayed with, those who found spiritual freedom through her ministry, and generations of Christians influenced by the people she discipled.

Her family has established SusanKimesLegacy.com as a permanent digital home for her story.

The website will preserve Susan’s writings, StoryWorth life stories, photographs, ministry history, teachings, and family memories. Friends, relatives, ministry partners, and those whose lives were touched by Susan will also be invited to contribute their own photographs and stories, creating an ongoing digital memory book for future generations.

Information regarding Susan’s forthcoming Celebration of Life will also be published on the website.

In lieu of flowers, the family plans to invite those wishing to honor Susan to support Hanan Medical Services through No More Crumbs Ministry, continuing a work that became especially meaningful to her during the final chapter of her life. Donation information will be available at SusanKimesLegacy.com.

Perhaps Susan provided the best summary of her legacy herself.

Asked late in life how she wanted to be remembered, she wrote:

“My hope is that I will be remembered as someone who loved Jesus and served Him.”

For Susan Kay Kimes, that was not merely how she hoped to be remembered.

It was how she lived.

About the Susan Kimes Legacy

SusanKimesLegacy.com was created by the Kimes family to preserve and share the life, faith, ministry, writings, photographs, and memories of Susan Kay “Susie” Kimes. The site serves as an ongoing digital legacy book where family, friends, ministry partners, and those impacted by Susan’s life can contribute memories and photographs for future generations.

Media Contact
Company Name: TEAM KIMES DESIGN
Contact Person: Jason Kimes
Email: Send Email
Phone: 9513494950
Address:26264 Aleppo Pine Circle
City: Menifee
State: CA
Country: United States
Website: https://tkdesign.app/