She’s more than a mom

As a bioethicist, Ph.D. student, lobbyist, nurse, wife, mom to 3, Province gives it all she’s got

ST. LOUIS – “We believe God cares about us at our birth, during sickness and suffering, and at our death,” said Cindy Province. “We are not only His creations but we are His imagers. That gives us a special responsibility to try to know what He wants us to do.”

Province is co-founder of the St. Louis Center for Bioethics and Culture, an informational ministry that focuses on bioethical issues such as abortion, euthanasia, cloning, organ donation, and reproductive technologies from a Christian viewpoint.

A registered nurse, Province is a 1981 graduate of St. Louis University with bachelor degrees in both nursing and psychology. She subsequently earned a master’s degree in nursing in 1985.

She currently teaches nursing two days a week for Chamberlain College of Nursing in St. Louis (formerly Deaconess College of Nursing) and works part-time in brain injury rehabilitation at SSM Rehab in St. Louis.

Through the years, she has worked in critical care units and in home health, where she was exposed to life issues.

Several years ago, when Province and her husband, Stan, were members of First Baptist Church, Festus-Crystal City, she took on the responsibility for the Christian Action ministry.

“We observed Sanctity of Life Sunday and dealt with other moral and social issues such as gambling and pornography, but not specifically with bioethical issues,” she says.

In 1994, she was nominated and served two terms on the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) Christian Life Commission. Because of her nursing background, a lot of bioethical questions were directed her way.

“Just being a nurse didn’t prepare me to adequately wrap my mind around some of these issues,” she says. “It was very complicated. I didn’t feel like my nursing degree alone was adequate. I still felt I needed additional training in bioethics.”

About that time, Province received a flyer from Focus on the Family about a seminar for people who wanted to know more about bioethics. It advertised a summer seminar to be held at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School near Chicago. Province attended the conference and learned that the seminary was offering a master’s program in bioethics.

Operated by the Evangelical Free Church, the seminary has one of the few bioethics programs taught from a Christian worldview. That began her graduate program in which she earned her master’s degree in 2004. Three of her four children were born during the time she was completing the program.

At Trinity, she met another nurse, Barbara Quigley. Province and Quigley both lived in St. Louis but had not previously known one another. When instructors at Trinity challenged their students that Christians should be establishing bioethics information centers, Province and Quigley both felt the need to do just that.

The St. Louis Center for Bioethics and Culture was born in 2001, with Quigley serving as executive director and Province serving as associate director. While the center has been involved in issues such as the cloning debate, its involvement has been informational rather than political, operating within the limitations of its tax-exempt status.

It provides speakers, presents seminars, publishes information, teaches high school classes for home schoolers, and has a 30-hour certification [though not a degreed] program through Presbyterian Church of America’s Covenant Seminary.

The center is not affiliated with any one denomination. Its board of directors is made up of Baptists, Evangelical Free, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics and others who seek to engage the culture on bioethics issues from a Christian perspective. It is nurse-founded, but its board includes physicians, clergy, and lay people.

“What our center does is provide information to churches, pastors, lay people, health care professionals and others,” explained Province.

“Our job is translating. Nurses, in general, are used to translating complicated information to lay people. It works the same with bioethics.”

Quigley views her partner as someone who is devoted to their cause.

“Even though she’s involved in a lot of different arenas, I think she’s pretty single-minded in terms of what she wants to see happen,” Quigley said. “She really wants to see the care of people with severe brain injury changed. That’s a real passion of hers which is what got her into bioethics.”

Although the center is not a lobbying organization, Province herself is a registered lobbyist – one of many hats she wears.

She and her husband, a trauma surgeon, home school their four children, Clay, 16, Jimmy, 9, John, 6, and Tommy, 4. Province lobbied for the Families for Home Education (FHE) through four legislative sessions.

In order for her to return to school where she is working on her Ph.D., FHE has allowed her to move out of that position to become legislative director. “We’ve moved toward a team approach now,” she said.

As such, she has retained her registered lobbyist status and assists when needed. Kerry Messer of Missouri Family Network, who also serves as the lobbyist for MBC’s Christian Life Commission, does most of the on-site lobbying for FHE.

In addition to her work, her studies, her home schooling, and her bioethics organization, Province serves on the board of trustees of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary at Wake Forest, N.C., and, until recently, the MBC Executive Board.

“She’s got her hands in more activities than anybody I know,” Quigley said. “I don’t know how she does it.”

About two years ago, the Province family’s home sustained a fire, necessitating their moving to a house at Defiance, where they are living as repairs are being made.

For the last year and a half, they have opened their home at Defiance to a church plant. Every other Sunday morning, the new church meets for worship followed by a meal cooked by Province, sometimes with the help of family members.

“It’s been slow going,” she said of the church plant. “It’s something we never imagined doing, but God laid it on our hearts. I pray that it grows.”

Province, who said she loves everything about home-keeping – gardening, reading, needlework, ironing – said she would like to write a cookbook about Sunday dinner.

Growing up in a Christian home, Province was saved and baptized at age 8 at First Baptist Church, Flat River. She remembered when church people spent more time eating together.

“I think we’ve lost that sense of fellowship on Sunday,” she asked. “Isn’t there a place for a post-worship fellowship?”