Art and Suzanne Pitz are educators and founders of White Field Partners. They are late starters in transformational development work but plan to be strong finishers.
Dr. Art is a retired Professor of History and President of White Field Partners. Suzanne serves as Director of Operations. She is a retired educator with a specialty in instructional design and technology. They taught in universities in Slovakia in Central Europe for three academic years and presented workshops throughout central and southeast Europe. Art and Suzanne consider themselves “tent-making missionaries” since God has used their secular vocations to open opportunities for service. They have traveled to twenty-four nations and are thankful for beautiful adventures God has orchestrated:
- Teaching writing skills to Youth With a Mission (YWAM) students in Kiev, Ukraine.
- Attending a Bedouin wedding in a quarter-mile-long tent in the town of Segev Shalom in Israel’s Negev Desert.
- Riding across a frozen lake in Finland while on a Fulbright Senior Specialist teaching assignment.
- Being part of a vibrant church in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, that met in the communist workers’ auditorium where plastic flowers hid the communist symbols.
- Staying in an Israeli kibutz three kilometers from the Gaza border when rocket alerts were sounding.
- Working with a fledgling church in Skopje, Macedonia.
- Leading a tour of Holocaust sites in Poland with a group of university students.
- Walking in the hills above Lake Geneva in Switzerland while teaching a writing course for students from twelve nations.
- Sitting beneath a tree amidst a herd of goats praying for a mentally ill man in Batkanu, Sierra Leone..
- Eating an amazing Arab dinner with a beautiful Palestinian family in their home in the Kalandia refugee camp in Israel
- Feasting at a wedding celebration in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
- Loving orphaned children in Tardi village, Lungi, Sierra Leone.
In 2008, Suzanne made her first trip to Sierra Leone with her friend Carolynn–two grandmas off to Africa. When opportunities expanded, Art and Suzanne founded White Field Partners as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in 2012. They have made several trips to Sierra Leone, but they carry out the work of White Field Partners through reliable partners with staff in Sierra Leone.
Yes, their traditional Sierra Leonean outfits make it look like the two of them are wearing one garment. They’re not. Sometimes people say “ArtnSuzanne” as though that’s one word. Art and Suzanne have been married for fifty-four years. They live in Elmhurst, IL. Suzanne has white hair now.