Karen was born on February 22, 1965, in Ft. Polk, Louisiana, but her dad was in the military, so she's lived in seven different states (in the north, south, east, west and in between) as well as in Germany. Maybe that's why she loves books that teach about other cultures. As much as she enjoyed all those places though, she has really found her niche at Blue Ridge.

Her job here allows her to use her spiritual gifts of leadership, administration, discernment and evangelism, and to do many things that she really loves to do, such as:

see passionate people who love God sitting on the floor with a group of children using their God-given gifts

be part of a ministry that impacts children and their families

talk to people about leadership and how our hearts should honor and reflect Christ

One previous job she held that really helped prepare her for this was as Director of a Department of Defense Child Development Center in Heidelberg, Germany, that included supervising, scheduling, training, and planning, among other duties.

Ask Karen about her family sometime. She has lots of wonderful things to say about all of them – Peter, Brent, Kira, Colton, Noelle and, of course, her grandson Taylor.

Besides family, some of her favorite things are spending one-on-one time with God, worshiping Him through song (well, really Karen just loves to sing, period), sharing Christ with others, listening to waves crashing on the beach, laughter, reading, chocolate torte with raspberry sauce, being part of a church where people love God and live it out, and talking about God anywhere…anytime.

Most people don't know that Karen played soccer when she was growing up and then coached soccer as a young adult. She once took 40 kids from Heidelberg, Germany, to a soccer tournament in Berlin in the late 80s and had to take a night train through East Germany to get there! She also was a commissioner for little league baseball in Maryland one year.

If you need a good laugh sometime, ask Karen about the time she was Prancer in the Christmas play her senior year in high school. She tied real deer antlers to her head (very tightly and with a really thick rope), pranced out to the middle of the gym and promptly passed out … deer antlers and all.

kamato@blue-ridge.org
434.525.7481 ext 118