Karina America felt drawn to the lives of missionaries whom she read about and met through her Girls in Action group while growing up in First Baptist Church, North Spartanburg. During her youth and college years, she was involved in various short-term mission trips, not only in the United States, but also to Romania, Belize and Nicaragua.

“I developed a passion for missions and knew in my heart that God had a place for me in full-time missions work,” Karina affirmed.

“In the midst of this enthusiasm for missions, I also had a heart for hurting people. I was drawn to counseling and felt a dichotomous calling to missions and counseling,” she said. “I knew that God had placed that passion for both and would direct me to a ministry where I could use the gifts he had given me.”

Karina was the only missionary with South Carolina ties among the 143 missionaries commissioned March 5 in Spartanburg. She shared a brief testimony about her work in New Orleans, as she was interviewed by Jane Bishop, director of missionary mobilization for the North American Mission Board.

“Please pray for those in New Orleans who lost everything and are trying to rebuild their lives. Pray that the missionaries there will be able to minister to the various spiritual and physical needs of the people in the city,” urged Karina, who serves as assistant director at the Baptist Friendship House.

A graduate of North Greenville University and New Orleans Baptist Seminary, Karina was actually appointed by the NAMB last August, but she began working at the community missions center as a US/C-2 missionary three years earlier.

As a missionary at Baptist Friendship House, Karina is ministering to hurting people through counseling. “It is everything I ever dreamed of doing, and I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of this ministry,” she told The Baptist Courier.

Baptist Friendship House offers a ministry to homeless women and children. Through a transitional housing program for families, the staff assists women in gaining the skills necessary to become self-sufficient. These skills include GED training, financial training, parenting classes, case management, life skills and job readiness classes, Bible studies and individual counseling.

It also is a community ministry center, offering such things as computer training, English-as-a-Second-Language classes, nutrition classes, after-school programs, hygiene items, school supplies and clothing distribution.

Through Project HOPE (Helping Others Prepare and Equip), the ministry reaches out to teen girls, teaching them to “make positive life choices in the midst of the violence and negativity they experience in their neighborhood,” Karina noted.

And after Hurricane Katrina, the center’s staff has been focusing on disaster relief, housing teams of volunteers who have come to clean homes in the city.

“The needs are great in New Orleans, and now in the aftermath of Katrina, the needs are even greater,” she said. Before Katrina, the homeless population included about 12,000 to 15,000 people, and there weren’t enough shelters, she added.

“There are generations of people who have been stuck in poverty and have not been given opportunities or direction toward self-sufficiency,” she maintained, observing some neighborhoods were pervaded with violence and drugs.

Yet, God has done some amazing things at Baptist Friendship House, she emphasized. “There are many women and children who have come to know the Lord. There have been families that have come through the program and have transitioned into new jobs and homes. There are teens who have a safe place to be and are taught to make positive life choices,” Karina explained.

“God has given me the incredible opportunity to be a part of all this, and to love others in his name”- along the Way.