Hello. This is me… Karen Barnes.
After 6.5 years in Nashville, TN, we decided to take a leap of faith. I accepted a marketing job with International Justice Mission and we are picking up our lives and moving to the VA/DC area. (Read Taking the Leap.) It has been a wild ride so far and filled with so many unexpected blessings. (Read He Said “Trust Me”). I am fully expecting, and excited, that I am about to be challenged and stretched in just about every way possible.
More than at any other time in my life, I feel like my gifts, passions, and experiences are being melded together into a calling, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
This blog will give you a window in to what makes me tick. The things that fuel me. I used that phrase a while back and really liked it. I am finding more and more that these really are the things that fuel me.
I love to read, to travel, to try new foods and new adventures, but most of all I get really fired up about being an advocate for social change. For encouraging others in ways that we can all make a difference – right here in our backyard and around the world. God’s call to serve the “least, last, and lost” is unmistakable in Scripture.
I am married to my best friend & the love of my life and I am just trying to live out my life as Christ would lead me. Some days I do better than others.
One of my favorite quotes comes from the founder of World Vision, Bob Pierce. He said: “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” I pray that becomes my own personal motto.
“What if each of us decided with renewed commitment to truly embrace the good news, the whole gospel, and demonstrate it through our lives – not even in big ways, but in small ones? What is we each said to God, ‘Use me; I want to change the world’?”
-Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel
Here are a couple of my personal favorite blog posts I’ve written, to give you a place to start:
Redefining Scripture: Psalm 46
5 comments
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March 13, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Haelie
Just discovered you through the Max Lucado Community. I am looking forward to catching up on and following your blog.
March 15, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Karen
Thanks Haelie! And I look forward to checking out your blog as well!
June 27, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Carole
Loved reading your blog!!! Karen so much of what you are saying describes me….I almost could have written it!
I loved the book, A Hole in our Gospel…I read it last year and was so changed by it. We have a World Vision child in Nicaragua! I love the concept of being an ambassador for Christ! It is what He calls us. I would like to know more about being a World Vision ambassador. The book Heaven is Real was great.
I am in a Winter season….quit my job last year and sort of fumbling around with what I will do next. Taking care of my elderly mom. Married to my best friend. We have three beautiful kids…one is married so we have four.
Anyway, your blog encouraged me. It’s okay to be in a winter season…so unlike any others that I have ever been in before. It is good to be still and just do what we know God has called us to in the moment.
Thanks again. Love to hear more about your experience with World Vision.
Carole
December 14, 2011 at 9:40 am
Brenda Peters
Karen,
Check the American Baptist Women’s website for their Break the Chains emphasis. The website is http://www.abwmbreakthechains.org.
Brenda Peters
FBC Gaithersburg
March 14, 2012 at 10:44 am
daniel hayes
Karen,
My fiance and I are both in PR/Marketing here in Nashville. I just learned of IJM. Are there folks here in Nashville I can connect with to volunteer my time and connect my church up with the organization?
Thanks and hope you are enjoying D.C. It’s a great town!
Daniel Hayes