Kathryn Tipton

I felt a calling from God into part-time overseas missions, over a period of time. In October of 2022, my college had a week-long missions conference, during which I felt God telling me that I needed to be willing to go wherever He sends me. At that point, it was not a definite, "I'm sending you," but more of a, "be willing to go." So I told God that I would be do my best to be willing to go wherever He sends me. On into January, I had this overbearing feeling that 2023 was going to be my year of opportunity. In February-March of 2023, I felt God calling me to go to Brazil. For around 2 weeks, everything pointed to Brazil. I have never had so many connections to a single place in my life. There was no question in my mind that it is where I was supposed to go. So I signed up for a trip through Amazon Hope to go for 8-9 days at the end of July into August. I went down there, and it was one of the best experiences of my life! I still feel that God has called me to part-time overseas missions, and have signed up to go again in August. I am looking forward to it, but now I also feel like I am supposed to go on a longer trip. I am looking at doing a 1-2 month-long trip in Feb-Mar of 2025. I feel called to the street children of northern Brazil, so the orphanage seems to be a good choice. I have no particular needs for what I want to do, but I do want to help with whatever the current missionary needs, and help increase the time the missionary can be there before reaching burnout. I wish to be of assistance in whatever area I can be. I can do music, caring for kids, cooking, cleaning, technology, etc. I have a wide array of skills, and am always willing to learn more.

In this position, I teach a weekly lesson to children during the service, equating a "children's church." I have an array, depending on the week, of how many children I teach - varying anywhere from one to nine children. Usually I have no volunteers, but I do my best to keep the children captivated, while teaching them valuable lessons from the Bible. I also help with music during the pre-message part of the service, sometimes playing guitar and/or singing, and most always playing the keyboard.

My dad is the manager at this camp, and therefore, I have volunteered here from the time I was one year old. I got on the payroll as a part-time employee when I was 17, in 2019. I currently work and volunteer here. I have cooked, cleaned, done repair maintenance, lawn care, general maintenance, secretary/clerical work (including running the camp store), etc. Through this position, I have learned many things about a wide array of topics, and gained a lot of experience in interacting with the guests. I value this part of my work as one of the best experiences in my life, regarding learning new things and the need for good service.

I was the overseer for the Computer Lab at the college, helping students with any technological needs they had. I would help them with printer issues, problems with saving or retrieving their documents, inabilities to logon or logoff the computers, malfunctions in the keyboards or mice, etc. I pretty much did anything they needed help with. I worked in this position for four semesters, and I absolutely loved it.