Pritchard Award student in Lima, Peru

Karen Rice from St. Louis, Missouri, is the 2010 recipient of the Pritchard Humanitarian Service Award at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo. This summer, Karen will intern with missionaries in Lima, Peru, who serve with the program Mission to the World (Presbyterian Church in America). Karen writes, “My job will be to listen to the priorities of the Peruvian leadership of the church and find ways that groups from the U.S. with a desire to serve can help accomplish these goals and build relationships with the community. As I lead the teams and work with Peruvian church leadership, I help to address many essential human needs.”

Karen will serve as a liaison between the missionaries and short-term mission teams sent from churches in the U.S. She will serve as translator; arrange the logistics of meals, projects, and transportation; and work with the Peruvian leadership of Iglesia Luz de Vida (Light of Life Church) to use the short-term mission teams to address what they see as the most compelling needs in their community. The projects Karen will facilitate include supporting Casa de Gloria, a home for pregnant teen girls from the streets of Lima; doing construction on widows’ and families’ homes with whom the church has developed relationships; and providing for the basic needs of individuals in the church.

When asked how she thinks her project will make a difference, Karen said, “Living in a cross-cultural setting and serving under the direction of people from a culture different from my own will hopefully teach me to value and understand the perspectives and ways of doing things presented by people from other cultures.” Karen also thinks that the “relationships built between churches in the United States and Iglesia Luz de Vida will have long-term results, as teams come back year after year to partner with and learn from Luz de Vida.”

Karen has served others in the community her whole life, beginning by participating with her parents when she was very young in their ministry to single parents in the inner city. Karen has been a tutor for under-served inner city elementary students, an assistant teacher to a class of immigrants in a summer enrichment program, and served on the student leadership team of her youth group, working to create an atmosphere that welcomed the diverse student population who attended. Karen has traveled to Peru several times to support and assist missionaries in their outreach to the community

Karen is a first-year student at William Jewell College. She is in the Oxbridge Honors Program, double majoring in History of Ideas (Philosophy and Ethics) and Nonprofit Leadership. She is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Timothy Rice of St. Louis, Missouri.

You can see updates from Karen at http://tedenrice.wordpress.com/