CALIFORNIA, Pa., (BRN) – Little giggles and curious adventures in the backyard now fill Kim Carson’s days as she transitions from the campus to her home to continue her mission of pouring into the next generation.
Carson, who has collectively served in college ministry for 20 years, retired from her campus missionary position at PennWest California University (Cal U) in California, Pennsylvania, at the end of the 2025 spring semester. Carson served the Cal U campus for 14 years, running and leading the NewLife campus ministry there.
“It’s beautiful to see how students, even into their development into adulthood, make such an impact on me. They bring a different perspective that helps me through something I’m going through…they return to me the things I am giving to them,” said Carson as she reflected on her years of ministry.
Carson first stepped onto Cal U’s campus in 2010. It was one of five Pennsylvania campuses she toured after feeling a nudge from the Lord to take her passion for collegiate ministry to the north.
Prior to officially coming to PA in 2011, Carson spent six years at the University of West Florida working with the Baptist Campus Ministry (BCM) there, a ministry she was formerly a part of as a student. It was during her undergrad days that she saw first-hand the impact of campus ministry.
Carson served as the assistant director of BCM at the University of West Florida for six years, while simultaneously taking classes at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) and pursuing her Masters in Christian Education.
In 2010, Carson found herself at a career fair hosted by NOBTS, where she stumbled upon Kirk Ritchey, who was, at the time, a regional collegiate coordinator for the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) of Pennsylvania/South Jersey. He was recruiting collegiate missionaries for the PA/SJ region.
Later that year, Carson made the trip north to visit potential campuses. By 2011, she was officially moved into the California, Pennsylvania, area.
“I was drawn to Cal U because it was a D2 state school, and even though the environment was completely different as far as culture, it was a lot like the D2 state school I had been a student and a leader at,” said Carson.
From 2011 to 2025, Carson has pioneered and sustained the Christian campus ministry known as NewLife at Cal U. Her passion for seeing college students grow in their faith and discover the only God who can save never fading nor dimming.
“I love watching students own their faith…they’re learning how to express their faith and verbalize their faith and put themselves out there as believers in their classrooms. Just watching that development…bar none my favorite thing,” expressed Carson.
Mission trips quickly became one of Carson’s favorite environments to experience with students.
“I love watching them go on a mission trip, and for that mission trip to impact them in such a way that they come back and you can tell that they’ve been changed,” said Carson.
A reoccurring mission opportunity she extended to students was Beach Reach. During Spring Break, Carson and her students would pile into a van and head to a popular beach destination and spend the week evangelizing to college students there for Spring Break.
Fondly recalling one female student’s return from Beach Reach, Carson shared that the experience “set fire to what was already in her.”
“She was already an evangelist because of how God wired her, but being exposed to it in this mission trip setting made her believe that she could do it here on our campus.”
In the coming weeks and months, the student did just that and not only helped grow the attendance of NewLife, but also the presence of Christ at Cal U.
Although the good significantly outweighed the challenging during her two decades of collegiate ministry, Carson did experience a trying season or two, which included ministering during a worldwide pandemic.
“COVID was really really hard, just because we had to turn on a dime and do everything differently,” said Carson.
For 15 months, she was unable to meet with her students in person.
Next to navigating online ministry, Carson named tackling generational shifts as the second most challenging part of her collegiate ministry career.
“When Millennials were phasing out and Gen Z was phasing in it took a few years to figure that out. What worked with the Millennials doesn’t really resonate with Gen Z, so that part was fascinating and very challenging,” expressed Carson.
Even amidst the difficult moments, she saw the Lord moving within the next generation. Carson loved having a front row seat for students experiencing the faithfulness of God, which made her decision to retire from the campus a difficult one to make.
After much prayer and consideration, she felt the Lord leading her to focus her passion for the next generation within the walls of her own home.
“God’s calling me to shepherding the next generation in a different way and that right now is shepherding my child. Going a little bit younger now but still shepherding the next generation to love and follow the Lord,” shared Carson.
Carson expressed nothing but gratitude for her time at Cal U and serving alongside the BRN in Pennsylvania.
As she looks forward to the next season the Lord has in store, she is excited for many more days of curious backyard adventures and continuing to tell the stories of God’s faithfulness, but this time to the young mind she has at home.
