Karen Welker

Karen Welker served in Khon Kaen, Thailand for 30 years (1990-2020). The poorest and one of the most unreached areas, the Northeast became her home until God called her to serve in the United States again.

Karen is currently serving as manager of the Global Launch Center in Pensacola, FL, a 32-bed facility  with a 40-person seminar room designed to launch missionaries onto the field.  Since Covid restrictions, the Launch Center has become a short-stay facility for missionaries and travelers as well as a seminar center.  She is known for her hospitality and sense of humor. 

She has been a nurse for 50 years, serving in a variety of settings in hospital and government positions both in the United States and Thailand. Some of her experiences include working in a Khmer refugee camp in Thailand from 1990-1993, working in hospital ERs, Labor and Delivery, psychiatric settings, and surveying nursing homes for compliance with state and federal standards in West Virginia.

She is also active in her home church, Charity Chapel, facilitating a home group or helping in the church kitchen.  She is learning to become a mentor in transformation prayer ministry.