Watson remembered as one who 'sold out for Jesus'

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (BP) — “To obey is my objective. To suffer is expected. His glory will be my reward,” Karen Watson wrote in a letter to her pastor, meant only to be opened upon her death.

Phil Neighbors, co-pastor at Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield where Watson had been a member since 1997, said Watson accepted Christ about eight years ago after enduring an intense period of grief. Her boyfriend whom she planned to marry, her father and her grandmother all died within a two-year span.

“That really shook her foundation,” Neighbors told Baptist Press. “Those crises led her to turn to the Lord. She came to know Christ and was one of the very special people that just loved the Word of God and the work of God. She was passionate about it.

“We talked about the danger numerous times before she left and while she was there,” Neighbors said. “She would always call me when something would happen.”

On March 15, Neighbors and other church members heard news that five IMB workers had been shot in Iraq.

“I was thinking, ‘Well, maybe Karen will call in a minute. She always calls,’” Neighbors said. “But she didn’t call.”

Later that night Neighbors remembered the letter Watson had written to him before she left for work in Iraq with the instructions that he was not to open it unless she was killed. He opened the letter.

Neighbors called the letter a powerful testimony and evidence that if anything happened to her, she wanted him and the church family to know she had no regrets and died serving the Lord.

Karen Watson’s memorial service will be March 24 in Bakersfield at Valley Baptist Church.

In lieu of flowers and gifts, Watson’s family has asked that donations be made to further the work she loved so much via the Karen Watson Mission Fund to assist people in short-term mission projects. Checks payable to Valley Baptist Church and designated for the Karen Watson Mission Fund can be mailed to Valley Baptist Church, 4800 Fruitvale Ave., Bakersfield, CA 93308.

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