October 1, 2026
Anyone who has been to Boston knows it is a beautiful city rich in history and tradition. The Freedom Trail, a walking tour winding through the city, passes historic landmarks including the Old North Church, the Paul Revere House, and Bunker Hill. The trail passes a few blocks from a marker noting the location of a shoe store where a young clerk named D.L. Moody was converted. Boston also was the city where many early Baptist missionaries, including a young man from Georgia named Edward Stevens, were commissioned in 1837 before sailing to Burma from the Salem docks the following day.
Send Me Now summer missionary Kayla Carr described Boston as a city of extremes.
“It’s like two different worlds,” she said. “There are many universities and hospitals and a wealth of knowledge in Boston. But everyone’s either very intelligent and goes to these wonderful universities, or they dropped out of high school. The wealth of some areas versus the poverty and the low-income housing communities that we served on Saturdays. Or the ages of the people: there were a lot of older people and a lot of college students. It didn’t feel like there were many in-betweens.”
A rising senior majoring in marketing at the University of Georgia, Carr was returning to her roots as an MK, or missionary kid. She was born in Georgia but spent much of her childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., where her father, Jon Carr, served as a missionary church planter with the North American Mission Board. She had previously been on a weeklong mission trip to Boston, but she explained, “There’s a difference between visiting a city for a week versus living there for two months.”
She also noted that it was particularly fun being in Boston this summer because of World Cup matches held there. It was a highlight of the summer.
“Honestly, you could go around to any Bostonian and be like, ‘I miss those Scots, don’t you?’ And they’re like, ‘Yep!’” she said. “Everywhere you went, you would look around and just see a bunch of kilts. That was fun!”
Carr found herself ministering to people in Boston who represented the city’s extremes. Working with Kings Hill Church, which has a large college ministry, and ministering to the homeless community provided opportunities to serve across various socioeconomic spectrums. Kings Hill Church, which began as a NAMB church plant, fosters and partners with ministries reaching across the cultural layers that make up Boston.
The focus of her Send Me Now team was evangelism in the community, engaging with people and having gospel conversations. Each week, that included working with the homeless. One of the ministries was Art in the Park.
“We would go into the Boston Common every Thursday and bring art supplies, picnic blankets, snacks, and drinks,” Carr said. “It was an area where a lot of unhoused people would hang out. We would serve them every week. It was really cool.”
On one of the first days in the park, they met a man named David. He was getting ready for a job interview. They shared some chips and a drink, and he opened up to them. They discovered he had a minimal church background. They prayed with him and did not see him again until shortly before they were to leave later in the summer. He came to tell them he got the job and appreciated their support and prayer. They are still in touch with him, encouraging him on his spiritual journey.
Carr explained how the experience helped her grow spiritually, not only as she ministered but also as she had the opportunity to be part of a cohort module that met weekly.
“Each one was two hours of just deep digging into theology and the Bible,” she said. “We had memory verses, and we would meet once a week with our cohort small groups and kind of talk about them, dig even deeper.”
Carr said one lesson God impressed on her throughout the summer was reliance on Him and humility.
“Something that I had to repeat this summer was an attitude of reliance on the Lord and humility,” she said. “They have roles for everyone, and I was the captain of Send Me Now and the women’s leader. I really struggled with my confidence, and it translated into the ministries. I think that came from a lack of trust in the Lord and humility. I pray that I continue to grow in humility and reliance on the Lord.”
Carr was one of six Georgians to serve in Boston as part of Send Me Now over the summer. Now back in Georgia and beginning her senior year, she is serving as a missions intern at Mars Hill Baptist Church in Watkinsville. She graduates in May and, about the future, says, “I’m not sure what that will hold. I would love to go into ministry. I felt called for a long time. I’m praying through, just going to see where the Lord leads me.”
Wherever God leads, an important part of her journey has included being part of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at UGA and a Send Me Now missionary to Boston. Both ministries are supported in part by the generous giving of Georgia Baptists through the Cooperative Program. She not only went to minister in Boston, but in a sense, by making it possible, Georgia Baptists were with her too, helping reach and share the gospel in a city rich in history and full of contrasts.
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