Kathryn Carpenter: A Legacy of Faith

By Jerry Love, Director of Planned Giving Louisiana Baptist Foundation

It’s 1939.  
A young lady steps off a bus in a small, predominantly French-speaking town in South Louisiana.  She and the two friends with her spend the day going door to door, looking for people interested in starting a Bible study.  Before the end of the day, and before the bus returns to pick up the three, they have found several adults and children interested in joining them to study the scriptures.

This was how young Kathryn Carpenter spent her life in those years.  She and her friends were students at Baptist Bible Institute, now New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.  Over the next few years, the trio would return regularly to Napoleonville to worship, study God’s Word, and grow a congregation.  Eventually the small Bible study became a new church. Carpenter was a charter member.