Kathryn “Katie” Morgan was watching a worship service on New Year’s Eve when God made it clear he was going to call her outside her comfort zone.

A couple of months ago, it was revealed: He wanted her to go back to Africa.

Her first mission trip there was in the summer of 2014, and she went back the next summer. She also went to Haiti in 2016 and India in January of this year.

In March, she applied for a three-month internship through Impact Africa, a Johannesburg, South Africa-based organization that coordinated her trip in 2015.

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After an interview via FaceTime, she was told she would receive confirmation within two weeks.

But 10 minutes after the interview, she received an email letting her know she was accepted.

“I was excited and then also a little bit scared because I have a great nanny job up in Cincinnati, and it meant that I was going to have to leave the kids,” said the 24-year-old Seymour native who now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“God calls us out of our comfort zone, and we have to be obedient, so I knew he was calling me to go, so I had to be obedient,” she said. “I was excited, but also, I’m leaving my comfortable life to follow the Lord.”

The next step was to raise $5,450 before she leaves Sept. 7.

After a couple of fundraisers, she has collected $1,600. She has a few more this month to boost that total.

From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, she will have clothes, household items, purses and more in a garage sale at the corner of Vehslage Road and Robin Hood Drive in Seymour.

Then from 4 to 9 p.m. July 31, The Brooklyn Pizza Co. in Seymour will donate 10 percent of its sales to Morgan.

Soon, there also will be raffle baskets on Facebook consisting of donations from local merchants. Donations also may be made online at impactafrica.org by clicking on “Donate” and “Invest in an Intern” and searching for “Katie Morgan” or her code, IMEKM1815.

It may sound like a lot of money to raise, but Morgan is confident it will happen.

“I know if God called me to do it, he will provide,” she said.

Morgan said she first thought about going on a mission trip to Africa when she was in seventh grade and saw a commercial on television.

“It was like a dream,” she said. “I wanted to go to Africa and help all of the kids.”

Morgan graduated from Seymour High School in 2012 and then took a year off. During that time, she was a preschool teacher at Cummins Child Development Center in Columbus.

She then determined she wanted to study children’s ministry, so she enrolled at Cincinnati Christian University in 2013.

Her dream of going to Africa came true in the summer of 2014 when she joined a group of about 20 people for two weeks in Zimbabwe. The group was based at Northside Christian Church in New Albany.

They worked with kids at Eden Children’s Village and put on vacation Bible school.

“I do remember once I got there, I was in the bus and I just started bawling because I couldn’t believe my dream was coming true,” Morgan said. “I couldn’t believe I was there. I loved it. It’s where my heart is.”

After two years at CCU, she enrolled in online courses through Liberty University.

Then in the summer of 2015, she spent two weeks in Johannesburg doing hut-to-hut ministry.

“They took us around and showed us all of the aspects of all of their different ministries,” she said of Impact Africa.

The mission trip to Haiti focused on delivering clean water through the Healing Haiti organization, and her most recent trip to India through Crossroads Church in Cincinnati included offering retreats for women and children rescued from human trafficking.

In May, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education.

Now, she’s focused on her internship in Johannesburg. The Mission Experience Program through Impact Africa will provide hands-on ministry training.

According to impactafrica.org, “Our purpose is to help young people to discover God’s calling on their lives and develop the necessary skills and biblical knowledge to pursue that calling so that we can deploy them into their unique, God-given purpose to advance the Gospel and build his kingdom.”

Her focused ministries will be Impact Kids and Community Outreach.

Impact Kids will involve spending one day a week in a preschool.

“They want to promote getting those people doing their job well,” Morgan said. “I’m there to help the teacher and provide assistance for them. My primary goal is not to teach. I’m there to help the teachers that are already there to help grow them.”

Morgan and some of the other interns will do Community Outreach together. That will involve house-to-house ministering.

“It’s called approach, assist, advance,” she said. “We approach them, and we ask them if they need help with anything. … We build a relationship with them, and then we ask them if they go to church, and then we share the Gospel with them.”

While there, Morgan also will be taking classes, including Zulu, which is one of the official languages of South Africa, world view and leadership.

“I’m just really excited to see what the Lord is going to teach me through this and what I can learn through it and how I can grow,” she said. “It’s a really good growing and learning experience, so that’s my biggest thing.”

Morgan said the older she gets, she realizes going to Africa wasn’t just a dream. God placed that desire in her heart for a reason, and now, he’s fulfilling that, she said.

“I want to do this three-month internship to see if missions in Africa is something that God is calling me to do for the rest of my life,” she said. “I’m hoping to get guidance from the Lord while I’m there to help me decide, ‘Is this what you’re calling me to do the rest of my life or is it just a season?’ That’s most of what I’m hoping to get out out of it.”

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Seymour native Kathryn “Katie” Morgan has to raise $5,450 before she leaves Sept. 7 for a three-month internship through Impact Africa.

Here’s how you can help:

8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday: Garage sale at the corner of Vehslage Road and Robin Hood Drive in Seymour

4 to 9 p.m. July 31: The Brooklyn Pizza Co. in Seymour will donate 10 percent of its sales to Morgan

Soon: Raffle baskets will be on Facebook consisting of donations from local merchants

Online: Visit impactafrica.org, click on “Donate” and “Invest in an Intern” and search for “Katie Morgan” or her code, IMEKM1815

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