Karen H. Thomas
Karen Hodge Thomas is a native of Gary, West Virginia, the daughter of the late Rev. U. G. Hodge and Roberta Hodge Johnson. She grew up in a Christian home attending church, Sunday School and all youth activities during her childhood, although she didn't have a personal relationship with God. She excelled in school, but was a naturally shy individual who never sought opportunities to be in front of an audience. She remembers the extreme nervousness and fear she felt when expected to deliver an Easter or Christmas speech. As an eighteen year old coed at West Virginia University, Karen accepted Jesus as her personal Savior and began to seek His will in her life. After accepting Jesus as her Savior, it was clear that God had given her something to say that people needed to hear. She learned to rely on the Lord to produce through her the message that He has for her audiences and to lay aside the fear that once engulfed her.
Karen earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from West Virginia University before returning to her hometown to work in social services with child abuse and neglect for a year. During that year, she began a Bible study for co-workers and neighbors wherein many accepted God's call to salvation or to a more committed Christian life. Following this experience, she returned to school to earn a master's degree. She received a master of education degree from Harvard University in counseling and consulting psychology.
She married her high school sweetheart, Chester Thomas in 1978 and they have two adult children, Justin and Courtney. A gifted teacher of the truths of God's Word, and as a former psychology instructor at Youngstown State University, she began facilitating women's studies in the areas of parenting, child development and understanding teens. The affirmation that she received from participants and the confirmation of the Word expanded her opportunities to speaking engagements in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
As the Director of Christian Education at her church, she has developed and delivered classes on God's design for sexuality for students three years of age and older. The classes are developmentally age-appropriate. They begin with God's creation of gender differences for the youngest students to dating and relationship decisions for teens to marital relationships or living as singles for the adults. Additionally, she provides classes for the entire Body of Christ, ranging from marriage retreats to financial workshops to stress management and much more.
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