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Reverend Karen B. Cooper, the oldest daughter of Marion Sampson and  Presley Bland, a product Albemarle and Fluvanna County Public Schools, became a baptized member of  Byrd Grove Baptist Church under the pastorate of Rev. Paul F. Spraggs Sr., where she served faithfully as  an usher and choir member for many years. 

Reverend Cooper is a veteran of the United States Army Signal Corp, serving in West Germany as a  Radio-teletype operator, in charge of the Air Weather Station until 1976. 

In 1994 she became a member of The Way of the Cross Baptist Church where she began to sing in the  choir, usher and teach Sunday School. In May 1999 she was ordained as a Deacon, preached her initial  sermon in 2000 and then was ordained to preach the gospel in November 2001 by Rev. Dr. Nan M.  Brown, founding pastor of The Way of the Cross Baptist Church in Palmyra, VA. 

Reverend Cooper studied at Piedmont Community College, where she was certified in Customer Service,  Virginia University of Lynchburg Seminary and College under the leadership of Dr. Ralph Reavis, The  Evan Smith Program and at Virginia Union University Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology. 

Certified to teach “Keeping it Real” a grant program through the Virginia Department of Health, Rev.  Cooper helped educate young people in sex and the effects of HIV-AIDS. She began to travel and  minister in Ghana in 2002 and through her “Ghanian Shoe Ministry” funds were raised to purchase over  500 pairs of shoes for children in the Village of Tabre. In 2007 she traveled to Kenya to meet and assess  women’s groups for their immediate needs.

2004-2011, Reverend Cooper served The Way of The Cross Baptist Church as Assistant Pastor to Dr. Dale  Johnson. In August 2011, she was installed as pastor. She also currently serves as secretary for The  Helen Project International, Inc., a non-profit 501© 3 organization in the Commonwealth of VA whose  mission is to financially assist women living in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa who are raising orphan  children infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

Celebrating 33 years of marriage this year to her life partner Charles, they have one son, one daughter  and 4 handsome grandsons. She continues to grow and live by the Word of God from Micah 6:8, He has  shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and  to walk humbly with your God.”