Kelly Cooper Avery ’05
Posted on: February 10, 2026
Faithfully pursuing the nations with the gospel.
“Any time you’re obedient to God, you’re going to see Him working.”
These are the reflections of Kelly Cooper Avery, 2005 alumni who majored in Christian Studies. Avery has faithfully devoted her life to international missions full-time since 2016.
Her passion for missions began to develop during her time as a student at NGU.
“I went on my first short-term trip with North Greenville in 2004. I went with Mike Landrum and a group to Budapest, Hungary and that was my first time going overseas as a mission trip,” she said. “I feel like that and the missions conference at NGU started getting my mind interested in international missions.”
Avery responded to her call to missions during a conference she went to with the Baptist Student Union (BSU) where her and her roommate prayed about it together.
“I remember going up there and I prayed about it and prayed about it and I was like, ‘I just don’t think this is me,’ but I felt the Lord tell me like, ‘You need to at least be open to this,’ like, ‘Are you going to at least say yes if I ask you?’” she said. “My roommate and I prayed together, and I was like, ‘Lord, if You want me to do this I will, but please don’t make me.’”
“It’s been cool to see my heart grow from I don’t want to do that to this is what I do joyfully, you know pretty much full-time,” Avery said. “So that happened during my time at North Greenville, the beginnings of it, but it took me some time to grow into it and for the Lord to continue to prepare me and grow me. I feel like there’s no time that’s wasted so He’s been very gracious to work on me throughout my life and prepare me for whatever work He’s calling me to do.”
While God put a passion in her heart to reach the nations in college, Avery’s desire for mission work deepened around 2012, leading her to move overseas to do ministry with the International Mission Board (IMB) several years later.
“In 2016, I ended up moving overseas after summers of short-term trips and longer short- term trips of a month or so,” she said. “I ended up moving to Bangkok, Thailand and serving with the IMB for 3 years there and that was a wonderful experience, getting to be a part of a team there doing some church planting work and ESL ministries as well.”
She saw God at work in many ways through her time on the mission field in Thailand, a country that is considered unreached.
“I feel like I see Him working in every single way overseas. We’ve seen people come to faith. In Thailand, Bangkok is a city of 14 million people and there were so many people who have never heard the gospel before,” Avery said. “The majority of the people I came in contact with never heard the gospel before so to see people who had never heard about Jesus express interested in Him obviously showed God at work in their lives. To see people go from darkness to light, from serving spirits and Buddhism their whole lives to turning and accepting Christ and following Him.”
Though Avery has seen several come to faith in Thailand, one in particular stood out to her. During her time on the field, she shared that there was a Thai woman who began coming to their English-speaking ministry and then started attending their church.
Avery witnessed one of her teammates share the gospel with the woman in her own language and she accepted Christ. The Thai woman is still a faithful believer, has been baptized, and is actively inviting others to join her at church.
After moving back to the United States in 2019, Avery still had a desire to do mission work and now she is serving as the Women’s Training Facilitator for Reaching and Teaching International Ministries
Through her current role, she leads teams of women from US churches and teaches the women’s institute where she travels to different countries every two months to teach the Bible and prepares curriculum for women who have less access to Scripture.
“We’ve seen believers grow in their ability to understand the Word and teach it to others and they’re sharing it with other people. Our group has grown over there each time it’s taught,” Avery said.
In addition to serving on the mission field, Avery has also been involved in Christian education roles in the United States. Her education from North Greenville helped better equip her for all the roles God has led her to do over the years.
“I feel like I gained the majority of my theological understanding from my time at North Greenville, being in the Christian Studies department,” she said. “They taught me how to properly understand Scripture, how to properly exegete a passage and that has been influential in my life and preparing Bibles studies and lessons and things like that.”
As she reflected on her time as a student, the three courses that were most impactful for her were hermeneutics with Dr. Curt Horn, systematic theology with Dr. Walter Johnson, and intro to missions with Dr. Allen McWhite.
“Those three classes were influential for preparing me for any type of Christian work. I’ve done missions, I’ve done Christian education, and now I’m kind of doing a hybrid of missions and Christian education,” Avery said. “I feel like none of that would have happened had I not gone to North Greenville. God prepared me academically, but also learning what it looked like to be a believer as a young adult, North Greenville was super influential in that. I was discipled very well.”
For current NGU students who feel that God is leading them to pursue full-time international missions, Avery’s best piece of advice is to focus on growing in their personal relationship with the Lord and go on short-term trips.
“There are so many academic backgrounds that are useful in missions. I would say don’t worry so much about what your academic background is going to be. Focus on growing in your relationship with the Lord. That’s going to be most important.” she said. “There’s nothing that is more valuable to you in any aspect in life than your relationship with the Lord. Focus on growing personally with the Lord and having that be first and foremost because when you go on the field, you’re not going to have what you have at North Greenville or even in the US so you’re going to have to feed yourself. Learn to feed yourself well now and take advantage of the awesome community you have now because it’s not going to be the same.”
“Then, go. Take advantage of the trips that North Greenville offers or the local church offers. The best way to learn is by going over there and doing it and be flexible,” she said.
