In her eight years as Director of Sojourn Academy, she had planned and led ceremonies like this many times.  But this time was different.  On December 7, 2004 it was not students whose parents had just finished language school that were being commissioned to go out as missionaries; on that day it was Miss "B" herself!  Just as hundreds of children had done before her, Barbara J. Carter placed her flag on the world map at the front of the Chapel, to indicate the country (in this case, Mexico) where God had called her to serve.

It was a call that she received 14 years after first coming to Costa Rica, upon graduation from college, to teach at Son Lights, a school that many Institute families had sent their children to before its closing in 1993.  In that same year she began her career at Sojourn Academy, a school that the Institute opened six weeks after Son Lights closed.  Barb was the entire high school faculty:  math teacher, English/science/social studies/PE teacher, and basketball coach!  In 1995 she was appointed as a career missionary with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and 17 months later this versatile, energetic young woman assumed the directorship of Sojourn Academy.

Barb Carter came to Sojourn with a bachelor's degree in education, and soon afterward obtained her master's degree from Southwestern Seminary.  Presently she is finishing a doctoral program at the same institution.  Among her hobbies and special interests are running, mountain climbing and playing the drums on her church worship team.

Once when a five-year-old Sojourner was asked to describe "Miss B" (as Barb is affectionately called by students), she knit her eyebrows, looked straight at the questioner and affirmed with little hesitation, "She loves God".  That was one quality that no one, whether a kindergartner or a senior in high school could miss about Barb, and it was the reason why she said yes to the call to move to Mexico City to help another new MK school get off the ground.  In leaving Costa Rica, Barb leaves behind not only a school but also a church that she helped found and develop, and many dear friends.  She takes with her her dog, Jake, wonderful memories (many of them captured on CD's), and the love, best wishes and prayers of all those who will miss her energy, her smile, her music and her determination to love and serve the Lord with all her heart, soul, mind and strength.