Why I give to TH | Caroline Ehler ‘21
We recently sat down with TH alumna, Caroline Ehler ‘21, to learn more about why she chooses to support the ministry of Theological Horizons.
About Caroline:
Caroline graduated UVA in 2021, Engineering School (SEAS), Computer Science. She was also a TH Intern '20, SEEK President '20, and XA Treasurer '21. She’s currently living in Orange County, California where she works at IBM as a sales engineer by day, and owns a jewelry brand, Orange County Pearls, by night. Caroline is also passionate about technology, mentoring, entrepreneurship, investing strategies, and real estate.
“Why give now?” This is what Caroline had to say…
Theological Horizons (TH) is celebrating 25 years of faithful presence and transformative ministry. For a quarter century, this community has been sowing, tending, and nurturing deep roots TH's impact goes far beyond Charlottesville. Now TH is expanding its legacy.
Year over year, more and more students experience the respite of Vintage lunch. Students in the Perkins Fellows program serve the Charlottesville community. Lives are impacted by the wisdom TH speakers deliver to the young minds on Grounds and our community members. Saints of the City delivers the teachings of Saints and Sinners to five cities nationwide. TH invests in other ministries worldwide, teaching them how to grow just as the Marshes grew TH.
To sustain and scale this work, Theological Horizons needs your support. Your gift helps provision the next horizon of ministry, making sure that this model of grace, curiosity, and belonging continues to bless future generations.
If you're a student who has ever enjoyed time with Karen Marsh, Christy Yates or other TH leaders, or been to all those free Vintage lunches, I ask if you could pay it forward, and donate, to bless another student who might be in your same shoes right now at UVA.
TH changed how I experience my faith—both during college and now as a graduate.
TH is one of the only truly inter-ministry spaces I found at UVA, where I could connect with students across ministries, across Grounds. And it was one of the few places that didn’t ask me to do, perform, or produce. Under Karen’s calming leadership, TH invited me to simply be. To breathe. To receive.
Each Friday at Vintage Lunch, I got to step away from the academic grind—deadlines, assignments, expectations—and receive a word, a story about a saint, wisdom, and warm community. The home-cooked or catered meals were such a delicacy. Knowing that a group of people had lovingly prepared them just for us made me feel like I had a place to come home to.
And that simple welcome? It grounded me.
I came to UVA from a modern, non-traditional megachurch background. I had always “poo-pooed” traditional churches, never understanding their appeal. Until TH. Here, I discovered the beauty of liturgy and the comfort of tradition. I learned how deeply tangible our faith can be—through dancing, sacraments, food, and our physical bodies. These practices were completely new to me, and they now shape my post-grad spiritual life in the most meaningful way.
TH also taught me to see art and literature as sacred. Karen’s reverence for the beauty created by saints and creatives helped me realize that God delights in art, too. I had never imagined that my creativity could be a form of worship. What a joy to realize that faith can be expressed through more than just sermons and theology—it can live in movement, poetry, painting, and presence.
TH is a space where everyone is welcome—seekers, creatives, overworked students, the Charlottesville community, and Christians from every denomination. No matter where you are on your faith journey, you are honored and invited in.
TH is also one of the most thought-provoking ministries I’ve ever experienced. TH was the only place on Grounds where I learned how faith and social justice are deeply intertwined. As an engineering student with a heavy workload, I never would have had access to this kind of learning otherwise. TH gave me the space to explore justice, history, and theology—offering honest, gracious conversations about race, equity, and the role of the Church. I learned from community voices, from Civil Rights heroes of the faith, and from my own peers. TH gave me language and grounding to live out values I already held but didn’t yet know how to express.
What a gift. Theological Horizons is more than a ministry. It’s a table where all are welcome, a space where beauty and justice meet, and a gentle invitation to receive, rest, and be deeply loved.
I’d like to share an excerpt I wrote in my journal for Karen:
Before TH, my framework for faith was built on rules and performance. By the time I arrived at UVA, like many of my peers, I was exhausted from chasing perfection.
One ministry I was involved in introduced me to other intellectual Christians—people who had read more theology books than I had. And still, I felt like I couldn’t escape the rules. It wasn’t respite. It was just more performing.
And then, I met you and the TH community. It was the end of my first year, second semester. I’ll never forget how mad I was that I hadn’t gone to Vintage Lunch earlier. I could have had this every Friday?!
Vintage was like stepping into a warm hug from Jesus. It was as if He said, “You’ve worked so hard this week, and I know you will again next week. But you are so much more to Me than what you produce. Be still. Rest. Know that I am God.”
I had never known that before. That I could receive from God without doing anything to earn it. That I was already enough. I didn’t have to strive or perform to belong.
Vintage was the first ministry I encountered that mirrored the heart of God in this way. No expectations. No obligations. Just love, welcome, and nourishment—literally and spiritually. Where other ministries asked me to give back, Vintage just asked me to receive.
And you, Karen—you embodied that. You were (and are) the most paradoxical and inspiring woman I’ve ever met: brilliant, successful, polished, published, beautiful, with a stunning home and magnetic presence. And yet, you carry the gentleness and lowliness of Jesus so effortlessly. I didn't know that was possible. That someone could “have it all” and still be so free from ego, striving, or judgment.
My time at TH was healing. And it changed me.
From you, I learned things I use to this day—in my tech sales job, my real estate business, my marketing agency, and now, in building my own jewelry brand. I learned about email campaigns, brand consistency, team leadership, and presence. But more importantly, I learned how to let myself be loved. Without earning it.
Theological Horizons gave me the courage to ask deeper questions of God. It made me fall in love with beauty, art, creativity, and stillness. When Vintage moved to the Bonhoeffer House, your home became a sanctuary that let me see that God loves beautiful things. That He is creative and joyful and gentle and playful. That my creativity is not frivolous, but worship.
TH also taught me the richness of other denominations. I had been taught to distrust them, to believe that anything outside of my church tradition was wrong. But your ministry changed me. It gave me new eyes—and that led me to SEEK, where I eventually became president and made it my mission to bridge divides and celebrate the Church in all its diversity.
I carry everything I learned with me. I’ve done so much healing since—healing that began at Vintage Lunch. I’m learning how to be playful and present. I’m learning how to create with joy. I’ve even started acting classes, stepping into parts of myself I had buried under performance and perfection. I am grateful indeed.