LIFE UPDATE

Kaitlyn Sipes
July 22, 2025

Long time, no email! There has been so much change in my life in the past few months and so I figured I would take advantage of this tool from last summer to catch you all up and share my updates. God has been so faithful and I am incredibly thankful for the doors He has opened and the invitations He has extended to me!

Graduation!

I wrapped up my senior year at Grove City College and in May, graduated Summa Cum Laude with my Bachelor of Science in Marketing with Highest Honors. If you have spent at least an hour with me in person, I’m sure I’ve mentioned Grove City and how much I enjoyed my experience there. It was a place of so much transformation and growth for me in every area; academically, spiritually, personally and relationally. My senior year was a hard one, struggling with the transition back to normal life after my experience in Thailand and overall dealing with “growing pains.” But this year was also marked by deepening friendships, new experiences and core memories. I cannot say enough positive things about my experience at Grove City and I am so excited to be joining an incredible alumni network.

Career!

A week after graduating, I moved out to Grand Rapids, Michigan where I started my job as the Ministry Engagement Manager for Never the Same Ministries. I’ve been living with family members in the area and spent the first two weeks of settling into my job, setting up my office, and establishing a morning routine.

I have absolutely loved living so close to Lake Michigan, and have been trying to take full advantage of the summer while I can, whether its a beach volleyball group, watching the sunset, or walking the pier.

Never the Same Ministries is the overarching organization, and we oversee several different ministries within that.

Claim Your Campus- A free resource for students in middle and high school to use to start and maintain prayer groups for their school, at their school. We have a network of students who serve as state reps and believe in our vision of seeing 1 million students praying for their schools. Our deep hope is to see the next generation of parents, doctors, lawyers, teachers, pastors, engineers, businessmen, politicians, etc. be people who know how to pray and who pray consistently, because they learned how to pray when they were teenagers praying for their shcools.
Soul Exercises- A youth group curriculum designed to help students engage with Scripture. The guides help to provide a structured lesson plan and daily reading plans for students and leaders, which we see as a direct way of counteracting the rising Biblical illiteracy we see today.
Our largest ministry- NTS Camp! A week long summer camp experience designed for churches to bring their students and leaders, with high energy games and activities, amazing worship, and rich Biblical teaching. As a staff we plan and execute everything so that the youth leaders can focus solely on being present with their students. Our hope is that the week that youth groups spend at camp serves as a launch pad for their ministry the other 51 weeks of the year.

It is surreal to me that I now work on full time staff for Never the Same, because NTS Camp has been part of my testimony for the last 8 years. I first got connected with NTS Camp in 2017 when my friend, Morgan Sproull, invited me to go with her church. It was at NTS Camp that year that I felt the presence of God for the first time and was overwhelmed by the freedom that following Jesus has to offer. July 11, 2017 I rededicated my life to the Lord. The following two years, I attended NTS Camp with Pearce Memorial Church, having the chance to go alongside my sister and my dad. While at camp in 2019, I felt the Lord call me to full time vocational ministry and said yes to following His plan. While terrified and confused at the time (“I don’t know what this means, I just know that I am supposed to say yes”) I would never have imagined that God would write my story like this and bring me back to NTS.

At NTS Camp in 2019

At NTS Camp 2025

Right now, we are wrapping up week 6 of Camp! We have gone from Indiana, to Maryland, to New York, to South Carolina, and now Nebraska, seeing students from all over the country encounter Jesus and find freedom in Him! We’ve had over 3,000 people attend Camp, hundreds make first time commitments to Christ, and over 1,000 recommit their lives to Christ. We’ve had stories of relational healing and reconciliation, supernatural provision, testimonies of students walking from darkness to light, and it is incredible to witness! God is moving in this next generation in big ways!!

I’ll be sending out Tour 1 and Tour 2 recaps soon with more details about each week of Camp and how God moved, so if you would like to continue to stay updated, click below to join my monthly mailing list.

It is not lost on me that this job is an incredible blessing, that I get to be in rooms all summer filled with students worshipping the Lord and encountering Christ. I am so so thankful to work for an organization that has had a massive impact on my life, and to work alongside a team of people who are ready to give everything to see the Kingdom grow. I am learning so much and am so humbled that the Lord would invite me to be apart of this.

Part of what makes all of this possible is that all of our full time staff fundraise a portion of our salaries. We believe that God has asked us to be apart of what He is doing in this generation, and that He will provide for all of our needs as we say yes to what He’s called us to. I would love if you would consider financially supporting me and stepping alongside me as I continue to walk in what I believe God has called me to do. If you are interested in partnering with us as we seek to reach students across the country, click below to read about ways you can give.

If you have any questions, want to learn more about Never the Same or my role, or to just hear some of the stories from this summer, feel free to email me at [email protected], or text or call me at (585) 530-7219. I will also be back in New York from July 30th to August 4th, so you might catch me in person :)

Prayer Requests

Pray for this week as we close out our summer of Camps on the road. There have been a lot of logistical issues this week which can easily bring up frustration and a “push through mentality.” Pray for logistics to be smoothed out and that our entire staff would be encouraged to soak in this last week and give it our all!
Pray for safe travel as we pack up our semi-truck and head back to Michigan this upcoming weekend.
Pray for peace of mind as I start to settle and find community in Michigan. Pray that I would find a church community quickly that I can plug into and serve. Pray for longer term housing arrangements to be made smoothly. Most of all, pray that I will have peace and patience as I wait for things to settle, that I would trust in and lean on God’s timing.

Thank you so much for reading this update and considering how the Lord might be inviting you to be apart of what He is doing through Never the Same. My prayer for you is 2 Thessalonians 3:16, that “the Lord of peace himself [will] give you peace at all times and in every way.”

xo, Kaitlyn