For Inez Velez, the work of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) has come full circle.
Eighteen years ago, when she and her family moved from Puerto Rico to Florida, a WMU leader began visiting and teaching her children English. Later the WMU leader invited the family to her church, and the Velezes came to know the Lord.
Changed forever and drawn to missions, Velez began working with WMU and her husband, Edwin, was called into ministry.
Today he is pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana (First Hispanic Baptist Church), Albertville, in Marshall Baptist Association, and she leads the church’s newly commissioned WMU group — the first of its kind in the association.
“My heart is missions,” Velez said. “We are missionaries here and we want to do something to educate women about WMU and show them what a good Christian woman is really about.”
After nearly three years of training classes led by Velez, 30 women were recently commissioned as charter members of the new group. Most were able to attend a special Sunday morning program Aug. 26. During the program, Velez translated while Alabama WMU President Rosalie Hunt and associational WMU director Ruth Walker challenged the women to live out the Great Commission and reach out to the large, growing Hispanic population in their area.
Walker hopes the group’s influence will spread like wildfire throughout the area.
“As involved as their church is in working with other Hispanic people, I think there will be a lot of good to come out of the witness of this missions group,” she said. “I think a lot of people will see what they are doing in reaching people, and we hope they make a change and reach out to others, too.”
According to Dianne Daniels, multicultural consultant and editor at national WMU, there are other Hispanic WMU groups in the state but not many.
“Many of the churches are so new that they lack missions education, and they are small churches and are struggling to survive,” she said. “One of our strategies at national WMU is to work with the state multicultural consultant to provide training and materials.”
Reaching area Hispanics
In addition to publishing magazines and other materials, WMU provides leadership training during national meetings and hosts a Web site, www.wmucultures.com, in Spanish, as well as other languages, to aid in starting WMU groups.
“WMU believes everybody should be involved in missions,” Daniels added.
Alabama WMU is also looking to establish more women’s groups in Hispanic congregations.
“Our goal is to develop a Hispanic women’s leadership team to give guidance to the women’s work in the state for Hispanic churches,” said Candace McIntosh, executive director of Alabama WMU. “[The leadership team] gives us a contact person in that church, and it will strengthen the ability to do that work.”
Velez already plans to expand her group’s influence by offering more discipleship to area women, involving the group in various missions projects and sharing the group’s work and purpose with other Hispanic churches.
“From this church, we can spread missions around Marshall County,” she said. “We need a lot of prayers that this church will reach the Spanish population here because they really need to hear the gospel.”
Share with others: