Gray skies and pouring rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of 800-plus teenage girls and leaders at the Acteens Pizzazz annual state meeting. The March 8–9 conference drew Acteens organizations from such towns as Winfield, Tallassee, Boaz, Andalusia and Billingsley, as well as Birmingham, Montgomery and Huntsville.
Filling almost every pew in Huffman Baptist Church, Birmingham, the girls prayed, worshiped, listened and learned together. They also commissioned Acteens Activators teams from across the state to summer missions projects in New Jersey, Arkansas, Atlanta and other United States locations. Each Activator team is committed to 50 or more hours of training in preparation. First Baptist Church, Prattville, Activators began the commissioning service with a drama presentation. The Acteens Activators in attendance filled the stage for a commissioning prayer by North American Mission Board missionary Jodi Clere.
In group sessions and breakout conferences, the girls were challenged with the Pizzazz keynote: “We walk by faith, not by sight.” Conference speaker and singer Jennifer Rothschild was a living illustration of this goal as she shared her testimony and insight. She became totally blind as a teenager. Mixing humor, storytelling and Scripture, she encouraged girls to live joyfully and thankfully — no matter what challenges life brings.
Melanie Spurlin of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, who led a conference on relationships, noted, “Jennifer Rothschild has been a great encouragement to me.”
And many girls echoed 13-year-old Chelsea Byrd’s sentiment, “Mrs. Rothschild is just awesome.” Chelsea is a Northside Baptist Church Acteen from Jasper.
The downstairs halls of Huffman Baptist were filled with Acteens’ donations for the Birmingham Baptist Association Caring Hands/Medical Apartment Ministry.
“When they chose us as their missions project, I was so excited. I sent them a wish list of the supplies we regularly need such as laundry detergent, hand soap, canned goods and paper products. When I saw how much the girls brought, I was overwhelmed,” said Donna Creech, who heads the apartment ministry. The medical apartments provide a home away from home for families of patients needing long-term or critical care at University Hospital (Birmingham). Often, patients awaiting organ transplants stay there as well. These visitors will be well supplied by the more than two truckloads donated by the Acteens, Creech said.
Promos for the upcoming National Acteens Convention (NAC) in Nashville in July 2003 excited Pizzazz participants. The Acteens were challenged to help national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) reach its goal of bringing 110 girls from other countries to the convention. In the final group session, the girls gave more than $1,500 to this cause. Alabama WMU’s Candace McIntosh, who organized Pizzazz, was thrilled with their generosity: “This is an amazing amount. I am so proud of our Alabama Acteens, and I am especially proud of their leaders.”
To learn more about Acteens, Acteens Activators and other age-level ministries, contact Candace McIntosh at www.alawoman.com.
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