More than 3,000 teenage girls, collegiate young women and leaders recently met missions challenges head-on in Kansas City, Mo., cutting their hair, building wells and buying livestock all for the sake of furthering the Kingdom.
During Blume, a missions event held July 10–13 and sponsored by national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), the girls — including 127 from Alabama — learned about 5 Ways of Giving to missions.
Participants were encouraged to learn about and support five different ministries — Blood:Water Mission in Africa, Beginning of Life Foundation in Moldova, the Ricks Institute in Liberia, a ministry in Jordan that helps Arab women and Locks of Love.
With the exception of Locks of Love, WMU is partnered with each ministry through its International Initiatives and Pure Water, Pure Love ministry.
“It’s really great that Blume did the 5 Ways of Giving,” said 13-year-old Lottie Rich of Memphis, Tenn. “It made you feel like you are a part of something even though you’re not there (in the countries that these ministries impact).”
Jena Lee, executive director of Blood:Water Mission, a ministry dedicated to providing clean water to Africans and founded by Christian rock band Jars of Clay, was on hand to tell the girls about the ministry’s 1000 Wells Project.
“The Blood:Water Mission [booth] was neat,” said eighth-grader Kailee Williams. “I learned that one dollar will give a person (in Africa) clean water for a year.”
In the Welcome to Moldova exhibit, girls wound their way through a maze, their path based on tough life decisions presented at each doorway.
The exhibit was designed to help the girls understand life for many in Moldova, how thousands of girls become enslaved by human trafficking and how the Beginning of Life Foundation can help.
This ministry seeks to help victims of human trafficking by providing them with safe housing, education and job skills training and Christian counseling and discipleship.
At the end of the maze, participants were encouraged to write a prayer for girls in Moldova and add it to the prayer chain made of paper links.
A classroom and petting zoo filled with goats and a pig were set up to invite girls to learn about the Ricks Institute, a K–12 school for children of war-torn Liberia. It purchases livestock for children, who receive the immediate benefits of the animal, such as milk or meat from the offspring. In addition, they learn animal husbandry skills, enabling their families to earn a living.
In the classroom, the girls were able to learn about the culture and history of Liberia.
“The country of Liberia is poor, Third World,” commented Kaitlin Wilbanks, an 11th-grader from Locust Hill Baptist Church, Travelers Rest, S.C. “They don’t hear as much about the gospel, and it is important to reach people that need to hear about the story of Jesus when we hear it on a daily basis.”
A representative from a Christian ministry of Arab women who minister to other Arab women through a radio program and the Internet gave samples of items from Jordan, such as Arabic coffee and candy.
In the sound booth at its exhibit, girls were challenged to record a 60-second testimony about their faith without using the words Christ, Christian or Scripture.
Finally in the Locks of Love salon, girls personally gave to the ministry by donating their hair to be made into hairpieces for children with long-term medical hair loss.
With the exception of Locks of Love, the girls could donate money to the ministry of their choice at the Blume bank, also located in the interactive area. At the conclusion of Blume, more than $45,000 was donated to support these ministries.
‘On mission for Him’
In addition to these hands-on ministry opportunities, lively general sessions and interactive missions games during the week, participants were treated to an outside cultural experience July 11 called A Night in the Middle East.
They also focused on issues such as modesty, poverty, drawing boundaries in the midst of busyness and how to love God with all that they are.
“God created you exactly as you are to be on mission for Him,” national WMU President Kaye Miller told the girls. “Be the girl God’s created you to be, trusting Him every step of the way.” (WMU)
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