The 2007 Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting will kick off at 3 p.m. June 10, at First Baptist Church, San Antonio, with a joint celebration with directors of missions for the 300th birthday of Baptist associations in America.
"Associational leaders are one of our greatest partners in missions education and we are excited to join them for this historic occasion," Wanda S. Lee, national WMU executive director-treasurer, said. "We look forward to this year of lifting up the great work being done across the country through Baptist associations and their leaders."
Subsequent WMU sessions, beginning at 6:45 p.m., will be held at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter near the city’s famous River Walk.
"We are really looking forward to gathering in San Antonio with people from all over the world who have a passion for God and for sharing His love through missions," Lee said. "As we (WMU) enter the second year of our Live the Call emphasis, we pray that everyone in attendance is inspired and challenged to truly understand, embrace and live the call God has placed on their lives."
The Live the Call theme will be woven throughout the celebration as participants hear how Christ followers have responded to His call.
All of Monday’s general sessions will include times of worship and testimonies by missionaries of what God is doing around the world.
The Sunday evening program will reflect a fiesta spirit complete with a mariachi band and other festivities celebrating San Antonio’s cultural heritage. The session will include opportunities to meet and fellowship with international and North American missionaries as well as national WMU staff and officers.
Three general sessions and various conference options are scheduled for Monday, June 11, including a Spanish-speaking track provided by the women’s committee of the National Fellowship of Hispanic Baptist Churches.
National WMU President Kaye Miller of Little Rock, Ark., will preside over the WMU business session, which will take place in the Monday morning session.
The Monday afternoon session will highlight the 10th anniversary of WMU’s Christian Women’s Job Corps ministry.
Monday evening’s featured speaker will be Travis Collins, senior pastor of Bon Air Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., and a former missionary to Venezuela and Nigeria. Collins also is author of the 2007–2008 WMU emphasis book, "Directionally Challenged: How to Find & Follow God’s Course for Your Life."
Other featured speakers Monday evening will include international and North American missionaries; Tom Biles, executive director of Tampa Bay Baptist Association in Florida; Dwight Simpson, director of missions for San Diego Southern Baptist Association in California; Juvenal Gonzalez, church-planting missionary in Tijuana, Mexico, and his family; and national WMU officers Lee and Miller.
Also scheduled during the sessions is the naming of recipients of the 2007 Dr. Martha Myers GA Alumna of Distinction Award and Dellanna West O’Brien Award for Women’s Leadership Development.
Maria Monteiro, assistant professor of music at Baptist University of the Americas in Texas, will be the worship leader for the two-day WMU conference. All are welcome to this free event; no preregistration is required.
For updates on the 2007 WMU Missions Celebration, visit www.wmu.com. (BP)
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