Alabamians took center stage during the national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) annual meeting in Orlando June 11 when the executive director torch moved forward.
Russellville native Wanda Lee was officially installed as WMU’s seventh executive director during the opening session of the national meeting. Lee, who was elected as executive director in January and took office March 1, previously served as national WMU president.
During the installation ceremony previous WMU executive directors Dellanna O’Brien (1989-99), Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler (1974-89) and Alma Hunt (1948-74) officially passed the WMU medallion on to Lee.
Challenging assignment
“As I accept this medallion today, it is with a sense of God’s call to this most challenging missions assignment of my life,” Lee said during the installation ceremony. “He has led me through critical days of discovery to reach this point. This medallion represents a sacred trust from you and those who have gone before you in WMU.
“It is a trust I do not take lightly but accept only with confident assurance that as God has led and been faithful in my life before today, He has committed to do the same for me and WMU in all the days before us,” she said.
O’Brien, a member of Mountain Brook Baptist Church, Birmingham, outlined Lee’s life as a pattern of preparation from the Lord for this moment. Mentioning moments such as Lee’s career as a nurse, her service as a missionary and her role as a pastor’s wife, O’Brien told Lee “the Lord has been preparing you.”
“You will serve in difficult times,” O’Brien said to Lee, “… but there will be times of opportunity.”
O’Brien challenged Lee to keep God’s wisdom evident, have a vision that will bring new purpose to the organization and to take time for herself for personal renewal both physically and spiritually.
Lee, whose husband, Larry, served as a pastor in Tuscaloosa and Duncanville before they went to St. Vincent, a Caribbean island, as Southern Baptist missionaries, learned about WMU as a pastor’s wife.
She was introduced to the organization and its missions opportunities at an Alabama WMU meeting, said June Whitlow, WMU senior associate executive director.
After returning from the missions field due to medical reasons for their son, the Lees landed in Columbus, Ga., where she would later become president of the Georgia WMU before being selected as national WMU president.
“Returning home due to health concerns with our son, I began a new journey of discovery into how to continue to fulfill God’s call in my life to missions,” Lee said.
“God has kept His promise to use my gifts and abilities in many different ways throughout these past years,” she noted.
The WMU annual meeting continued through June 12 with various meetings and training workshops. The Pastors Conference also took place June 11-12.
Both meetings were in connection with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting that took place June 13-14.
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