National Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) is sending 24 volunteers to the 2012 London Olympics Aug. 2–13. The missions team is composed of several smaller groups from various churches across 11 states: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
“I can’t wait!” Lora Holland said.
Holland and her sister, Joan Hicks, are among a six-person group going from Deerfoot Baptist Church, Trussville, in addition to the WMU missions team.
The sisters had originally planned to go to Honduras over the summer but changed their minds after much prayer.
“The Lord just didn’t give us a peace about [Honduras],” Hicks said. “Then we both heard about the London trip, and we prayed over it. It was just a God thing.”
Members of the missions team will be ministering through servant evangelism, hospitality and pin trading, according to WMU corporate communications team leader Julie Walters.
Providence Baptist Church, Daleville, has three women traveling across the Atlantic with WMU to share the gospel. For Providence member Eugenia Berta, this will not be her first visit to England. “I’ve been to London a couple of times but never on the Lord’s business,” 84-year-old Berta said. Her goal for this trip is to project the love of God by helping people, even if it simply means handing out water or praying for those she meets.
Edna Beam, also a member of Providence Baptist, said she has been on other WMU-sponsored trips across the country and, each time “they (WMU) do an awesome job planning, processing and executing” their missions trips.
Team members, who range in age from 24 to 84, are already preparing for the 11-day trip. Holland said she is “praying that He will prepare my heart” for witnessing to those in London.
Beam said she is “preparing physically as well as spiritually,” as they will be doing a lot of walking to minister to those attending the Olympics. Like her sister, Hicks said she is preparing by familiarizing herself with the culture in London and praying for “more awareness of what she can do to tell others about Christ.”
“I’m open to learn anything the Lord wants to teach me,” she said.
WMU has been consistently sending teams to the Olympics since 1996, making this the eighth Olympics missions team. Plans are already being made to send another team to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Registration for the London trip is closed, but for additional ways to get involved visit www.wmu.com.
If you have plans to minister during the London Olympics, tell us your story by emailing news@thealabamabaptist.org or post it on our Facebook page.
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