After more than 20 years spent leading the youngest members of Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), Barbara Owen decided to shift her focus to international missions.
Owen retired Feb. 28 as preschool, children and special audiences consultant for Alabama WMU to serve as mission project specialist in the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions’ office of global partnerships and volunteers in missions. As such, she will help teams of Alabama Baptists that want to participate in missions trips connected to the partnerships with Ukraine and Guatemala.
“This is really a continuation of what I’ve done, and this way, I get to really help people see their Christianity at work,” Owen said. “There’s so much potential there.”
Although Owen left behind her work with Alabama WMU, she will still serve as coordinator of Alabama Baptist Nursing Fellowship (BNF), which unites professional and student nurses and others related to the medical profession with missions and ministry.
Under Owen’s guidance, the organization grew, becoming a vital Alabama WMU ministry and one of the largest BNF organizations in the country, according to Brittney Arnold Gardner, communications specialist for Alabama WMU.
The group now takes at least two international medical missions trips each year and is planning on taking some trips through the state convention partnerships, Owen said.
Owen’s other Alabama WMU responsibilities included Mission Friends, Girls in Action, Children in Action and Children’s Missions Explosions.
She also led the Alabama Parish Nursing Project and Sisters Who Care and was responsible for working with Spanish-speaking audiences. (Alabama WMU)
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