Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) President Rosalie Hunt was unanimously elected recording secretary of national WMU during the group’s June 21–22 missions celebration and annual meeting in Louisville, Ky.
Kaye Miller, a member of Immanuel Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark., was unanimously re-elected president. It is the first time that both women holding these positions have been children of missionaries. Miller’s parents were missionaries to Thailand, and Hunt’s parents served in China. Hunt later served as a missionary in eight Asian countries.
Miller, in her presidential address, focused on love.
“Even the Southern Baptist Convention theme has love in it, ‘LoveLoud.’ WMU is in its second year of our emphasis Called to Love, so it seems love is in the air,” she said.
“When we offer [Jesus] our passion, our being and our strength — not with just part of it but with all of it — He gives us the amazing capacity to see through His eyes, to hear with His ears, to touch with His hands, to think with His mind and to feel with His heart,” Miller said.
She urged WMU to train the next generation to have hearts for missions and be urgent about the Great Commission.
“Since 1888, Woman’s Missionary Union has been about the Great Commission,” she continued. “Our singular focus on missions education so that believers will be radically involved in His mission has helped develop countless hearts for missions. There is a lot of talk about the Great Commission right now, and WMU continues to teach preschoolers, children, students and adults to be love in action through the command of the Great Commission.”
WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee reported WMU has helped Liberian women reopen a children’s camp following years of civil war that put some of its ministries on hold. Through Pure Water, Pure Love, WMU has provided water purification systems so the Liberian WMU once again can provide Christian camps for boys and girls.
“Our Liberian sisters love you even though they’ve never met you,” Lee said.
Brenda Crim, North American Mission Board (NAMB) collegiate evangelism missionary to Alaska, told of her pilgrimage from swamps to glaciers and from doing student ministry in southeast Texas to serving in Alaska.
Larry Martin, consultant for the Kentucky Baptist Convention Missions Growth Team, told the WMU women of ministry opportunities next year in Kentucky when the World Equestrian Games come to Lexington. “What do you do when God brings the world to your community?” he asked in reference to about 1 million people from 100 countries who will flood into Lexington. “It will be the biggest sporting event in the U.S. in 2010.”
Baptist ministries are being planned similar to ones offered at Olympic events in recent years, including a 24-hour prayer chain during the event, a children’s international literacy program, youth leadership training and witnessing opportunities. Already about 4,000 churches and volunteer groups are coordinating efforts through Affiliated International Ministries.
“Become involved with us in this opportunity God has brought to Kentucky,” Martin said. “More than anything, we need your prayers,” he added. He also noted the need for volunteers to help with ministries during the event.
Chris Clarke, a NAMB equestrian ministry chaplain, shared his experiences with Happy Trails Ministry in Burna, Ky. He works with 30 cowboy churches, rodeo ministries and equestrian events.
Bill Barker, of Hurricane, W.Va., a NAMB volunteer mobilization missionary, praised WMU for partnering with Appalachian Regional Ministry (ARM), which he directs. Alabama Baptists recently launched a partnership with ARM.
“I don’t know what we would do without WMU,” he said, noting WMU MissionsFEST and FamilyFEST that have been conducted in the area. He said WMU women across the nation sent tons of school supplies for the thousands of Appalachian schoolchildren who would not be able to afford them otherwise.
When the women heard ARM needed Christmas in August boxes, those boxes began arriving at his house one day, he said. His wife called to tell him the house was filled with boxes. He had to find a warehouse for them.
Then women sent gift cards to buy the required calculators for high school students, noting many would not have been able to graduate without them. He mentioned hygiene packs, children’s coats and other clothing sent by WMU members, noting many professions of faith made at distribution points.
WMU also celebrated the missions legacy of the Gerald and June McNeely family. The McNeelys, missionaries emeritus to Spain, credited their mothers, both Girls in Action (GA) teachers, with inspiring them to share the gospel with others.
The McNeelys’ eldest daughter, Linda Hoffman, and her husband, Rusty, are longtime missions educators at St. Matthews Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., the WMU annual meeting’s host church. Their youngest daughter, Marsha Smith, and her husband, David, are Southern Baptist representatives to Northern Africa. The McNeelys’ granddaughter Lisa Hoffman Clark is a former two-year missions volunteer to Northern Africa. Now a GA teacher, Clark’s eldest child recently joined Mission Friends.
“One leader can change a life,” Hoffman said, noting that sometimes Christ’s calling requires Christians to “pack a bag and a passport” as her parents and sister did. Others are tasked to “prepare the hearts of children to hear their own call” as she and her husband do.
At an awards luncheon, Margaret Brown, of Mountain Rest, S.C., received the Martha Myers GA Alumna of Distinction award. Brown, WMU director at Mountain Rest Baptist Church, started the church’s GA organization and previously served as a GA leader.
The WMU Foundation presented the Dellanna West O’Brien Award for Women’s Leadership Development to Diana Lewis, a member of First Baptist Church, Benton, Ark., for her dedication to helping the poor. A missionary with NAMB the past 18 years, Lewis serves as the group coordinator of church and community ministries for the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. In that role, she assists churches with hunger ministries, block parties, substance abuse and health care ministries and literacy outreach.
Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, a former WMU executive director, paid tribute to former WMU executive directors Alma Hunt and Dellanna O’Brien, who both died during 2008.
Nearly 1,200 people registered for the two-day event held at St. Matthews Baptist.
During the WMU executive board meeting June 20, WMU leaders voted to expand advertising sales to all WMU magazines geared toward adults as well as to the WMU Web site. Missions Mosaic was the first WMU magazine to allow advertising as a source of revenue for the national organization. Ad sales began in that magazine in 2008.
The executive board also approved a recommendation to hold the 2011 WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting in Phoenix June 12–13, 2011.
The endowment committee granted $32,475 in scholarships, with $21,531 given to missionary kids, Acteens and others. (Editor’s Network)
Share with others: