Not too long after John Granger became director of missions for Coffee County Baptist Association 21 years ago, he noticed a living example of the longevity of one of the association’s ministries.
Carrie McDaniel, a member of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Enterprise, came up to the office in her apron to bake coffee cakes, which were part of an annual associational Woman’s Missionary Union ministry to the children of the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries.
She was 12 years old when the ministry started in 1926.
“She has passed on now, but it was so nice seeing someone participate in the ministry who had been there since the very beginning,” Granger recalled.
95 years and going strong
The coffee cake bakers are still going strong on the 95th anniversary. Over the years they’ve made hundreds of cakes for ABCH at Christmastime, which went to the Troy campus until ABCH expanded.
Now the cakes, cookies and brownies are divided into vans and transported to other campuses around the state. The women also send packs of mixes with frosting that can be used anytime. This year they collected 1,102 baked goods for distribution Dec. 6.
Faye Allen, association WMU president, said the baked goods give the association’s WMU “an opportunity to minister to the children at the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes by letting the children know they are loved and thought about throughout the year on their birthdays.”
“Birthdays are special to each child, and we feel each child should have a special way to celebrate,” she continued. “The items that are sent also give them a way to learn to cook, measure, mix and bake, and have the experience of planning and preparing for their own families one day.”
The goal, Allen said, is to support the mission of ABCH.
“We hope as Women on Mission these children will know that the love we have for them [and] that Jesus loves them even more,” she said.
For the children
Granger noted the ministry started when some of the women at Mount Pleasant decided they would do something special for the children at Christmastime. Other churches found out what they were doing and joined in.
“It’s been a WMU thing all these years — still is,” Granger said. “They have done it continuously since 1926.”
That even includes 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, although they changed it up a bit — instead of baking, they sent some 900 prepackaged items to ABCH campuses.
“We’ve heard over the years that it has been a big help to the house parents,” Granger said, noting that the association’s WMU has “moved the ball, as far as ministry in missions in Coffee County goes, a lot.”
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