Six years ago, when she was working on writing the history of national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), Rosalie Hunt found a surprise — a surprise named Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend.
“I was researching and digging and trying to find out more information about WMU, and I came across her story and I thought, ‘Why don’t we know more about this woman?’” Hunt said.
Quite a story
She had quite a story, that Hephzibah, Hunt said.
“She was born in Charleston during the siege, two days after it fell to the British. Her father was in prison in a dungeon. And her mother died after she was born.”
The slaves there promised Hephzibah’s mother they would take care of the baby and get her back to their home in Edisto.
“All of her life, Hephzibah said the slaves were her people and she meant it,” Hunt said. “I have woven that thread through the whole story.”
The story — written in the form of a historical novel — is told in Hunt’s new book, “Her Way: The Remarkable Story of Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend.”
Hephzibah had an untold impact on the slave community and beyond, blazing the trail for the start of WMU by starting a missionary society.
And that society became the model for many that followed — not just WMU.
Laurie Register, executive director-treasurer of South Carolina WMU, said, “Reading Rosalie’s words really struck a chord with me.” Register introduced Hunt to Hephzibah’s story several years ago.
‘Calling from God’
“She (Hephzibah) had a calling from God, and she never wavered from it, no matter what happened in her life. She had a tremendous testimony.”
Linda Cooper, president of national WMU, agreed. “Hephzibah blazed the missions trail for all of us. Her sheer determination and ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’ attitude is a reminder that each of us can make a difference in the lives of others.”
Bob Terry, editor of The Alabama Baptist, noted that today WMU is “synonymous with missions.”
“Both owe much to the work of a mostly unknown lady from South Carolina. It is time Baptists knew her story.”
(TAB)
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