Judy Pinion of New Canaan Baptist Church in Walker Association is Alabama Baptists’ new Volunteer of the Year.
Reggie Quimby, director of global partnerships and Volunteers in Missions with the State Board of Missions, presented the award to Pinion Nov. 19 during the Alabama Baptist annual meeting.
Nominated by her pastor, William Martin, Pinion describes the award as “the most humbling, greatest honor I’ve ever received.” But when Martin told her he was nominating her, she almost didn’t let him.
In a moving video tribute preceding the award presentation, Martin described Pinion as a woman characterized by “her joy and servanthood, willing to do anything from making beds to scrubbing floors to sharing Jesus with people in the streets.”
Pinion accepted the award graciously on behalf of the thousands who volunteer for missions and her church. Her son, John, is a staff member at New Canaan. Her daughter, Donna, shared her newfound interest in volunteer missions, and they began researching the idea together. They were both excited about volunteer missions but worried that the cost might deter them.
“I was told about a trip to Jamaica for about $800. That was pretty good financially, but I asked why volunteers were needed in Jamaica. People pay to go on vacation in Jamaica.” But the coordinator quickly explained that she wouldn’t be seeing the flashy, beautiful tourist side of Jamaica. Instead she would see how real Jamaicans live. After that first missions trip to Jamaica in 1999, Pinion was hooked.
Pinion has since traveled again to Jamaica and to Oklahoma. She has worked locally with Vacation Bible Schools in Jasper, cooked for New Canaan’s Acteens while on a missions trip in Florida and experienced various women’s missions projects.
Still, out of all her experiences, Pinion said her trip to New York in Oct. 2001 truly changed her life. Four men and two women from New Canaan were the second group from Alabama to minister in New York just a month after the 9/11 nightmare. Pinion’s group was not allowed to give away tracts or Bibles, but Pinion used her colorfully beaded salvation bracelet to share the gospel.
How does Pinion, a nurse at Baptist Medical Center Princeton, find time and motivation to do missions in spite of her busy career? She gives God credit for working out her work schedule when the opportunities to do missions arise. She summed up her motivation in the video segment, “People need to know that Jesus loves them. That’s what makes me want to do missions more.”
That kind of motivation got the attention of the selection committee that chose her as Volunteer of the Year. According to Quimby, each year a selection committee appointed by the office of global partnerships/Volunteers in Missions looks over nominations, recommendations and other documentation to qualify volunteers for this honor. To qualify for consideration, a volunteer must have worked in at least three of the four missions realms: associational, state, national and international. This fulfills the Acts 1:8 missions strategy.
Quimby added, “Obviously [Pinion] has a servant’s heart and a passion for missions.”
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