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National WMU builds houseboat from craft sticks, shows how Cooperative Program works

A lot of little popsicle sticks can go a long way when they’re put together. That’s what national Woman’s Missionary Union has been trying to show as they’ve been preparing for a craft stick houseboat for the past six months.
  • November 8, 2024
  • Grace Thornton
  • Featured, Latest News, WMU
National WMU staff and volunteers from Illinois and Texas worked in early November to build the houseboat from the thousands of panels sent in from churches and others around the country.
Photo courtesy of WMU

National WMU builds houseboat from craft sticks, shows how Cooperative Program works

A lot of little popsicle sticks can go a long way when they’re put together.

That’s what national Woman’s Missionary Union has been trying to show as they’ve been preparing for a craft stick houseboat for the past six months.

Back in May, WMU put out a request for churches, entities, missions groups, Vacation Bible Schools and others to put together small square panels with craft sticks, decorate them and send them to the WMU headquarters.

Working together

National WMU staff and a crew of volunteers began the first morning of the build with a time of prayer for women around the world. (Photo courtesy of WMU)

The idea was to use them to build a big houseboat and float it on Lay Lake in Alabama to demonstrate the way the Cooperative Program works — how when the more than 40,000 Southern Baptist churches work together, they can accomplish a lot toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Some of the money given through the Cooperative Program in the past helped provide a houseboat for International Mission Board missionaries Don and Maria Friesen who live in South America among a people group that often moves when the water levels rise.

Missions curriculum

The couple’s story is featured in WMU’s children’s missions curriculum for November, so to coincide with that, national WMU staff and a team of volunteers from Texas and Illinois worked in early November to construct the boat on a pontoon platform.

Thousands of panels were turned in, including some from Southern Baptist seminaries, IMB, the North American Mission Board, GuideStone and the SBC Executive Committee.
(To see a video, visit tabonline.org/houseboat.)

To learn more about the project, visit wmu.com/craft-stick-houseboat-and-the-cooperative-program.

To see updates on the craft stick houseboat, visit WMU’s Facebook page at facebook.com/NationalWMU.

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