Christians need to hear, understand, embrace and live God’s call, program personalities reminded Baptist women during the national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) Annual Missions Celebration June 11–12.
“How can you hear God’s call when those around you want you to mimic the call of someone else?” asked Paige Chargois of Richmond, Va., who interpreted the missions celebration theme throughout the meeting in Greensboro, N.C.
Christians should discover the authenticity of God’s unique call upon each believer’s life to follow and obey, she stressed.
Embracing God’s call means “putting our arms around something too great for us. … It is a task we will never complete,” she said. And sometimes it means Christ’s followers must “toss overboard some of the baggage we’ve been carrying far too long.”
“If we would stop clinging to things that leave us empty and look to the Lord who wants to fill us again and again with what is meaningful and valuable and worthy and worthwhile, then we will begin to see that nothing is worth holding onto that the Lord says to discard.”
National WMU President Kaye Miller of Little Rock, Ark., presiding at her first meeting, presented the Martha Myers Girls in Action Alumna of Distinction Award to Jacqueline Draughon of Grace-ville, Fla. Draughon, now in her 80s, began serving as a Girls in Action leader at a young age, and girls from her missions groups have gone on to be missionaries and church leaders.
WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee presented the Dellanna West O’Brien Award for fostering Christian leadership in women to Eileen Mullins of Inez, Ky.
After her son was imprisoned in eastern Kentucky for killing his wife, Mullins started Haven of Rest, a ministry providing shelter and ministry to families visiting inmates. “I heard the call; I understood the call; I embraced the call; and I lived the call,” said Mullins, whose dream is that every federal penitentiary will be served by a Haven of Rest ministry.
In her report, Lee lauded the vision of Annie Armstrong and other early WMU leaders, adding the call to follow Christ “continues today for all of us.”
Lee related multilevel, “compelling, life-altering” calls on her own life, from accepting Jesus Christ, to a call to nursing, to a call to missions service overseas, to her call to lead WMU.
She challenged the women to “go forward” and “stand fast” with “compassion for the people of the world.”
God has had His hand on WMU for 118 years, she said, reminding the crowd, “Missions is the only reason we exist.”
Those attending the WMU meeting also heard from a variety of missionaries serving in North America and internationally. WMU officials also collected $5,400 for the Vision Fund Offering supporting WMU work and ministries.
Pepper Choplin, a music minister in Raleigh, N.C., led worship during the conference. Music features included the choir from Front Street Baptist Church, Statesville, N.C.; the liturgical dancers of Mount Hermon Baptist Church, Danville, Va.; and Rozlyn Sorrell, concert artist from Garner, N.C.
In a hands-on missions project, participants gathered items for three North Carolina projects. More than 530 hygiene kits went to a homeless shelter.
Baptists from across the nation attending the missions celebration assembled 120 backpacks with everything from towels to toothbrushes for children attending Angel Tree camp. And a women’s prison ministry will have 111 gift bags to distribute.
During the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 13, Lee and Miller reported to messengers about the stewardship, missions education and hands-on missions experiences of WMU.
They thanked the convention for making missions a priority and reported that Southern Baptists gave $138 million to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions and $53 million to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions.
Lee also noted WMU’s strong promotion of the Cooperative Program.
“We have a strong emphasis on stewardship at all age levels,” she said.
Miller noted that a recent study showed that per capita giving is significantly stronger in churches that have WMU organizations.
Leaders also noted WMU’s ongoing role in missions education and in hands-on missions opportunities for girls and women.
They noted that undated missions curriculum are now downloadable on the WMU Web site.
They reported that 10 FamilyFESTs and 17 MissionsFESTs, hands-on missions and ministry opportunities sponsored by WMU, state WMU organizations and local associations, have resulted in participation by more than 4,000 volunteers.
Women and girls “experience missions through action, being the hands and feet of Christ,” Miller said.
They announced Blume, a convention for teenage through college-age girls, which will meet July 10–13, 2007, in Kansas City, Mo.
The event will include sports and fun activities, hands-on missions projects, concerts, worship and celebration of missions. (Editors’ Network)
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