As Wanda Lee, executive director-treasurer of National Woman’s Missionary Union, prepared to pray for next year’s South Carolina WMU executive board members, she said, “The strength of South Carolina WMU sets the pace for the rest of the nation.”
Morgan McNeill (left), of Millbrook Baptist Church, Aiken, visited with her aunt, Brenda Bowie, and Martha Hughes, both of First Baptist Church, Easley, at the 2012 WMU annual meeting.It was a fitting statement under the umbrella of this year’s South Carolina WMU annual meeting theme: “Go – Persevere.” The meeting was held March 23-24 at Millbrook Baptist Church, Aiken, and was attended by approximately 475 people from around the state.
The two-day meeting included testimonies from missionaries and from church and associational leaders, election of officers and board members, reports from WMU-supported ministries, breakout conferences, Aiken-area missions projects, a service exploring WMU’s current emphasis on human exploitation, and worship.
Pam Smith, North American Mission Board missionary serving in Montana, said she once drove 1,800 miles to cover one area of the state and found only five Baptist churches. She added that Montana was not even considered “post-Christian” because it never had a Christian heritage.
“The social institution at the core of Montana – what’s in every single town, sometimes the only thing in town besides the post office – is the saloon,” said the Easley native. “And so the vast majority of Christians in the state are the first Christians in their families.” After sharing several testimonies of these first-generation believers, she paused and said, “I am so very grateful to be a Timothy, to have a gospel heritage. And that is due in large measure to you, South Carolina WMU.”
“I was really moved by the testimony from Pam Smith,” said Betty Douglas, WMU director at St. Andrews Baptist Church, Columbia. “I don’t think I’d ever thought about how isolated people in Montana are from each other.”
“J” and “K,” missionaries to North Africa and the Middle East, shared about their work in those countries that are officially closed to the gospel. Ron and Janice Wilson from the International Mission Board shared testimonies from Japan and Brazil.
Janice Wilson told of how a young girl who had lost her mother to the tsunami that hit Japan last March pleaded for a baby doll to hold. Half a world away, “randomly,” a group of GAs in Alabama made dozens of handmade dolls that ended up in the supply bus of Baptist relief workers in Japan and in the hands of the young girl.
In other business, participants reelected Lil Drawdy of First Baptist Church, Hampton, as president, and signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Juvenile Justice extending a partnership that helps reintegrate juveniles with their communities following release.
Friday afternoon included conferences on such topics as: DJJ ministry; domestic violence and its impact on children; and missions in Montana, North Africa, and around the world. The afternoon also included mission projects such as assembling evangelism and craft packs for Hispanic missions work, visiting at a local nursing home, assisting in a local DJJ project, and prayerwalking at South Aiken High School.
During the Friday evening session, participants were challenged to better understand and become advocates in the issues surrounding human exploitation: human trafficking (sex and labor), environmental exploitation, media exploitation, pornography, and bullying.
Next year’s WMU annual meeting will be held March 8-9 at Chiquola Baptist Church, Honea Path, “a small town with a big heart – but no hotels,” quipped church member Martha Walker. – SCBC