“The Story Lives On” – Woman’s Missionary Union’s 2012-13 theme – took life through the words of a New Orleans pastor, an International Mission Board missionary and others during WMU’s June 17-18 meeting in New Orleans.
As noted by Debby Akerman, WMU president, “The Story Lives On” focuses on the gospel’s ability to transcend generations, transforming individuals, churches, communities and nations.
Debby AkermanAkerman, a member of Ocean View Baptist Church in Myrtle Beach, was elected to a third one-year term as WMU president.
Keynote speaker David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans, spoke of the lasting impact of Jesus’ story on New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Crosby painted vivid images of the devastation, and the Christ-centered love that’s fueling the city’s rebirth.
“It turned our city into a lake,” Crosby said. “Eighty percent of the footprint of the city of New Orleans was covered with water. Our church was an island in a flood for three weeks. And when I came in by helicopter 11 days after the storm, I wondered, ‘God, will it ever come back together again?’
“And then, there was a rush of wonderful love. A flood of people, thousands and hundreds of thousands, who came to help in this city that care forgot.”
Bible Storying
WMU attendees also heard about the power of Jesus’ story from Annette Hall, an International Mission Board worker who spoke about the impact of chronological Bible storying. Hall has worked for nearly 40 years with North African and Middle Eastern peoples, and ranks among IMB’s top oral evangelism experts.
Wanda S. Lee, executive director and treasurer of Woman’s Missionary Union, speaks on the theme “The Story Lives On” during the June 17 opening session of the two-day WMU annual meeting at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.“Two-thirds of the world’s people are oral communicators,” Hall said. “That means that they learn through stories or music, drama or poetry. If you hand them a book to read, they either can’t read it or they won’t read it.”
Hall said the process behind chronological Bible storying is simple, often using a set of 20 individual stories that move listeners through the Bible from Genesis to the second coming of Christ.
“We tell them the story, and then we have them learn the story, and then we process the story by asking some very simple questions,” Hall said. “Because they’ve learned the story, and because we use the same simple questions every time, they can reproduce this and go out to tell other people.
On the second day of the WMU meeting, stories of faith from behind prison bars affirmed that “The Story Lives On.”
In a video filmed behind the prison fences of the McPherson Women’s Unit in Newport, Ark., three women shared how they had found hope and a life of purpose despite their circumstances through faith in Jesus Christ.
Introducing herself to the audience, NAMB chaplain Stacey Smith told of her 60-year prison sentence after an early life of drugs and crime. While sitting in a jail cell reading Scripture, she asked Jesus to come into her life.
Released after 16 years for good behavior, Smith has returned to prison for the past five years to organize Bible studies and reach new believers. She urged others to find a place of ministry behind the prison walls. “Prison is a mission field with a captive audience,” she said. “They hunger for the Word of God.”
Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Seminary, told how “The Story Lives On” in the Louisiana State Correctional Institute in Angola. Known for its violence, Angola is the largest maximum security prison in the nation, with 5,000 inmates, “many who will spend the rest of their days in prison and never walk out of there.”
The seminary began ministering there after the warden, Burl Cain, a Southern Baptist layman, became concerned about the spiritual condition of the men on death row. After starting Experiencing God studies for the men, he called the seminary for help.
Kelley and professors came to the prison with academic courses “to teach them how to be ministers and leaders.” The prisoners have enrolled in classes and graduated from the program. Among their class assignments was to lead Bible studies and start churches within their cell blocks.
David Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans, was the featured speaker during the evening session June 17 of the 2012 Woman’s Missionary Union annual meeting.Individual and cultural victories have resulted, Kelley said. The moral climate has changed, with incidents of violence decreasing by 40 percent.
Laurie Register, executive director of South Carolina WMU, told how the WMU’s Project: Help is transforming lives of at-risk and incarcerated youth within the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice system.
For three decades, an Acteens ministry flourished on the campus of the Willow Lane Program for Girls located in Columbia, she said. Now that effort has evolved into multiple ministries as local churches and World Changers have led Vacation Bible Schools, constructed and furnished a transitional house and chapel-activity center and prayerwalked throughout the campus.
The Dellana O’Brien award, named in honor of the past WMU executive director, was given to Mycie Vue, president of the Minnesota-Wisconsin WMU. Vue is a Hmong immigrant whose family walked for six weeks to escape persecution in Laos.
The next WMU annual meeting is set for June 9-10 in Houston, Texas.
– Graham is the International Mission Board’s senior writer. Denman is director of communications for the Florida Baptist Convention.