An elaborate interactive area provided a unique and fun environment for “experiencing” missions around the world and discovering different ways to serve God during “Blume.”
Jean Cullen of the national WMU makes a powerful visual impact with a chain of prayers penned by the girls for Moldova.As part of the breakout sessions, the interactive area called ME featured opportunities for participants to learn more about various ministries, join in hands-on missions efforts, experience different cultures, and explore how they can use their gifts and passions to further the kingdom of God, according to Kym Mitchell, Blume program coordinator.
Exhibits like “A Day in the Life” offered girls an opportunity to experience what life is like for girls their age in countries across the world. Entering this marketplace exhibit in small groups, each girl was given a profile of their new identity along with “Blume bucks,” which represented a typical sum of money she might have, ranging from 10 cents to $650. The girls had 10 minutes to make purchases in the market based on their allowance with choices for food, personal care items, clothes, transportation, entertainment, and school supplies.
Those with limited means realized the hardships many face as they struggle to obtain basic necessities. As they exited the exhibit, a volunteer reviewed some of the purchases the girls made, talked about the realities of poverty with the group, and encouraged them to keep their identity cards as prayer reminders.
Girls visited with missionaries serving with the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board along “Missionary Row,” and many sent e-mails and wrote “encoura-grams” to field personnel.
Another exhibit offered the opportunity to write letters of support to U.S. military personnel and time to pray for the recipient of each letter.
Lindsey Allsup, a 10th-grader from Granbury, Tex., saw the importance of encouraging the troops during difficult times. “I told them thank you for fighting for our country and freedom and that God loves them,” Lindsey said.
Girls also learned about ways to use their passions on mission for God. IMB field personnel Margie Drane and Sue Sprenkle demonstrated how they use their passion for videography and journalism to share Christ and stories of how he is working around the world. Participants took part in mock interviews and manned the video camera.
Five ways of giving
Throughout the interactive area, participants were encouraged to learn about and support five different ministries – Blood:Water Mission in Africa, Beginning of Life Foundation in Moldova, The Ricks Institute in Liberia, a ministry in Jordan that helps Arab women, and Locks of Love.
“It’s really great that Blume did the five ways of giving,” said 13-year-old Lottie Rich of Memphis, Tenn. “It made you feel like you are a part of something even though you’re not there [in the countries which these ministries impact].”
Jena Lee, the executive director of Blood:Water Mission, a ministry dedicated to providing clean water to Africans and founded by Christian rock band Jars of Clay, was on hand to tell the girls about their 1,000 wells project.
In the “Welcome to Moldova” exhibit, girls wound their way through a maze, their path based on tough life decisions presented at each doorway. The exhibit was designed to help the girls understand life for many in Moldova, how thousands of girls become enslaved by human trafficking, and how the Beginning of Life Foundation can help. This ministry seeks to help victims of human trafficking by providing them with safe housing, education and job skills training, and Christian counseling and discipleship. Participants were encouraged to write a prayer for girls in Moldova and add it to the prayer chain made of paper links.
A classroom and petting zoo filled with goats and a pig were set up to invite girls to learn about the Ricks Institute in Liberia, a K-12 school for children of war-torn Liberia. It purchases livestock for children, who receive the benefits of milk or meat from the offspring. In addition, they learn animal husbandry skills, enabling their families to earn a living.
In the classroom, the girls were able to learn about the culture and history of Liberia. “The country of Liberia is poor, third world,” commented Kaitlin Wilbanks, an 11th-grader from Locust Hill Baptist Church in Travelers Rest, S.C. “They don’t hear as much about the gospel, and it is important to reach people who need to hear about the story of Jesus that we hear on a daily basis.”