In her benedictory address as executive director of Woman’s Missionary Union of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Evelyn Blount praised the women attending the annual state meeting March 14-15 at Fairview Baptist Church in Greer, telling them, “It’s not what I have done, but what you have done” by promoting missions in the churches and supporting the Janie Chapman, Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon missions offerings. More than 600 registered for the two-day gathering.
Evelyn Blount, left, WMU executive director, talks business with Gail Hodson, state WMU president, and Geoffrey Hammond, North American Mission Board president.Saying “I am forever in your debt,” Blount, who will retire at the end of December after serving as executive director since 1985, quoted Proverbs 3:5-6, urging the women not to become complacent and asking, “Are we too comfortable in our lives, in our churches and in our associations? Are we satisfied? Are we failing to hear that we need to do something different or better to lead more people to Christ?”
The executive director challenged members of Woman’s Missionary Union to “rekindle your passion for missions because of what it does in the lives of lost people.” Pointing to a “shrinking world” resulting from emerging communication technologies, Blount called on WMU to “take the smallness of the world and find ways to expand your vision for missions.”
Drawing on the meeting’s theme, “Crossroads,” and the scripture she quoted earlier – “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” – Blount assured the women that “when we listen to the word of God and his Spirit, we will know which direction to go.”
Blount was the recipient of several honors during the meeting, including the first Friends of Juvenile Justice Award in recognition of WMU’s ministry to troubled teenaged girls through the years. She also was cited for WMU’s role in the start-up of the disaster relief ministry of South Carolina Baptists (WMU contributed $50,000 to launch the ministry when Hurricane Hugo hit the South Carolina coast) and for the women’s organization’s support of Royal Ambassadors, who are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. She also was honored by the International Mission Board for the global impact of WMU on missions. Blount also received a plaque from the Jamaica Baptist Women’s Federation. The printed program also was dedicated to Blount.
Stacey Atkinson, left, of the Department of Juvenile Justice, presents a photo collage to WMU executive director Evelyn Blount in expressing appreciation for WMU’s various ministries to troubled teenaged girls, as state WMU associate for DJJ, Irene Murphy, looks on.Gail Hodson, who is minister of music and pianist at Mid-Valley Baptist Church, Langley, in Aiken Association and who felt the “missions call” on her life as a Sunbeam and later as a GA, was re-elected as president of WMU. An Aiken native, she is a charter member of Mid-Valley Church, which was organized in 1978. State WMU presidents are eligible for four one-year terms.
Sylvia DeLoach, an innovation consultant from Garland, Tex., developed the “Crossroads” theme in a series of “Storyteller” monologues based on Jeremiah 6:16, which says, “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it.”
In his initial address to WMU as executive director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, Jim Austin spoke of the “many needs” in a society characterized by “growing secularism and materialism,” and in which “we entertain ourselves to death and think we don’t need God.”
Countering that notion, Austin said, “Our greatest need is for Jesus. We must embrace the heavenly vision and share the gospel, seeing what Jesus sees – sheep without a shepherd – and going where Jesus would go. The good news of Jesus changes lives, so stand for Jesus, be used for his glory and change the world.”
Jean Phillips, missionary emeritus for Southern Africa, signs a copy of her book, “Rescue,” for Virginia Owens, a member of Boiling Springs First Baptist Church. Phillips and her husband Gene, visible in background, live in Camden.Geoffrey Hammond, president of the North American Mission Board, told of the “difficulty of witnessing for Jesus in a society that is secular and pluralistic,” creating what he described as a “changing mission field.” He had praise for Woman’s Missionary Union and South Carolina Baptists, saying, “The Father has sent us, and we must be about that work. Find where God is working and join him there. Do the Father’s work, for the night is coming.”
Richard Harris, senior strategist for missions advancement at the North American Mission Board, said that “three out of four people whom you meet on the streets of North America do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ” at the same time that a survey has indicated that “78 percent of people would be willing to listen to someone tell what they believe about Christianity.”
“Don’t lose hope,” he challenged the women. “You are doing wonderful work. America’s only hope is in the church. You can’t stop. Stay the course. Fulfill the Great Commission.”
Gordon Fort, vice president for the office of overseas operations, International Mission Board, singled out global challenges faced by Southern Baptists, including 600 people groups in the world with no missionary witness. “So many without the gospel are not lost because they want to be,” he said. “They want to be found.”
Fort alluded to “an unprecedented movement of God around the world, a day to call in all of our reserves for the work of the gospel,” but then asked of Southern Baptists, “Will we find ourselves sitting in spiritual rocking chairs as God moves on?”
The IMB official declared, “God is asking us as his people to pray as never before, to mobilize as never before, and to give as never before” to spread the gospel of Jesus among people who have never heard it. And he asked the women, “Do you have passports? How can you pray, ‘Send me,’ if you don’t?”
Royal Ambassadors and Girls in Action from the host church, Fairview Baptist in Greer, performed in mini-dramas depicting WMU’s past support of these missions organizations and participated in an “Artist at Work” exhibit.Carol Causey, missions resource director for national WMU, underscored an ongoing accent of Woman’s Missionary Union, that “the key to church growth is really missions education” through Girls in Action, Acteens, Royal Ambassadors and adult missions organizations. Of the work of Woman’s Missionary Union, Causey, who learned about missions in GAs, said, “The gospel is its motive, and conversion is its aim.”
Susan Booth, IMB missionary to Canada, reported on the goal of Canadian Baptists to increase the number of churches in that country from some 270 to 1,000 by 2020, but noted, “Even when we hit 1,000, we’ll still have a long way to go,” mentioning that Canada “sometimes resembles its climate spiritually – cold and barren.” She reminded the women, “Salvation is God’s work. It is his responsibility to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to point the way.”
Alice White, a NAMB missionary serving as weekday ministries director at a Baptist center in Savannah, Ga., told WMU that her work deals less with knowing how the stories end than it does “walking beside people as they face the crossroads they come to in their lives.”
“It’s not a bad place to be,” she said, “because we’re not the ones writing the story – God is writing the story. For now, to be seated on the front row and see God at work brings me happiness, but I look forward to that day when we will hear the rest of the story.”
White emphasized that ministry is “built in relationships as we invest our lives in the lives of others who walk beside us. Long-term investments are necessary for lasting results.”
Alice Drive Baptist Church in Sumter will host the 2009 annual WMU meeting March 27-28.