The first time Debby Akerman, as a young woman, taught a GA (Girls in Action) class in New Hampshire, she knew immediately “it was just the right fit.”
Debby AkermanToday, some 40 years – and one state – later, missions education is still the right fit for this transplanted South Carolinian. Akerman, a member of Ocean View Baptist Church in Myrtle Beach, was unanimously elected president of national WMU at the organization’s annual meeting June 14 in Orlando, Fla.
Reached by phone two days after her election, the soft-spoken retired nurse said she was humbled to be asked to serve “in a way you’ve never imagined serving. It’s pretty awing to approach this. There are some big shoes to fill. People before me have served with huge capabilities and vision.”
Akerman succeeds Kaye Miller, also a registered nurse, who served as president of national WMU since 2005.
Akerman said she was drawn to missions as a young girl. She grew up in a “very missions-minded” Southern Baptist church in Brockton, Mass. When she married and moved to New Hampshire, she became a GA leader at Screven Memorial Baptist Church (now Seacoast Community Church), which was the first Southern Baptist church in New England.
“I knew then that missions education and being involved in missions personally and through WMU and through avenues such as mission trips would be all that God would have me do,” she said. “Missions has really driven my life.”
“In New England, there’s just huge lostness. You encounter it in your workplace, your neighborhood. It’s just constant, so if you don’t live a missions lifestyle, people don’t come to know the Lord.” Akerman served as WMU recording secretary and WMU president for the Baptist Convention of New England. She also served as vice president of national WMU from 1993-1997.
Ten years ago, she and her husband Brad began looking for a place to live in retirement. “We started exploring different states, and that’s how we ended up in South Carolina,” she said. “God said stop, and there we were.”
Since settling in the Palmetto State, she has been active in her church as a GA leader and WMU director. She also has been a GA consultant for Waccamaw Association, a GA specialist for South Carolina WMU since 2002 and Camp LaVida GA camp consultant and camp nurse since 2001.
“It’s been wonderful to be in a state with great resources like South Carolina WMU,” Akerman said. “To see large numbers of children involved in missions education in our churches, that’s exciting.
“The children I’ve met at GA camp who are growing up in GA, Children in Action or RA [Royal Ambassadors] – they’re really having their minds shaped for missions. That’s a beautiful thing.
“But there are churches that do not have children’s missions education, and we continue to work towards that.”
Akerman’s pastor at Ocean View, Steven Cromer, said Akerman’s election will mean “great leadership” for national WMU, but he knows her duties will take her away from her church for many weeks of the year. “I regret that we won’t have as much access to her here,” he said, laughing.
“She just lives and breathes missions of all types,” Cromer said, noting Akerman’s and her husband’s work with Street Reach, a mission in Myrtle Beach that ministers to the homeless and those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Akerman also participates and leads in domestic and international mission trips, including recent ones to Kentucky, Mexico and India.
“Debby gets the big picture,” Cromer said. “She has just a great cooperative spirit.”
As national WMU president, Akerman said she will do what she’s always done: rely solely on God’s leading. “He’s really shown me that this will be learning as I go,” she said, “and that he’ll give me whatever I need.”