WMU MISSIONS DISCIPLESHIP HIGHLIGHTED TO MESSENGERS

June 17, 2019

By Julie Walters
Baptist Press

Jordan Ball (far right, back to camera), a Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) leader, helps RAs and GAs from First Baptist Church Jackson, Miss., and First Baptist Church Alexander City, Ala., remember their motions as they perform songs June 11 during the WMU report to messengers at the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Ala. — Photo by Van Payne

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — WMU Executive Director Sandy Wisdom-Martin welcomed the Southern Baptist Convention June 12 to Birmingham, Ala., where the national missions organization is headquartered.

“This has been our home for the past 98 years, but for the entire history of our organization, we’ve stayed focused on our assigned task,” Wisdom-Martin said. “Our mandate is making disciples of Jesus who live on mission. This is what we do.” [Read more…]

CONNECTION CHALLENGES GIRLS TO PURSUE CHRIST

April 16, 2019

By Juliana Wilson
TN WMU Communications/Childhood Missions Specialist

Attendees participate in an activity during last week’s event.

GATLINBURG — Connection 2019, a missions event for girls in grades 7 through 12, took place April 5-7 at the Gatlinburg Convention Center in conjunction with Get-Together.

The group of 294 girls and leaders focused on the event theme “Unshakable Pursuit” which was based on the key Scripture from 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Through worship, breakout sessions, missionary testimonies and hands-on experiences, the young women were challenged to pursue the God who pursues them and seek Christ in their life even when things do not go according to plan. [Read more…]

BARBIER SHARES KEY TO REMAINING UNSHAKEN

April 16, 2019

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

Natalee Barbier speaks to attendees during a break-out session. Barbier’s session was called “Unshaken by Life’s Storms.”

GATLINBURG — Natalee Barbier didn’t say it has been easy.

She just said it’s been worth it.

Barbier, who was one of the featured guests for the “breakout sessions” at last week’s WMU Get-Together, spoke to the attendees about the challenges that she has faced during parenthood. Her session was entitled: “Unshaken by Life’s Storms.”

Natalee and her husband, Jay, the evangelism event specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, have a 15-year-old daughter, Mary-Clare, who has Down’s Syndrome. The journey of raising a special-needs child has been challenging, of course, but has enabled the couple to grow in their faith in ways they couldn’t have imagined. It has shaped the Barbiers’ ministry, and opened doors to sharing God’s love and faithfulness. [Read more…]

TOGETHER TIME

April 16, 2019

WMU event features fellowship, worship, wisdom

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

WMU attendees bow for a time of prayer during this year’s Get-Together and Connection. –Photos by James Wilson, Baptist and Reflector

GATLINBURG — Many tourists travel to Gatlinburg with hopes of relaxing and rejuvenating. But for those who attend WMU’s Get-Together and Connection, the goal is much deeper: To become re-energized spiritually.

The three-day event, which was held April 5-7 at the Gatlinburg Convention Center, featured the theme “Unshakable Pursuit,” and presented attendees with ideas and plans on how to be strong in the Lord, even amid the turmoil and challenges that life so often presents. [Read more…]

MISSION WORK STILL MATTERS TO WILSON

April 2, 2019

By Grace Thornton
Writer, WMU Foundation

Creely Wilson displays her Girls Auxiliary cape which she earned as a member of Girls in Action (GAs). “Being a GA was always very important to me,” said Wilson.

BRENTWOOD — Creely Wilson has been packing recently to move to her next home — a small place in a senior living community. She’s had to downsize a little bit.

But in all of the cleaning out, Wilson was certain one thing wasn’t getting left behind — a small Lottie Moon doll that’s been on her mantle for years. She has other things she loves in life, but missions tops the list.

“I’ve learned a lot from the life of Lottie,” she says of the beloved missionary to China. “She really got women started in missions.”

It’s a legacy that’s kept going with Wilson, says Betty Wiseman, a fellow church member at Brentwood Baptist Church in Tennessee — to the point that Wiseman says without hesitation that Wilson “is our Lottie Moon.”

“She’s revered in our church,” Wiseman said. “She’s a gem, a really special lady. She represents to us what it means to be a woman of God who cares, who gives and who offers servant leadership.” [Read more…]

TENNESSEE WMU ANNOUNCES WORLDCRAFTS ADVOCATES

March 12, 2019

By Kendall Christian
WMU news office

Tennessee WMU WorldCrafts advocates are, from left, Anna Huggins, Charlyene Couey, Rhonda Poore and Bobby Turner

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — WorldCrafts, the fair trade division of national WMU, develops sustainable, fair-trade businesses among impoverished people around the world. Its vision is to offer an income with dignity and the hope of everlasting life to every person on earth.

Tennessee WMU desires to offer churches and small groups the opportunity to discover how they can get involved in missions through the ministry of WorldCrafts. [Read more…]

SHARING “GOD’S LOVE FROM A DIAPER BAG”

December 14, 2018

By Trennis Henderson
WMU National Correspondent

Bessie McPeek speaks to the gathering.

JENKINS, Ky. — Bessie and Lester McPeek are known throughout eastern Kentucky as the Diaper Lady and the Diaper Man. They wouldn’t want it any other way.

The McPeeks, who have been married for 24 years, started a unique diaper distribution and parent education ministry in Jenkins, Ky., in 2001. Since then, they have given away more than 2 million diapers to single moms, unemployed families and others in the economically troubled region who are struggling to make ends meet.

[Read more…]

HOW WILL YOU RESPOND TO LOTTIE’S CHALLENGE?

December 4, 2018

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

Time passes, transitions happen, and generations come and go, but I pray we as Southern Baptists never lose the missionary spirit of Charlotte Digges “Lottie” Moon.

Lottie Moon stood no taller than 4 feet 6 inches tall, but she cast a shadow that’s stretched for more than 100 years. Lottie left for China in the early 1880’s and gave 39 years and her life – literally – to the Chinese people as a teacher and evangelist. Among her monumental Kingdom contributions was the foundation she laid for support of international missions among Southern Baptists through a special offering. [Read more…]

TENNESSEE BAPTISTS HONOR MISSIONS HEROES

November 7, 2018

By Grace Thornton

WMU Foundation writer

Martha Pitts, president of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union, holds a brick she purchased from the WMU Foundation in Birmingham, Ala., to honor Mary Quick, her GA director when she was a child.

MEMPHIS — Martha Pitts says that when she was a young girl growing up in Whitehaven, her Girls in Action (GA) leader Mary Quick sneakily talked her into her first public speaking engagement.

“She asked me to go with her to an associational GA meeting and say the prayer there,” Pitts said. [Read more…]

AS IMPORTANT AS EVER

November 6, 2018

Camp-O-Ree a reminder of the need for RAs

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Juliana Wilson, communications and childhood missions specialist for Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union, shares information about the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions with this RA group from Faith Baptist Church, Bartlett.
— Photos by Stephanie Johnson

LINDEN — Though the number of boys in Royal Ambassadors, a Southern Baptist missions education program for boys in grades one-six, has declined in recent decades, it is still as relevant as ever, agree missions leaders in Tennessee.

“Royal Ambassadors is 110 years old this year and the mission today is just as important as it was all those years ago,” said Brian Holt, state Royal Ambassadors and Challengers (missions education program for boys in grades 7-12) coordinator for Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union.

“We have unreached peoples all over the world. That includes places here in the United States. How will we understand the importance of reaching these groups if we do not start teaching missions at an early age? Would you know that Salt Lake City is an unreached people group? RAs do,” Holt said.

He added that RAs teach “what it means to be a missionary, what our missionaries do and provides them with the most basic skills they need to be a missionary themselves.”

RAs, however, is not alone in the decline. Missions organizations as a whole have experienced a decline in membership, observed Juliana Wilson, communications and childhood missions specialist for Tennessee WMU. [Read more…]

WMU event features fellowship, worship, wisdom

Camp-O-Ree a reminder of the need for RAs

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