Birmingham, Ala. | A young woman from Illinois has been named to the 2026 National Acteens Panel, a group of four who will serve with the national WMU at the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando. Abigail (Abbie) Howard of Casey First Baptist Church has been active in missions service through Acteens for seven years.
“Being named a National Acteens Panelist means these young women are the cream of the crop,” said Heather Keller, ministry consultant for Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU). “Their missions resumes reflect all areas of missions discipleship: learning about missions, praying for missions, supporting missions, doing missions, and telling others about Jesus,” Keller said.
Howard’s father is Brent Howard, pastor of Casey FBC.
Howard, who is in 11th grade, said Acteens has enabled her to live a missional life and has provided opportunities to serve in her church as well as on mission trips where she learned to share her faith.
One experience included helping a church plant in Ohio. The church was meeting in the planter’s home, so her team prayer walked the surrounding neighborhood that was primarily Turkish.
“God has commanded is to take the gospel to all nations, but that does not always mean we have to go to another country to share Jesus,” Howard said. “He is bringing the nations to us and placing them in our path here and how so we can share with them. Acteens has shown me how, as believers, we need to look at the world through Jesus’ eyes. This way of viewing the world has led me most often to see people with compassion.”
Howard also credits Acteens with helping her grow in her walk with Christ by teaching her how to worship and challenging her to dig deeper and study God’s Word.
Acteens is the WMU-sponsored missions group for girls in grades 7–12. Illinois’ own Evelyn Tully helped launch Acteens in 1972 and served as its first national consultant.
Keller and many others have continued the work with teen women, on the national level and in thousands of SBC churches. “These young women are not the ‘next’ generation, they are the ‘now’ generation of missions!” Keller said. “I am excited to work with them and learn from them this year and know we will all be blessed by hearing about their passion for missions.”
Joining Howard on the panel are Acteens from Georgia, New Mexico, and Texas. The panelists will serve through 2026. Each will receive a grant from the Jessica Powell Loftis Endowment through the WMU Foundation. They will help lead in the WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting in Orlando in June, prior to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.
–with reporting from Julie Walters, WMU