Phoenix | The first WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting with Illinois’ own Sandy Wisdom-Martin as Executive Director was held June 11-12 at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel. Themed “Defining Moments,” the meeting focused on those dramatic, life-changing experiences that make an eternal difference in the hearts and minds of Christian believers.
“The meeting with Sandy at the helm was wonderful,” shared Jill McNicol, Illinois WMU President, who attended the meeting. “You could see her heart and creativity throughout the meeting. I have great confidence in the mission of WMU with Sandy leading the charge.”
McNicol called the meeting inspirational and praised its focus on missions education. “She provided those in attendance with the inspiration to keep our eyes on Jesus and not rest, because the job of reaching the nations is not finished. Sandy also expressed in a nutshell the reason we believe in mission education—making disciples who make disciples starts with the very youngest in our churches.”
Living examples
“Often we make a mess of our lives and wonder if it can ever be fixed,” said Linda Cooper, WMU national president, who joined Wisdom-Martin on the platform at the gathering across the street from the Phoenix Convention Center and again later during the SBC annual meeting. “When Christ shows up, he restores us and give us new purposes.”
Cooper recalled meeting Skeeter, a kitchen manager at a Nashville mission this past spring. The former homeless man had been beaten and thrown from a bridge when he came to that rescue ministry. There he “learned about grace and experienced God’s saving grace.”
Throughout the meeting, Southern Baptist missionaries serving throughout the world shared similar stories of restoration and release.
North American Mission Board appointees Jacob and Jessica Dahl serve as church planters in Ellensburg, Wash., home to 11,000 college students at Central Washington University. In their church plant, the missionary couple has seen more than 103 persons baptized and 98 salvations.
As an International Mission Board worker in Thailand since 1992, Cheryl Derbyshire directs Thai Country Trim, a ministry that provides income for more than 200 rural village women who use their talents and gifts to produce WorldCraft products. As their handiwork is sold across the world, the women are being led to Christ.
The WMU annual meeting concluded Monday night when nearly 700 persons viewed the movie “Mully,” and met the subject of the film.
Charles Mulli grew up in Kenya, begging on the streets, and became a Christian as a teenager. He became a wealthy entrepreneur, met and married Esther, and they had eight biological children.
In 1989, Mully said, the Lord laid it on his heart to help other children living in poverty in Africa. He sold his property and businesses to provide street children in Africa with shelter, medical care, and education. Since then the couple have taken guardianship of more than 12,000 abandoned children.
WorldCrafts is partnering with Mully Children’s Family (MCF) to help share his story and expand WorldCrafts impact among impoverished artisan groups around the world.
WMU celebrates Job Corps
Cooper and Wisdom-Martin highlighted 20 years of ministry through Christian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC) in their report to the Southern Baptist Convention June 14.
Since Christian Women’s Job Corps started in 1997, 40,000 women have been touched through the program in nearly 200 sites and, collectively,
160,000 volunteers have served 200-million hours in the ministry. In 2004, WMU started Christian Men’s Job Corps.
Wisdom-Martin told of a woman named Flo who has served as coordinator of a CWJC site since 2005. She recounted that Flo said of CWJC, “Looking at the women who came in broken and left whole, I knew this was where I was meant to be. I fell in love with them and knew this was where I could make a difference.”
– By Baptist Press with additional reporting from the Illinois Baptist