In the hot deserts of Africa, an International Mission Board missionary named Frank walked from village to village with a small group of local believers, sharing the gospel.
The reception they got wasn’t great — until they got to a house where a man invited them in and said he had prepared dinner for them.
They were surprised, but they found even more shock coming — the man had an adolescent son named Isa (pronounced ee-suh), the word for “Jesus” in that part of the world.
He had named his son Isa because a man in a white robe had appeared to him in a dream and told him that one day people would come to tell him what that name meant. And the night before Frank arrived, the man in the white robe had shown up in the man’s dreams again — He told him to prepare a meal because those people were coming to tell him what “Isa” meant that day.
Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director/treasurer of national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), told that story June 13 during her report at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in Dallas.
For His glory
God “is showing up in the most desperate, most remote, most unexpected places on our planet today to love extravagantly for our good and His glory, and we get to have a part of His work in the world,” she said.
WMU exists to tell the story of missions and call Baptists to generosity, Wisdom-Martin said.
It’s a vital role, said WMU president Linda Cooper, who shared a Barna Group finding that only 17 percent of churchgoers say they have heard of the Great Commission and know what it means.
“How is that possible? The Great Commission is our great mandate and it is at the center of all we teach, promote and do — making disciples of Jesus who live on mission,” she said.
With that in mind, she and Wisdom-Martin shared story after story of how missions education makes an impact at home and around the world.
Wisdom-Martin said that since the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering was instated in 1888, WMU has helped to raise $4.3 billion for international missions, money that has gone straight to fund missionary personnel like Frank in Africa. And since 1907, WMU has encouraged Baptists to give to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, an effort that has brought in $1.7 billion for missions efforts in North America.
“Last year was the largest offering on record for Annie Armstrong,” Wisdom-Martin said. “We rejoice that we have a part in calling people to steward the resources that God has entrusted to their care.”
Before the start of the SBC meeting, WMU also held a missions celebration and annual meeting June 10–11 with the theme “Unshakable Pursuit.”
During its Sunday gathering, WMU presented the Dellanna West O’Brien Woman’s Leadership Development Award to Ruba Abbassi, CEO of Arab Woman Today, a ministry to women in the Middle East.
Those present also re-elected Cooper, a member of Forest Park Baptist Church, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to a fourth term as national WMU president. Jackie Hardy, of First Baptist Church, Social Circle, Georgia, was re-elected to a second term as recording secretary.
On Monday morning and afternoon, conferences were held on such topics from Hispanic leadership to harnessing online content for the glory of God.
Three Alabama Baptists led breakout sessions:
• Jean Roberson, director of field education for Samford University’s School of Public Health, led sessions on facing anxiety and depression, two topics that carry heavy stigmas in the church.
• Rosalie Hunt, author of several books on missionary legacy, taught about the lives of Ann Hasseltine Judson, Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend, Lottie Moon and Fannie E.S. Heck and how women today continue their heritage of missions work.
• Grace Thornton, author of WMU’s theme devotional book, “Unshakable Pursuit,” taught from Acts 17:16–28 about how God has planned our life’s seasons so that we can know Him and help others know Him too.
Simulation experience
Participants also were encouraged to walk through a refugee simulation experience sponsored in part by WMU. The refugee crisis is a WMU social issue emphasis.
And during the missions celebration Monday evening, several hundred people gathered to pray for the advancement of the gospel, hear from the presidents of the missions boards and hear stories of missionaries who are walking courageously every day to share their faith all around the world. (TAB, BP contributed)
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