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WMU-NC leader highlights purposes
Dianna L. Cagle, BR Production Editor
December 13, 2016
4 MIN READ TIME

WMU-NC leader highlights purposes

WMU-NC leader highlights purposes
Dianna L. Cagle, BR Production Editor
December 13, 2016

Ladies involved in Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina (WMU-NC) raise funds for missions, pray and provide mission education for all ages, Amy Pardue Boone said to the messengers of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in Greensboro in her Nov. 14 report.

“I believe that the WMU has a very rich history in impacting lostness, but I believe also that our future is very bright as we teach preschoolers and children and youth and young ladies and adults of all ages,” said Boone, WMU-NC executive director-treasurer.

Boone focused on heroes of the faith during her report.

She shared that both Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong were role models to her. She also mentioned Fannie E.S. Heck, a woman who served 29 years in North Carolina’s WMU. Boone said Heck is the most quoted WMU state president in WMU history.

One of the main reasons WMU was formed was to raise funds for missions. Using the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO), funds are raised for both the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board.

Part of raising awareness of the offerings, WMU offices across the United States are filling orders from churches for materials for the LMCO now and will be working in the spring to get information out about the AAEO.

Another reason for the WMU is prayer, Boone stressed.

“Prayer is the mighty engine that moves the missionary work,” Boone said. “We as Southern Baptists must work much harder to get to know our missionaries. We literally support thousands of missionaries; it’s very easy not to know any of their names.”

Self-funded missionaries have a stronger bond with their supporters because they have to return more often and give reports and raise funds.

But, it was Southern Baptists who helped Boone’s family when they were serving in Mozambique and South Africa. Their salary paid for guards for their home and a vehicle with a winch and an extra fuel tank. The money was also used for malaria medicine and for counseling after Boone was carjacked. It provided two years of language school as well as many Bibles, Jesus films, theology books and agricultural supplies.

This year, “1,123 missionaries had to be sent home because of lack of funds,” Boone said, and “many Baptists did not even know that was happening. We must never allow that to happen again.”

Besides raising funds and prayer, WMU was begun “to provide excellent missions education,” Boone said. “We were the first ones to tell the missionary story.”

Boone shared about one church in Clyde, N.C., who is using Girls in Action (GAs) and Royal Ambassadors (RAs) for afterschool programs. She highlighted one GA director who is now hosting GAs in her home after the flooding in Lumberton after Hurricane Matthew.

A Christian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC) site in Wilmington took some of its ladies on a mission trip to Lumberton to throw a party for a group of GAs. The CWJC women are trying to escape poverty and addiction with the training and mentoring provided. One woman that participated in the mission trip said, “Wow. I love being a missionary.”

CWJC has 18 sites in North Carolina and one in South Africa.

Boone told of a woman who works full time, has four children and faithfully teaches Mission Friends to 28 children. “She is a modern-day hero,” she said. “The leaders that teach GAs, RAs and Mission Friends, they are my heroes.”

While there were many ministries, state and national, that Boone mentioned, she stressed the importance of working together.

“We want to work with you as we impact our world for Christ,” she said.

Visit wmunc.org.