JEFFERSON CITY (MWMU) – Thirteen Missourians, including ten Missouri WMU (MWMU) staff and executive board members, recently traveled to Montana Southern Baptist Women (MTSBW) MPower event.
The event was missions-focused connecting women to Cooperative Program missionaries, fellowship, idea-sharing and worship time. During the two-day event MWMU executive board members and staff shared mission action ideas, compassion ministries, leadership development, and resources.
JEFFERSON CITY – From left to right, Mandy McGraw, Montana WMU President; Tami Park, Montana WMU Executive Director; Jan Turner, Missouri WMU President; Cheryl Stahlman, Missouri WMU Executive Director, joined one another at the Montana Southern Baptist Women MPower event. (MWMU photos)
Age-group consultants provided training for leaders by demonstrating live mission classes for preschool, children, and teenagers.
National MWMU Children/Student Ministry Consultant Heather Keller, MWMU My Mission/Student Consultant Sarah Schmitt and Northwest (Mo.) Regional Consultant Beverly Hilton facilitated an Acteens conference that led to the first statewide Acteens group to begin meeting in Montana. They plan to continue meeting via Zoom and other online platforms.
Resource demonstrations highlighting various aspects of WMU, compassion ministries and leadership development were provided by the two states team members. Joan and Bill Dotson provided a WMU bookstore to have WMU materials available for purchase during the event.
Worship times included keynote speaker Sandee Hedger, wife of Rick Hedger, prayer times for missionaries having birthdays listed in Missions Mosaic and special music provided by Cheryl Stahlman, Travis Webb and Tommy and Sarah Schmitt.
Rick Hedger, multiplying churches director with the Mo. Baptist Convention, stressed the importance of missions beginning at a young age. “The goal of missions is to learn about Jesus, to say yes to Jesus for their heart and life and maybe, just maybe, God will call little Johnny to somewhere else around the world.”
As Jan Turner, MWMU president, spoke to the theme, “My Place in Missions—What Can I Do?”, she emphasized that ‘people are hungry for relationships. Showing someone else that you care about them and what they are going through makes a lot of difference.’ Turner shared ideas of small acts of kindness that can be duplicated wherever one lives.
Missouri has worked with other states in the past to provide resources, training, encouragement and financial support. During this meeting, the leadership of MWMU and MTSBW signed a partnership agreement, the first of its kind in the history of MWMU.
According to Tami Park, Montana WMU executive director, the intent is to ‘further missions of encouraging resourcing missions involvement and discipleship in their state.’ After the historic document signing, Park presented cutting boards engraved with Montana and Missouri outlines to commemorate the event. This partnership agreement will continue until the Missouri Baptist Convention partnership with the Montana Southern Baptist Convention concludes.
The Montana Southern Baptist Women will be joining MWMU at the 100th Anniversary Missions Celebration on April 14-15, 2023 at First Baptist Church, Poplar Bluff. They will participate in various Missouri mission projects as they travel to Poplar Bluff.