Message Magazine Online - Vol. 53, No. 01, Spring 2005

In This Issue

• A Church on Every Block
  By Donna Messenger
• Preparing the Bride
  By Michael G. Loftis, President
• Tsunami Relief
• DNA and The Church: Biblical Church Multiplication
  By Norm Nicklas
• The Most Powerful Human Force in the World
  Dr. Michael G. Loftis, President
• Why Is Missions So White?
  By Bill Commons
• Invoking the Hand of God Together
  By Rev. Charles Ware
• The Missions Committee
  By Jim Ruff
• Equipping a Generation of Global Leaders
  By Jim Jeffery
• Global Access Partnerships: One Church’s Story - Part Two
  By Dave Livermore
• Missions Conferences With Impact
  An Interview with E.C. Haskell
• Women’s Missionary Groups: A Thing of the Past?
  By Dotty Ashley
• Into Life Eternal
• Children’s Corner

Women’s Missionary Groups: A Thing of the Past?

By Dotty Ashley, WMF President, Bible Baptist Church, Shiremanstown, PA

Are women’s missionary groups going out of style? In years past, they were an important part of the missionary activity of the church. Ladies rolled bandages for hospitals overseas, made craft projects, and wrote letters to missionaries. Most importantly, though, they met regularly to pray for missionaries and their needs. While some churches are seeing interest decline in groups such as these, other churches are committed to women’s involvement in caring and praying for missionaries. Dotty Ashley describes the goals and activities of the Women’s Missionary Fellowship at Bible Baptist Church in Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania.

Currently, our women’s group meets once a month on a Thursday morning. Since it’s not the best time for those who work outside the home, we are designing ways to involve more ladies in the church. The monthly morning meeting is dedicated to praying for our missionaries, reading prayer letters from them, and writing letters to them. The ladies who come each time collect an offering that we periodically send to a missionary who has a particular need. We invite church members who’ve been on short-term trips to come and speak to the group. We’ve had MKs or visiting missionaries come to share their experiences, as well.

The group has enjoyed doing projects. We made wordless bracelets for several of our missionaries, bookmarks for missionary moms for Mother’s Day, and quilted Christmas ornaments for each family. This past year we were able to host baby showers for two of our missionary wives.

We have a separate group of ladies that is responsible for the missionary closet. They organize “Christmas in September” with a tree in the church lobby. They decorate the tree with ornaments listing items needed for the closet. Church families take an ornament and bring back the item to be added to the closet.

For two years now we have offered an all-day Saturday seminar for all of our church ladies on a “Women’s Perspective on Missions.” We provide small group sessions on how to encourage missionaries, how to teach missions to children in the home and at church, and how to be a missionary in your own neighborhood. We have panel discussions with missionary ladies in our area and interviews with missionaries about daily life. We also interview teens in our church who have participated in a missions trip.

We want to focus on prayer in everything we do. We understand prayer is important to the lives and ministries of our missionaries and we want to faithfully pray for them. We also desire to encourage them and help them in any way we can.

Missions Closets that make Missionaries smile

• Phone cards
• Restaurant gift cards  
• School/office supplies
• Sheets
• Small gifts     
• Stamps         
• Store gift cards
• Tools
• Towels
• Videos

Ways to Encourage Missionaries

• Send cards for special days (birthdays, anniversaries).
• Send cards for no reason.
• Send updates about your church (new babies, deaths, activities).
• Send videos with greetings from church members (with news of their families, not just “We’re praying for you,” though that is always nice to hear).
• Send videos of special programs (cantatas, children’s programs).
• Make a phone call (publicly as part of a service).
• Encourage members/friends of your missionary to make a personal call.
• Visit or arrange for your pastor and his wife to visit.

Take Note

• Always check with your missionary before mailing anything to them (they may be able to get it in their country and don’t need you to mail it, or there may be customs laws about what can be received).
• While personal gifts are welcome and appreciated, remember that your missionary may have a ministry project underway, and a monetary gift to their account just might be exactly what they need.