International WMU Coordinator Reflects on Connecting with WMU Sisters Around the World
During my years as executive director of Kentucky WMU, I have had the opportunity to lead Kentucky WMU missions teams, and in those travels, I became more aware of our WMU sisters around the world. They were easy to spot when the women used some version of the historic WMU emblem as their logo. Even if they did not use the name WMU, we could recognize their WMU roots.
During these years, the dream of a more coordinated international WMU was born in my heart. I talked with several people about the idea, but the time was not right. Then came COVID-19 and the explosion of online video meetings. Not long after the global lockdown started, people who had never used video messaging before found themselves “Zooming.”
With this increased popularity, even in more remote locations, the dream of connecting with WMU sisters around the world resurfaced. In 2021, WMU executive director-treasurer Sandy Wisdom-Martin asked me to take the role of volunteer international WMU coordinator and to begin making contact with WMU leaders.
I soon discovered that connecting with these leaders was challenging. I looked for websites, Facebook pages, and other clues that would help me find the WMU groups. Fortunately, I had some connections already in place from my previous travels, and I also contacted missionaries for help. After months of sending emails, searching websites, and learning how to use tools like WhatsApp, I developed a list to get started.
The first international WMU meeting was held May 13, 2021. This date was chosen because it was close to Founder’s Day, May 14. (WMU was officially begun on May 14, 1888.) With great excitement, WMU leaders were invited to join us on our first global internet video call.
I admit to being very nervous about that first call and that everything would go as planned. We do these calls at 7 a.m. Central time, which means it is 5 or 6 a.m. for some participants and 9 or 10 p.m. for others, with every time zone in between. When we greet one another on these Zoom gatherings, we say, “Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening.”
In our meetings, various WMU leaders share devotions and educational presentations. These include updates on WMU work in different countries as well as topics of interest to all leaders.
For instance, Sarah Samweli, the Women’s Department director at Tanzania Baptist Seminary and recipient of a WMU Foundation grant from the Judith Slayden and David Warren Hayes Endowment to Combat Human Trafficking, shared an overview of her work to train Sunday School teachers how to recognize signs of sexual abuse in children. Through the grant she received through the WMU Foundation, she was able to provide critical training for church leaders in Tanzania.
In August 2022, I was able to attend the Baptist Women’s Union of Africa meeting, which was held in Monrovia, Liberia. Participation in this significant event allowed me to meet leaders in person who I had first met online. The in-person connection strengthened relationships that continue through the video meetings as well as through social media.
The women in people groups such as the Hmong and in countries such as Eswatini, the Philippines, South Korea, Ghana, Nigeria, Peru, Malawi, Cambodia, Panama, Cuba, Honduras, Zambia, Indonesia, Liberia, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Singapore are committed to praying for, giving to, learning about, and doing missions and telling people about Jesus.
I stand in awe of many international WMU groups who accomplish a great deal with comparatively limited resources.
WMU groups are still being started around the world. WMU in Eswatini was started in 2017 when a Kentucky WMU team took a translation of the Malawi WMU Guide and taught it to women leaders there. Cambodia WMU has been assisted by Sally Yost, a WMU volunteer in Texas who is originally from Cambodia, working with Mayette Arana, a missionary sponsored by Philippines WMU, and Sokly Chi of Cambodia. And WMU training has been provided in Thailand via video meetings through the efforts of Cindy Vang, a Hmong WMU leader from Minnesota-Wisconsin WMU.
WMU in some countries is organized much like WMU in the United States with missions groups for preschoolers, children, youth, and adults. They publish their own materials and have times of prayer and offerings. In other places, the WMU work is very basic with an emphasis on praying, giving, doing missions, and living as a Christian woman.
“Laborers together with God,” the permanent watchword of WMU based on 1 Corinthians 3:9, aptly describes international WMU and our Baptist sisters around the world.
Joy Bolton is the retired executive director-treasurer of Kentucky WMU and has served as the volunteer international WMU coordinator since 2021. She recently has been joined by Laurie Register to colead the effort.
