Honoring Missions Giants: Alabama Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering
Two women. Different generations. Different gifts and skills. Different arenas for serving God. What might Kathleen Mallory and Martha Myers have had in common? The God they served. The Alabama state missions offering bears the names of these Alabama daughters for good reason. Who were they and why would an offering be named for them?
Kathleen Mallory
Kathleen Mallory was born on January 24, 1879, near Selma, Alabama. Her Christian home provided an environment that led to her profession of faith in Jesus Christ at age ten.
After attending Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, Kathleen returned to Alabama to teach. Following the death of her beloved fiancé, she went home to Selma. A new life direction awaited her. First Baptist Church Selma offered her an opportunity for leadership. Her father persuaded her to serve as superintendent of Dallas County WMU. As she traveled the county, she encountered opposition to missions and to women who wanted to talk publicly about missions.
During the Alabama Baptist State Convention in 1908, she read a missionary letter from China, and it shifted the trajectory of her life. God was speaking to her: “give Me your all.” And she did.
Kathleen became the state WMU Young Woman’s Auxiliary leader. In 1909, as women’s interest in missions was growing, she became Alabama WMU’s corresponding secretary-treasurer. In 1912, Kathleen became the corresponding secretary-treasurer of national WMU, serving in that role for 36 years.
She used her gift of writing in leaflets, articles, handwritten correspondence with missionaries, and editing Royal Service magazine. She traveled, often speaking in difficult situations. She advocated for women to speak publicly — an obstacle of the time that largely prevented women from serving in missions worldwide. She traveled overseas at her own expense.
Consistently, she urged women to pray faithfully for the lost and for overburdened missionaries. She held up prayer as the Christian’s deepest joy and the highest form of Christian service. Her life was characterized by frugalness. She believed that “substance and self” were all a Christian had to give and believers should give generously of both.
In 1948, Kathleen retired from full-time service, and she died in Selma on July 17, 1954. Hers was a life of sacrificial giving and living and devotion to prayer.
Dr. Martha Myers
Martha Myers was born into a strong Christian home in Birmingham, Alabama, on March 13, 1945. At age nine, she made her profession of faith. That faith was nurtured in Girls’ Auxiliary (now Girls in Action). As a fifth-grader, she knew she wanted to be a missionary.
Even at a young age, Martha was a caregiver, often imitating medical procedures on her younger brother. That interest did not fade.
After three years of medical school, she spent a short time at Jibla Baptist Hospital in Yemen. The great needs there captured her heart. She finished medical school, completed her internship and residency in obstetrics in Mobile, Alabama, received additional surgery training, attended seminary classes, and learned Arabic.
For 25 years, Martha worked tirelessly among the people of Yemen. She was well known among the people in Jibla and beyond. Martha became “Yemeni,” taking on the language, the dress, and the customs. Her days were long and difficult. Obstetrics and gynecology was an effective avenue to opening the door for conversations about the one true God. Generosity was in her DNA. She would do without so others could enjoy simple comforts. Her motto was, “Things don’t really matter, but people do.”
Her love and care for the Yemeni people cost her her life. On December 30, 2002, a member of an al-Qaeda cell in Jibla, whose wife Martha had cared for, burst into the hospital, killing her and two other missionaries. His intent was to stop the spread of Christianity in his country. However, the testimony of Martha’s life only served to highlight the power of Christ in Yemen. Her tombstone in Yemen bears these words, “She loved God.” Martha’s life was one of choosing to sacrifice for the kingdom.
State Missions Offering
In Alabama, the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering coincides with the Week of Prayer for State Missions, when Southern Baptist churches across the state pray for the work of Alabama Baptists. A special emphasis for giving happens each September.
For 66 years, Alabama WMU honored Kathleen Mallory with an offering named for her. Then the offering was combined with the Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief Offering. In 2016, the offering was expanded to include other Great Commission ministries and became the Myers-Mallory State Missions Offering.
The legacy of two missions giants continues to make a kingdom impact. Discover more at myers-mallory.org.
Sheryl Churchill Buckner lives in Birmingham, Alabama. She is retired from national WMU and has presented monologues on the lives of Kathleen Mallory and Martha Myers.
