Maryland WMU Spotlighted in Mosaic Magazine
Editor’s Note: We are so excited! Missions Mosaic Magazine, a publication of WMU, featured Maryland/Delaware in their May issue! Read the article below. You can also subscribe to the hardcopy and online copies of this amazing magazine highlighting international, national and local missions. It’s full of ideas for your church, prayer needs, and more.
By Ashley Farlow for WMU
Missions Mosaic caught up with Maryland/Delaware WMU executive director Melody Knox for updates and insights on the chapter.
Q: NATIONAL WMU WAS ORIGINALLY HEADQUARTERED IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, WHICH WAS ALSO WHERE ANNIE ARMSTRONG WAS BORN AND LIVED. WHAT DOES THIS LEGACY MEAN TO MARYLAND/DELAWARE WMU?
A: We are extremely proud the original offering collected for the Home Mission Board was renamed as the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO) in 1934. Today the offering aids more than 2,900 missionary families across the United States and Canada, with 100 percent of gifts going directly to the missionaries for their use on the field. Many churches within the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware continue to purposely give to that offering every year. In 2022, $407,940.85 was collected from those churches, and all AAEO offerings have continued to increase each year.
Q: WHAT IS A RECENT HIGHLIGHT TO REPORT FROM MARYLAND/DELAWARE WMU?
A: Camp Women and Men of Tomorrow (Camp Wo-Me-To) began in 1952 as a children’s missions camp owned and operated by Maryland/Delaware WMU. Each summer, there is a girls’ camp, mother/daughter camp, and a boys’ camp. Many missionaries have answered the call to missions at Girls in Action and Royal Ambassadors camps. We also have a nonprofit organization that helps bring children to our camps who are being introduced to Christ.
Some of the counselors working at Camp Wo-Me-To have also followed the call to missions because of the impact of camp — like Grace Brinsfield. Grace grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she came to faith in Jesus at First Baptist Church of Hurlock. After graduating with a degree in agriculture science and technology, she spent a year interning with ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization), through which she had the opportunity to go to Senegal for hands-on experience at an agriculture training center and in Christian outreach. Grace then joined the Baptist Collegiate Ministry staff, and in January 2024, she began a two-year term with a new agriculture training center in Senegal, which she hopes will lay a foundation for her to share the hope she has found in Jesus.
Q: WHAT ARE SOME RECENT HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR WOMEN ON MISSION GROUPS?
A: Delaware Raceway Ministries serves the racing community of Dover Motor Speedway through guest services, chapel experiences, golf cart rides for Americans with Disabilities Act participants, and relational evangelism. Members of the WMU of New Harvest Baptist Church, Dover, Delaware, are strong supporters of this ministry and provide various types of homemade cookies to share with raceway fans, various vendors, firefighters, police, and paramedics. Raceway ministry volunteers use the cookies, which repeat visitors always look forward to, as a way to start discussions, build relationships, and share the gospel.
Delaware WMU requested churches to provide health kits filled with necessities for missions projects throughout the year in its two-state convention. The kits are used in various ways, including Ocean City Baptist Church’s ministry to international students who work in the Maryland resort area during the summer, Baltimore Port Ministry sharing the kits with seafarers, and college students using them to share the gospel with others. The kits are great opportunities to share the love of Jesus and they open doors for conversation.
Colonial Baptist Church in Randallstown, Maryland, has a most vibrant Women on Mission group. In 1996, its pastor, Dr. Robert J. Anderson Jr., challenged church members to go on a missions trip at least once, and that intentionality has continued. Women in the church’s Women on Mission group have traveled to Liberia, Old Saybrook, Connecticut, Saint Kitts, Tanzania, Nicaragua, Panama, and Guatemala. In 2018, 2019, and 2022, the missions team collaborated with the International Mission Board in Panama. In 2023, a 14-member team went to Guatemala with a partner ministry. Over the course of the week there, four people made professions of faith — to God be the glory!
Q: WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES FOR MARYLAND/DELAWARE WMU IN THE NEXT YEAR?
A: We have a strong desire to see our area’s churches catch the vision that each member of the body is on mission. Dale Jones, president of Maryland/Delaware WMU, said, “There are many churches in Maryland and Delaware that are seeking the lost through missions activities. However, there’s a need for missions [discipleship] in new churches, and there are established church programs [that need] to be re-energized.” We would also love to engage younger women beginning with WMU Compassion Ministries courses, to see children’s ministries add WMU materials to their curriculum, and for some of our church plants to consider developing Mission Friends, Girls in Action, and Royal Ambassadors groups
For information about how to start a WMU group, or get involved in missions in your church contact Melody Knox.