Womans Missionary Union Auxiliary To Southern Baptist Convention

Programs: Christian religious program: wmu seeks to come alongside the church to accomplish the mission of god. From preschoolers to adults, wmu provides relevant resources to learn about and pray for missions, as well as opportunities to apply their knowledge and passion through giving, serving, and supporting missions. These are the elements of an active missional lifestyle cultivated through holistic discipleship, which we accomplish through various missions organizations, ministries, and product lines. Highlights include:missions discipleship-to help inform, inspire, and involve members of wmu organizations in missions, wmu created and distributed 19 subscription items, including periodicals and resources kits, with an average circulation of more than 179,000. Ongoing missions education through wmu develops believers who understand god's mission in the world, leading to engaged christians who are passionate about sharing the love of christ with others. Involvement in these organizations promotes development of an authentic faith and biblical worldview that compels believers to share their faith. Lottie moon christmas offering for international missions-in 2016, wmu helped raise $152. 9 million-the fourth-highest total in the offering's 128-year history-for the lottie moon christmas offering for international missions. Since initiating the first offering in 1888, wmu has helped raise more than $4. 3 billion through this effort. The offering represents 59 percent of imb total annual support. Every penny given to the offering goes directly to support missionaries, including salaries, medical care, housing, transportation, and children's education. Annie armstrong easter offering for north american missions-in 2016, wmu helped raise $58. 8 million for missions work in north america through the annie armstrong easter offering . Since 1907, when official reporting began for the home missions offering started by wmu, receipts total more than $1. 7 billion through 2016. All of the funds raised through this offering go directly to namb to support field personnel and supplies nearly half of their total annual revenue. Christian women's leadership center-this initiative of wmu offers leadership development through online courses and blogs, monthly luncheons, and college internships. This year, we introduced 18 new online courses including spiritual formation as a leader, missional living, and cultivating care and concern for ptsd and mental health, among others. In addition, wmu provided opportunities for 10 interns to actively serve in the areas of publishing and editorial, curriculum development, communications, marketing, library services, and wmu ministries. Christian women's job corps/christian men's job corps-approximately 6,300 participants gained life and job skills in a christian context through 189 registered cwjc and cmjc sites around the u. S. , along with 4 international sites. Cwjc/cmjc, a ministry of wmu, offers classes, resources, mentoring, bible study, and more. Lives are transformed as participants gain self-confidence, purpose, direction, and hope for the future. Through this ministry, 470 participants made professions of faith this year as they were served by approximately 11,300 staff and volunteers. Worldcrafts-since 1996, we have worked to develop sustainable, fair-trade businesses among impoverished people around the world through worldcrafts, a division of wmu. Worldcrafts now works with approximately 60 artisan groups in 25 countries to bring their products to market and provide income with dignity. Our artisan groups seek to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of their workers. Men and women receive job training and enjoy comfort, camaraderie, friendship, and purpose, perhaps for the first time. Women find a safe haven and receive counseling as they leave the sex industry. Individuals and families discover the abundant life and see that life lived out in front of them. Worldcrafts abides by and requires all partnering artisan groups to abide by fair trade federation guidelines, ensuring artisans receive fair wages and the goods purchase were produced in an ethical and environmentally-friendly manner. Mully-worldcrafts partnered with mully children's family (mcf) to help share the story of dr. Charles mully and expand worldcrafts impact among impoverished artisan groups around the world. Mcf, a nonprofit organizations in kenya that seeks to transform the lives of street children and youth living in poverty, was founded by dr. Mully. Our partnership included the development, production and distribution of media kits, a bible study, and missions discipleship resources to support the theme of the movie mully; placement of a brief video highlighting worldcrafts in 800 movie theaters nationwide; and the addition of mcf as a worldcrafts artisan group. Missionary housing-wmu administers housing for southern baptist missionaries while they are on stateside assignment. We maintained a database of approximately 525 houses made available by churches, associations, and individuals in 34 states and make this information available to missionaries on a secure website. Wmu also provides counsel to those who want to learn more about stating a missionary house ministry and coordinates communication between missionaries and those who have houses available for use. Missions experiences-wmu facilitated national missions experiences for thousands of participants through children's missions day (february 18), a concerted day of missions involvement for children in grades 1-6; missionsfest (april 29-may 3) for adult volunteers; a missions day camp for children and youth on mission activities for students at the southern baptist convention annual meeting (june 12-14); and familyfest (july 22-27), an intergenerational missions experience in which volunteers age 6 and up serve alongside students and adults. Baptist nursing fellowship-wmu provides administrative support for national baptist nursing fellowshipsm with a membership of more than 250. Members of bnf served during missionsfest and familyfest opportunities hosted by wmu in 2017. Wmu facilitates ongoing communication as well as a national event for this group of healthcare professionals. Adoption and foster care-raising awareness of adoption, wmu executive director sandy wisdom-martin, participated in a panel discussion at the sbc annual meeting alongside other sbc leaders who are also adoptive parents. In addition, she shared words of encouragement and more about her personal journey related to adoption in a podcast with the north american mission board. New hope publishers also published several books on the topic, including 30 days of hope for adoptive parents; faith & foster care: how we impact god's kingdom; knoworphans: mobilizing the church for global orphanology; and orphanology: awakening to gospel-centered adoption and orphan care. National refugee taskforce-wmu initiated an inter-agency task force to explore ways to help southern baptists understand the refugee crisis and discover ways to actively respond with christ-like compassion. Representatives from lifeway, the north american mission board, international mission board, baptist global response, and acts 17 participated in birmingham at national wmu in april. The work of this task force will help inform and shape wmu's resources related to a refugee response. Conferences-wmu leadership and consultants accepted more than 100 field engagements as they fanned across the country from washington to georgia for the purpose of encouraging missions discipleship through wmu. Online engagement-our websites include christianleaderlearning. Com, justmissions. Com, newhopepublishers. Com, wmu. Com, wmustore. Com, and worldcrafts. Org. Our primary site, wmu. Com, is rich with content designed to encourage and equip visitors to the site to live a missional lifestyle. Social media engagement through facebook, twitter, pinterest, and instagram continues to grow, and more than 50,000 are signed up to receive weekly emails or one of our monthly e-newsletters. New hope publishers-books from new hope publishers not only minister to the needs of the reader, but also encourage the reader to actively engage in the study of god's word. Books from new hope address important issues where our witness is needed-topics such as orphan care, human trafficking, poverty, suicide, and domestic abuse-and help readers to understand how our churches, families, and communities can make a difference. In addition to 250 existing titles in print, we produced and distributed 21 new titles in 2016-2017, with total distribution of more than 60,000 copies. We also licensed some titles to be in translated in languages other than english: the nehemiah factor in german; twenty things adopted kids wish in turkish; 5 leadership essentials for women and praying together in spanish; and faithful witness in chinese.

water works program: pure love provided more than 2000 water filters and filter replacement parts for missionaries serving in the united states and around the world. In addition, two grants totaling $21,000 supported well projects in indonesia and haiti.

christianity programs, general/other: the wmu provides donations and grants, which are shown as contributions, to the wmu foundation which in turn provides grants, awards and scholarships to further the work of wmu.