Women's Missionary Union
The Women's Missionary Union of Friendship Baptist Church meets the first Monday of each month at 7 P.M. in the fellowship building. Leigh Anne Parson is the current WMU Director.
Since its beginning in 1888, the Women's Missionary Union (WMU) has become the largest Protestant organization for women in the world, with a membership of approximately 1 million. Its main purpose is to educate and involve adults, youth, children, and preschoolers in the cause of Christian missions. WMU is an auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), which means that it acts as a "helper" to the SBC.
The WMU of Friendship Baptist Church was established January 11, 1984 with a total of twelve members who began a tradition of women ministering in this church and the Friendship community. In keeping with the national organization's purposes and goals, the members of Friendship Baptist WMU continue today to promote the Word of God through our efforts to serve our community and church. Membership is open to all women of all ages interested in service to God and our church. The WMU meets the first Monday of each month (except June and July) at 7:00 P.M. in the fellowship building.
The WMU at Friendship sponsors missions that rekindle a passion for God's mission among God's people, including the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. In April 2016, the WMU and GA's collected and sent over $1737 for the Annie Armstrong Mission work. Once again we had a week of prayer for the North American Mission Board missionaries serving in the United States and Canada. In December 2016, after a week of prayer for the Lottie Moon Foreign Missions, Friendship collected around $2400 through donations and cookie sales that the GAs and RAs sponsored. This money will be sent to Georgia Baptist Convention and on to the International Mission Board. We specifically focused on 8 missionary families and we had a video clip at our December 11 Worship Service about the Lottie Moon Missions. Throughout the week, Janice Tallant provided us with some trivial information about Lottie Moon.
Also in December 2016, the WMU served refreshments after the four Live Nativity Program that the Youth and Choir performed. These helped warm the body and the soul. What a wonderful way to spread Christmas cheer. Also our 2016 Church Directory that the WMU had sponsored was back and handed out to those who had their family pictures made. All were excited to get these "annuals" or "yearbooks" is like what we older folks liked to call them.
Additionally, the WMU members at Friendship support many outreach ministries within our own church, including support of our youth activities, heading up programs to enhance the beauty of our church. We consider it to be a privilege to be able to help our members and their families by preparing meals for the sick, elderly, shut-ins, and bereaved. It is our prayer that our endeavors to inspire, educate, motivate, equip, and challenge others bear much fruit. We invite and encourage women of all ages to join this service ministry. We are so glad to have teenage girls working in our WMU group along with our GA girls Pastor Appreciation Sunday was held on Sunday, October 9 p.m. 2016, during the 11 a.m. Worship Service with lunch with our pastoral family following the service.
Friendship WMU hosted the Annual Hightower Association WMU Meeting on Monday evening, October 17, 2016. This night was also a drop off time for Hightower WMU Groups to bring their Backpacks for Appalachia. There were over 650 collected. Friendship had collected 42 Backpacks. Later we heard that Georgia Baptist Convention had collected almost 33,000 backpacks. There were about 150 ladies and their pastors and families who attended the meeting. Our Missionary Guest Speaker was Dr. Brenda Kowalske who serves in Uganda. She sees about 50 patients every day. Many are suffering from AIDS, wounds, and burns. The Georgia WMU Guest Speaker was Sue Smith who talked about Camp Pinnacle and the Esther Funds. Our WMU ladies provided the music for the evening. Bridget Williams, Associational Director led the meeting. Leigh Parson and Rev. Ricky Byrd welcomed the group to Friendship. The WMU provided refreshments following the service.
On Sunday, May 15, 2016, immediately following the morning worship service, the WMU and Youth held the Annual Friendship Ladies' Tea for girls of all ages in the Fellowship Hall sponsored by the WMU. There was delicious food, special music, and devotion as we enjoyed great fellowship together. The WMU once again sponsored the "Bags of Love" for the Summer Lunch Program. This year we prepared 150 lunches each week (total of 1650) to feed about 30 children five lunches per week while school is out. The WMU thanks you for anything that you did to for this project. On Friday evening, August 12, 2016, Friendship WMU hosted its 5th Ladies Night Out Conference. Nikki Shaw, mother of the singing group, Children of Promise, was our guest speaker with special music led by Michelle Pirkle and special singing and mission story by Olivia Anderson. We had refreshments in the fellowship hall following our speaker.
