Christian women encouraged to tell God’s story, their story

MCKINNEY—The story of Jesus is personal, passionate and powerful, and it changes lives, speakers emphasized to a statewide Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas gathering.

When people choose to follow Jesus’ story, it intersects their lives, allowing them to be part of something bigger than themselves, they stressed.

Donna and Gregg Fort describe their experiences as missionaries in Zimbabwe. (PHOTOS/Kaitlin Warrington, BGCT Communications)At the Texas WMU annual meeting and missions celebration at First Baptist Church in McKinney, missions speaker after missions speaker shared about how God took his story and wove it into their story, allowing them to be part of offering hope and redemption to people they encounter each day. 

“My story intersects with God’s story. And because of that, my story is now part of his story,” said Carolyn Porterfield, Texas WMU multicultural consultant.

“As I begin to serve him by serving others, he uses my storyline to intersect with others’ stories. He uses our stories to draw people to himself and then his story intersects with others.”

Every story matters, storyteller Janet Hurst said. God takes ordinary women and uses their journey for extraordinary ways because his powerful, life-changing story is woven in, she emphasized.

Putti Sok, who grew up in a Buddhist home but became an atheist, described how she surrendered to Christ’s story through the influence of students involved with the Baptist Student Ministry at the University of Texas at Arlington. They loved her and introduced her to God’s story. Now Sok serves as a BSM campus missionary at the university and spends her days telling others about God’s story.

“Three years ago, I had never heard the gospel. And now I’m at a place where God has totally transformed my life. My deepest desire is for everyone to know that. God has given me something special and transformed my life, and I want to share that with everyone I meet,” she said.

Stacey Smith, who made bad choices that landed her in an Arkansas prison in her early 20s, was introduced to God’s love while in prison, and it changed her life. Since her release in 2004, Smith has served as a prison chaplain in the same unit where she once was incarcerated.

“Prison was a mission field to me, and it is still a mission field. Only God could get someone to go back to prison after they had been in there,” she said. “My prayer is that women know Jesus Christ but that they go on mission for Christ in the prison.”

Keron Jackson, who became homeless as a teenager, met some loving Christians who took him in, encouraged him to attend Panola College in Carthage and helped him discover his gift for singing. There, his story intersected God’s story, and now his life is changed forever. Now, he sings to proclaim what God has done.

“My gift is from God and it’s for his people. No matter where I go, I will always proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. Those people gave me a voice. They also gave me a song, and I will share it wherever I go,” he said. 

Donna and Gregg Fort have f served God and proclaimed his message in Zimbabwe more than three decades.

In a part of Zimbabwe where there are many fractured families, where living each day is a physical struggle, where there is fear of evil spirits and where no church existed, God called the Forts, who are missionaries with the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board, to share the story of God as they live out their story.

“We longed to be included in a new chapter in God’s story in Zimbabwe. …Today there are 15 churches where there were none, and there is light where there was darkness. It’s all because God is continuing his story. We are being part of that by walking the gospel into the next place where there is darkness,” Gregg said.

Other speakers told about ways God had used them as they shared God’s story through building a house in the Rio Grande Valley, leading a missions training for Hispanic Baptist women in Chicago, hosting day camps for pastors’ children at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans, prayerwalking a Muslim neighborhood in Boston, caring for mothers and children at a malnutrition center in Guatemala and loving family members of the incarcerated at the Hospitality House in Huntsville.

Stacey Smith tells how she serves as a chaplain in the same unit where she once was incarcerated. Sandra Wisdom-Martin, executive director/treasurer for Texas WMU, encouraged more than 700 people in attendance to deepen in their walk with God.

“We will not see a movement in our state until all of us are willing to go deeper. It is not enough to pray a little and give a little,” she said. “It is not enough to say we will follow the great commission when our kids are grown or when we are retired. We need to take the things we are passionate about and marry them to the things that God is passionate to go forth and redeem the world.”

Wanda Lee, executive director/treasurer of the National Woman’s Missionary Union, challenged women at the meeting to let the storytelling continue.

“God can take any gift, story, ability and if we take it to his feet, he can use that to make his kingdom known,” she said.

During the meeting, Porterfield recognized Korean women in attendance and the 25th anniversary of Korean WMU.

In a business session, participants elected officers. Gloria Mills, a member of First Baptist Church in Henderson, was re-elected president. Barbara Helms, a member of First Baptist Church in Clarendon, was re-elected secretary. Merle Cross, member of First Baptist Church in Gilmer, was elected as vice president. 

Participants also gave $4062.91 for the WMU World Touch Endowment and the Touch Tomorrow Today Endowment and $2,000 for the Suds of Love project that will help Texas WMU disaster relief efforts.