College Park - They talked about missions. They prayed about missions. They gave to missions. And they did missions.

The third annual Sisters Who Care missions summit, held at College Park's Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, was a one-day, all-in-one missions saturation experience for close to 400 African American women representing approximately 30 Georgia Baptist churches.

One of those women was Cheryl Hitchcock, from Macedonia Baptist Church in Macon. She made a special effort, postponing surgery, to attend the first missions summit in 2003. That experience fueled a contagious passion for missions in her life.

Hitchcock went back home following that first summit and has helped lead her church to a renewed and enthusiastic missions involvement that includes prayer walking and ministry in local impoverished neighborhoods. She returned to the summit this year, seeking encouragement and practical help to continue her missions commitment.

Such missions fervor "is what it's all about," said event coordinator Penny Ellis. "It's so exciting to me," she said, to see her sisters in Christ discover that "God is trying to reach the world through each one of us."

Ellis came on board as Georgia's first African American coordinator with WMU in May 2002 and immediately got to work planning the first missions summit. She also began promoting missions awareness and increased involvement among African American women.

Sisters Who Care, the African American counterpart of Women on Mission, "wants to impact our homes, churches, communities and the world with and for Jesus Christ," said Ellis.

Georgia's summit, the largest of its kind in the Southern Baptist Convention, had five sponsors this year: Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, Decatur's Greenforest Community Baptist Church, Lithia Spring's Cornerstone Baptist Church, African American Fellowship of the Georgia Baptist Convention and Georgia Woman's Missionary Union and Women's Enrichment Ministry.

 

Equipped for missions

The summit provides an opportunity for African American women to learn about, be equipped for, pray for, give to and participate in missions.

To that end, the summit offered several hands-on missions experiences for attendees. Women involved in the missions teams conducted evangelistic visitation at a local multicultural apartment community, prayer walked around the Clayton County Jail, ministered at the Carrie Steele-Pitts Children's Home, provided a health fair for teen mothers, and distributing coats at an international apartment complex.

The summit also offered a variety of topical seminars, including: discovering spiritual gifts, leading children and youth in missions awareness and involvement, using WMU resources, and making a difference in the lives of Georgia's 16,000 children in state custody.

In one of the worship sessions, international missionary Lillie McGowan, who was comissioned to Zambia as a missionary when she was already a grandmother in her seventies, urged the women to respond to the many missions opportunities in their everyday lives.

Ellis encouraged participants to take part in a MissionsFest missions trip to North Carolina this summer and to pray about an international missions trip to Dominica that is still in the planning stages. An offering of close to $1,500 was received and designated for tsunami relief, the Camp Pinnacle capital renovation fund and the Carrie Steele-Pitts Children's Home.

 

Leadership examples from the past

To celebrate Black History Month, Marilyn Manselle, from Northeast Community Church, depicted Nannie Helen Burroughs, who was a "leader among leaders" in missions awareness and involvement among National Baptists.

The summit also included a pastor's track, led by Mark Croston Sr., pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va.

 

Challenging attendees

Summit attendees from at least four states crossed geographic and denominational lines to participate in the event. One woman participated who was from the Virgin Islands. Representatives from National Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal churches learned how to involve their congregations in life-changing missions.

"My prayer is that the women who attended the summit will accept the challenge to deny themselves and become 'Christ Followers,'" said Ellis.