BIRMINGHAM — Thanks to members of WMU missions organizations, Christmas continues to come early for North American missionaries.

Since 1927, WMU® has partnered with the North American Mission Board to provide Christmas in AugustTM for NAMB missionaries by providing them with supplies needed for their ministries. NAMB supplies the list of Christmas in August missionaries and their identified needs so that Mission Friends®, GAs®, Children in ActionSM, Acteens®, and others can collect and send the requested items.

Through the Christmas in August program, individuals and church groups can donate school supplies, personal hygiene items, Christian music and movies, Bibles, and innumerable other items to North American missionaries. Once collected, these items are mailed by church groups to the missionaries and used to expand their ministries in the communities they serve.

WMU publications specifically highlight several missionaries on the Christmas in August recipient list. WMU publications that feature Christmas in August include Start, GA World, Children in Action, The Mag, Acteens Leader, Missions Leader, and Nuestra Tarea.

A complete list of Christmas in August NAMB missionaries, including names, addresses, and needs lists, can be found at www.namb.net.

Christmas in August began 82 years ago as a project of the Sunbeam Band (now Mission Friends) of First Baptist Church of Charlottesville, Va. Missionary Elizabeth Ellyson Wiley spoke to the congregation about her works in Shanghai, China and her desire to witness to the illiterate women who worked as servants in the community.

After that, the Sunbeam Band began to send presents to Wiley so she could hand them out to the 400 mothers and children she worked with. Several years later, Virginia WMU adopted the project for Sunbeams and the gifts were shipped to the WMU office before being sent to China.

One decade later, the events of World War II prevented the gifts from ever reaching Shanghai so the Virginia Sunbeams began to send their gifts to home missionaries (now North American missionaries). In 1949, WMU publications began to feature the project known as A Christmas Tree in August, and shortened the name of the project to simply Christmas in August in 1950.

Soon after, more groups wanted to participate in the donations. Today, Christmas in August is open to anyone who would like to participate by sending items to designated NAMB missionaries.

 

Jessie Gable, a student at The University of Alabama, is a summer intern in the WMU communications office.