Sacrifice
Adults
“And do not forget to do good and
to share with others, for with such sacrifices
God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:16 NIV
2010 Alabama WMU
Day of Prayer and Kathleen
Mallory Mission Offering
How to use this material: Read this material carefully. This study is designed to be used as a guide for gathering your adult mission group to
observe the Alabama WMU Day of Prayer and Kathleen Mallory Mission Offering. It includes details about the observance and offers a suggested
plan for leading your group. Feel free to customize the study to meet the needs and time/size constraints of your group. Ask your WMU director to
order the necessary resources for the study/offering, or visit www.alabamawmu.org/KMMO if you do not have a WMU director.
as anyone ever made a sacrifice for you? What
H
moves you to make a sacrifice? Crisis? Desperation?
Love? Is sacrificing a positive experience---one that you
choose voluntarily even when you can avoid it? According
to the writer of Hebrews, the Christian’s life is incomplete without sacrifice. Our theme scripture is Hebrews
13:16, but verse 15 lays the foundation: “Through Jesus,
therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of
praise---the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
We begin our Christian experience by confessing with
our lips that Jesus is Lord of our lives. The natural result
of this confession is to offer a sacrifice of praise, focusing
on adoring and pleasing God above all others. As we
practice praise, the fruit of confession, God leads us to
the next step—looking for ways to do good and to share
sacrificially with others! What a marvelous summary of
the authentic Christian life these verses present: confession of Jesus’ Lordship, sacrificial praise, doing good and
sharing sacrificially!
This month, we focus on the ministries of Alabama
WMU and the visionary women and men who have made
sacrifices throughout our WMU history and continue
that tradition today. Thousands have confessed their
faith in Christ for the first time and/or have had their
lives changed positively because of the prayers and
gifts of Alabama WMU members like you. The Kathleen
Mallory Mission Offering funds nearly half of Alabama
WMU’s ministries. Your Cooperative Program gifts
provide the remaining funds. In 2010-2011 we celebrate
the twentieth birthday of the largest of these ministries,
the WMU camping programs at WorldSong Missions
Place in Cook Springs. Let’s celebrate together!
Alabama WMU Camping Fast Facts
• WorldSong was named to reflect the camp’s missions ministry purpose as stated in Psalm 96:1,3: "Sing to the Lord,
all the world... Tell of His glory among the nations."
• Since 1960, 72,000 people have attended WMU camps at Shocco Springs or WorldSong.
• Since 1960, more than 5,000 have made professions of faith at Alabama WMU summer camps.
• Since 1960, nearly 3,000 commitments to missions vocations have been recorded.
• Hundreds of campers and camp staff members have gone on to serve in missions positions.
• Church groups of all ages rent lodges at WorldSong during the fall, winter and spring.
• Last summer, there were six week-long camps for children and youth and four mini-camps .
• The camp is supported by the KMMO, the Cooperative Program and designated WorldSong gifts.
• Bob Dent, camp manager, needs volunteers to do cleanup, maintenance and light construction.
• Camp recreation features a lake, swimming pool, ropes courses, zip lines and playing fields.
• Global Classroom at WorldSong helps school classes gain knowledge and appreciation for specific world cultures.
• You can tour WorldSong or hold a meeting there. Just call 877.283.9813 for reservations.
2010 Alabama WMU Day of Prayer and Kathleen Mallory Mission Offering
2010 Day of Prayer and Offering Overview
Theme: Sacrifice
Highlighted Ministry: WorldSong Missions Place
Statewide Goal: $475,000
Theme Verse: “And do not forget to do good and
to share with others, for with such sacrifices
God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:16 NIV
Suggested Dates: September 14-15
Happy 20th Birthday, WorldSong!
Something to Celebrate
On a hot Monday in June 1991, one by one vehicles
rumbled through the gate at the end of Baptist Camp Road
in Cook Springs, Ala., and a new era began! From Northside
Baptist in Jasper came Rachel Vaughn, who had no idea she
was making history. She excitedly planted her feet on the
ground as the very first GA camper at the newly-named
WorldSong Missions Place. For the first time in its history,
Alabama WMU was conducting camp on its own property.
While district and associational WMUs in Alabama were
conducting camps and retreats for children and youth as
early as the 1930s, the state WMU began its camping
ministry at Shocco Springs Assembly in Talladega in 1949, a
partnership which would last 41 years. By the mid-1980s,
the WMU camp at Shocco Springs needed improvements
and expansion that could not be achieved at that site.
Reluctantly, the WMU strategy planning committee began
to look for alternatives.
In 1989, Dr. Earl Tew, Birmingham Baptist Association
director of missions, proposed that WMU purchase a large
portion of the Birmingham Baptist Association camp at
Cook Springs. By June 1990, the sale was completed. Now
Alabama WMU owned an amazing, 344-acre plot including
a bluff, an 18-acre lake, woods, a nice Adult Retreat Center
on the lake, eight very rustic buildings needing extensive
repairs and a terrible swimming pool! God had provided an
unbelievably beautiful new campsite with wonderful
potential ---and facilities that only a mother could love.
That first summer, more than 2,100 girls joined Rachel
Vaughn at one of 10 week-long or weekend camps. WorldSong bulged at the seams with above-capacity crowds,
presenting serious challenges to the antiquated electrical,
plumbing and sewage systems! The camp staff and campers
endured an exasperating situation, but it paid off! Nearly
100 campers made professions of faith, and 109 committed
their lives to missions that summer! Only now, 20 years
later, is WMU beginning to hear the long-term impact of
that summer on the lives of both the campers and the staff.
Growing Pains
The new camping era was off and running, but many
improvements had to be made before another summer
camping season. First, WMU purchased an additional 58
acres of adjacent property including a 4,500-square-foot
brick house suitable for housing a camp manager. During
the winter, camp employees, along with volunteers from
across the state, spent hundreds of hours removing
unusable structures, repairing and cleaning cabins and the
dining hall, and improving roads and utilities to make the
camp more livable.
Through the next years, WMU would build two new
lakeside lodges; completely renovate, refurnish, and aircondition all camp buildings; add a junior Olympic-size
swimming pool and a bathhouse, and purchase an additional 216 acres of adjacent property from the Birmingham
Baptist Association. This brought the total camp property
to 618 acres with facilities suitable for year-round activities
and retreats for all ages. Summer camps for girls expanded
adding a coed mini camp, and missions activities were
added for adults and children in the winter and spring.
Coming of Age
In 2008 WMU achieved a major milestone. Because WMU
members gave faithfully to both the Kathleen Mallory
Mission Offering and to the WorldSong fundraising
campaigns, WMU retired its debt for the purchase of
WorldSong and the construction of new buildings and
renovation of all the facilities. For the first time in 18 years,
Alabama WMU was free of debt! Now WMU could celebrate
WorldSong’s phenomenal progress and look toward the
future. WMU restructured the camp staff to include a
camp manager and a WorldSong missions and ministry
consultant. A position also was created for a part-time
groundskeeper.
Though maintenance, renovation and future construction needs will always be there, WMU can now concentrate
on creative ways to share the missions story with a broader
audience. Already, new programming has been added
including Family Missions Weekend in the spring and Dad
and Me and Mom and Me Minicamps during the summer.
WorldSong will continue hosting Fall Missions Festivals for
adults and children and will host numerous Global Classroom events for school children. Only God knows the lives
He will change through WorldSong in its next 20 years.
Birthday Greetings of WorldSong
from friends
H
appy Birthday, WorldSong! I hold my memories of camp and those connected with camp near
to my heart. My life will never be the same! There
are several areas of my life that are there because
of camp. For example, I probably never would have
become a foster mom if it had not been for the
summer of 1990. I had several campers who were
foster kids. It was that summer that I felt one day
I would be a foster parent. Who knew! (God!)
I
live in Moody and have been a Baptist most of
my life. When I retired, I didn’t want to sit at home.
I saw an ad for a part-time groundskeeper at WorldSong. I had never heard of the camp but applied for
the job. After a year, I loved the camp and what I
was doing so much I wanted to be trained to do a
better job. I became a certified master gardener.
WorldSong is such a beautiful place that has a
wonderful atmosphere for children, adults and the
whole family. We should tell more Baptists about it!
--- Clyde Rice, WorldSong Groundskeeper
--- Traci Roberson, camp staff 1989-1994,
teacher and foster parent
F
M
y first experience at WorldSong was
as a nine-year-old GA. We got to sleep in bunk
beds, hike up a mountain and meet REAL LIVE
missionaries! Little did I know how much WorldSong would come to mean to me one day. My
first summer as an Acteen, I remember sitting in
the floor of my cabin with a missionary from
Yemen while he told about the different things
God had been able to do through him and his
family. On Thursday night during our Encounter
time, my unit leader was talking about how God
speaks to us and He might be speaking to us
about accepting Him or even going to the
mission field. I heard Him say to me, “That’s
what I want you to do, Laura.” My response,
“Oh, God, you must have the wrong girl. Did you
mean the girl in front of me?” He said, “Laura. I
mean you. I want you to be a missionary.” I knew
I had two choices. I could say, “No,” and refuse all
the blessings that could come with following the
Lord. My other choice was to say, “ Yes,” and to
trust in His great provision. That night I said,
“Yes” to God, and I have not turned back. Happy
Birthday! You mean so much to me.
--- Laura, camp staff 2000-2003,
International Mission Board
representative to North Africa
or the past five years it has been my blessing
to serve as a volunteer for Christmas Around the
World events both for the general public and school
children. I also help with the cultural camps for
school groups. It has been rewarding for me to see
children get excited about customs in other countries.
There have been many teachable moments with the
opportunity to share Jesus with these children and
introduce them to the exciting wonders of coming to
WorldSong for camp. WorldSong, you are a blessing
to children across Alabama. Thank you!
--- Patricia Chandler, WorldSong volunteer
W
orldSong, I remember when you were a
baby! I helped move the camp from Shocco to WorldSong, and then fought the snakes and sewage problems
that crazy first summer. The missions emphasis that
summer was on America. One evening each week, each
of the six cabins was set up to represent a mission field
in America. I remember standing outside one cabin and
watching as a group of “homeless people” warmed
themselves at a barrel with a fire in it. As I watched, I
felt God call me to be a missionary to America. I served
two years as a North American Mission Board USC2
missionary and five years as a career missionary in the
inner city of Savannah, Ga. Now I work in an independent after-school ministry to inner city school children
in Savannah.
--- Sonya Golloher, camp staff 1990-1991,
executive director of Urban Hope
This Day of Prayer study material was written by former Alabama WMU Executive Director Beverly Miller.
Beverly lives in Guntersville, Ala., and is a member of First Baptist Church, Guntersville.
Planning
Your
WorldSong Birthday Party
1. Read these four pages carefully. Pray for God’s
guidance in presenting this material.
2. Ask your WMU director to order the number
of KMMO posters, offering envelopes and flyers you
need from Alabama WMU by using the form found
in the KMMO leader material or from Maryann Lee
at [email protected] or 800.264.1225 ext. 226.
3. Set the time, date and place for the birthday
celebration. Suggested dates are September 14-15.
4. Enlist a team of people to help plan your
WorldSong birthday party. Ask the team to make or
order enough birthday cake for everyone attending
the party, decorate the room, arrange for additional
refreshments or a meal according to your church’s
plan, promote and conduct the party.
5. Lead the team to choose as many of these party
activities as time allows. Decide who will take
responsibility for each and gather the necessary
materials. Add your own ideas to make the day fun.
Decorate the room to honor WorldSong’s 20th
birthday, and create a camp display with a sleeping
bag and similar items and photos from the Day of
Prayer poster or www.alabamawmu.org/KMMO.
As people arrive, direct them to browse the camp
display and play “Target WorldSong”. For Target
WorldSong, display a map of Alabama on a bulletin
board. Draw a target bull’s-eye over Cook Springs,
just east of Birmingham. Provide a plastic dart gun
with rubber-tipped darts, and let people try to hit
the bull’s-eye showing WorldSong’s location.
Call the group together. Welcome them, and
present the WMU Day of Prayer theme interpretation including Hebrews 13:15-16 and the
prayer calendar.
Ask, “Has anyone attended a WMU camp at
Shocco Springs or WorldSong? What are your best
memories?” Let the group enjoy reminiscing.
Give each person a small cellophane or paper
“goodie bag” with five to 10 candies or other “fun”
party items to which you have attached a camp
fast-fact from page 1 of this study material. Also
include a KMMO offering envelope. Ask women to
take turns reading a fast-fact to the group until
most have been shared.
Before the meeting, ask someone who is a good
communicator or who has been to WorldSong to
summarize the material in “Happy 20th Birthday,
WorldSong” on page 2 and present it at this time.
Cut or copy at least three testimonies from
page 3, and place them in greeting cards. At the
party, explain that no birthday is complete without birthday cards. Hand out the cards, and ask
people to open them, read the greeting to the
group, and add the card to the camp display.
Ask people to take the KMMO offering envelopes from their goodie bags. Then, ask them to
get into groups of four or five and share with the
group the prayer needs for WorldSong they have
heard today. Include these specific prayer needs:
the Kathleen Mallory Mission Offering, WorldSong staff and volunteers, people making decisions for Christ at the camp to remain committed
to those decisions, badly needed new metal roofs
for most of WorldSong’s buildings. Ask each group
to pray for WorldSong and then to return to their
places quietly when they have finished.
Display an open birthday gift box. Explain that
we all have some gifts that Alabama WMU needs
to carry out its ministries including WorldSong.
Two gifts are especially important at this time,
consistent prayer and sacrificial giving through
the Kathleen Mallory Mission Offering to support
this life-changing ministry. Ask the people to pray
silently for God to show them how they should
respond. The gift box is available for their KMMO
gifts. Close with prayer.
Adjourn to the refreshment area and enjoy
birthday cake together.
Executive Director: Candace McIntosh
Project Manager: Brittney Gardner
Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union
PO Box 11870
Montgomery, AL 36111-0870
800.264.1225
Visit Alabama WMU on the Web at www.alabamawmu.org.