About Women's Missionary Union

 

The Women’s Missionary union of the First Baptist Church, Lagos was started after the meeting of the Nigerian Baptist Convention on March 14, 1919, where Adeotan Agbebi was appointed the First President of the WMU. Two members of the First Baptist Church; Miss Janet Fadipe and Mama Hannah Williams were present at the Inauguration service where they were charged to continue the WMU in their individual churches.
The Women’s Missionary Union is the most important women organization in all Baptist Churches as it is one of the conditions for the recognition of a standard and fully fledged Baptist Church.

The aims of WMU are:-

1.     To stimulate private and public prayer

2.     To stimulate daily reading of God’s word (The Bible)

3.     To spread the gospel among people

4.     To encourage stewardship, personal service and giving to the needy and working in the Vine yard.

The WMU is saddled with the spiritual development of children and women in all Baptist Churches.
The WMU comprises four organizations:
1. Women’s missionary union (WMU) which comprises married women only.
2. Lydia Auxiliary (For girls age 16 and above/until married)
3. Girls Auxiliary (This comprises of two groups)
a. Junior age: 10-12
b. Intermediate age: 13-16
4. Sunbeam band (This comprises of two groups)
a. Beginners class ages: 4-6
b. Primary class ages: 13-16
The WMU is the Overall head/Supervisor.

WMU’s unwavering focus is making disciples of Jesus who live on mission.

We carry out this mission by

·         providing missions discipleship resources for churches and individuals,

·         offering opportunities to engage with compassion ministries, and

·         Equipping people through leadership development experiences.

WHAT GUIDES WMU?

WMU IS

·         Biblically rooted
Scripture guides us in knowing God, His ways, His character, His mission, His redemptive acts, and His purpose for the church.

·         Missions focused
Jesus commissioned His disciples to proclaim the good news disciple people of all nations, and teach them to live out the truths He taught.

·         Church based
Jesus gave the church authority to act on His behalf. Teaching all ages prepares the church to fulfill His mission.

·         World aware
God is always at work among all peoples, and we join Him where we discern He is calling us.

·         Denominationally supportive
No one church can do alone what many churches can do together. Our voluntary cooperation extends the missions reach of the local church. 

WHAT IS WMU’S STORY?

WMU, an auxiliary of the Southern Baptist Convention, began 133 years ago in the hearts of visionary leaders to pray and systematically raise money for missions. 

Since that time, WMU has helped lead Southern Baptist churches across the country to give $6.6 billion through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering—efforts begun by WMU to support missionaries. 

WMU’s unwavering focus on making disciples of Jesus who live on mission happens through missions discipleship, leadership development, and compassion ministries, with kingdom impact in every state and 39 countries.

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, national WMU is not a part of the Cooperative Program allocation budget and receives no funds from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering or Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. National WMU is supported through the sale of magazines and products and from investments and charitable contributions.

 

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About Sunbeam

This is a department for Children since Children occupy an important place in God’s plan. In the beginning of WMU Convention activities, children were not left out.  Since 1919, Baptist Women’s Missionary Union of Nigeria has been providing Christian nurture to children, boys and girls.  Our history will not exclude the contributions of Rev. Scott Patterson, Southern Baptist Missionary from America, and Mrs. George Green, the wife of the First Medical Missionary to Nigeria and Mrs. Mojola Agbebi, the first President of the Baptist Women’s Missionary League who gathered little children under the shade of a tree to teach them Bible verses.

Impact of Sunbeam Band  

Sunbeam Band provides early Christian education to children (Mark 10:13-16; Mark 9:36-37) and mission-driven denominational leaders. Since WMU is known for missions, the value of missions in early years became evident by notable missionaries, who had been taught and encouraged in missions while they were Sunbeams.

Sunbeam Band Grouping and Membership

The division of children into different age groups has contributed to the growth of Sunbeam Band. In previous years, WMU Handbook states that children from three through twelve years of age were eligible members of Sunbeam Band. 1953 began the division of children from four through nine years. Few years later, the grouping provided for Beginner Sunbeam Band between ages 4 and 6 years while Primary Sunbeam Band is from 7 to 9 years. By 1999, enrolment of Beginner Sunbeam Band was 29,000, while that of the Primary Sunbeam was 26,578. However, in 2018, the membership of both Beginner Sunbeam and Primary Sunbeam has grown to 84,000. Twenty children is the ideal number/ratio for a Sunbeam leader and her assistant. The Sunbeam (boy) graduates at the age of 10 to the Royal Ambassador while Sunbeam (girl) graduates to the Girls’ Auxiliary.

Ungraded Sunbeam Band

The ungraded Sunbeam Band is the combination of both Beginner and Primary Sunbeams between ages 4 and 9 years.  Churches are encouraged to have graded Sunbeam Band to provide developmentally appropriate Bible teaching and co-ordination developmentally.

Sunbeam Band Aims

The fundamentals of Women’s Missionary Union are the five shining aims of the Sunbeam Band organization. The children can understand the aims easily if they learn in pantomime:

 1. Talking with our heavenly Father (Clap hands together as in prayer);

 2. hiding God’s Word in our hearts (Cross hands and place them on chests to signify our hearts);

3. Learning about the children of the world (Place hands together with palms up to make a book);

4. Helping others for Jesus’ sake (clap hands with the person next to you);and

5. giving money to help preaching the Gospel (Extend hands, fingers dropping as in act of giving).

The Bible is the basic tool for teaching Sunbeams. Teaching materials such as maps, pictures and other helps cannot take the place of the Bible.

Sunbeam Band Programmes

All Sunbeam Band programmes focus on mission. Our programmes and activities include the Mission Study programme, Day Camp and Weekly Meeting Programme, Bible Memory Drill and Sunbeam Week. They acquaint children with other people around the world and create in every child the desire to love God more and to meet the needs of people. After observing Sunbeam Band activities as recommended by the BWMU Headquarters, the report booklet is filled and sent to the Headquarters, listing names of the children and their offering. When children are taught and led to love Jesus and others, they usually get busy doing so in later years. They are taught personal service and stewardship of their time, talents and treasures.

Sunbeam Band Colours: Sunbeam Band colours are: gold or yellow, sky-blue and white. Gold stands for ‘heaven bound”, sky-blue stands for love that we have for Christ while white stands for purity.

Sunbeam Landmark since 1919

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