Mary Lillian Warner.
Corn bread, greens, pork chops, and hugs.
These are the reasons why I give to Baptist Women in Ministry.
I met Mary Warner eight years ago, while working in the Arkansas Delta. Mary cooked for the hundreds of volunteers that our organization hosted during the summer. Each morning she would rise before the sun and begin to prepare food for people that she didn’t know. Through the years, I watched as our volunteers grew to know Mary, love Mary, and devour her food.
In the eyes of the world, Mary didn’t have much to offer, but she constantly gave all she had. Mary spent her life serving other people. She gave up school to take care of her family, gave up a career to raise other people’s children. She took in her friends when they had nowhere to go.
She was a Baptist woman in ministry.
One of the most important lessons I learned from Mary is that we all have gifts. We all have something to give. And it’s our job as Christians to affirm the gifts of others around us—our children, our parents, our students, our co-workers.
BWIM affirmed my gift as a young Baptist woman serving in ministry in the Delta.
I support BWIM monthly to help affirm the gifts of other women. I give to affirm the Mary Warners in the world. And I pray we affirm those around us daily.
Fifty More! Baptist Women in Ministry currently has fifty individuals, churches, and organizations that give monthly to our work. This week we hope to add fifty more monthly givers to that list! Monthly gifts provide dependable income for our work and allow BWIM to continue being an advocate, a network, and a connection for Baptist women ministers! Small monthly gifts of $10 or $20 or larger monthly gifts of $50 or $75 make a significant difference! We invite you to join Catherine as a monthly giver and to be one of Fifty More by filling out the form below.
Catherine Bahn lives and works at the Lucky Star Farm in Rush, Arkansas. She previously served as co-director of Together for Hope, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Rural Poverty Initiative in the Arkansas Delta.
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