To request materials for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, fill out this online request form or contact our Administrative Assistant in the WMU of NC office.
Annie Armstrong, as a founder of Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) in 1888, helped to shape and mold missions and missions education concepts and practices which still guide Southern Baptists today. Miss Armstrong, in leading the organization to be a major force for missions in the Southern Baptist Convention, adopted the goals of WMU as her own. They included:
- Distribute missionary information
- Stimulate missions efforts
- Raise prayer support and money for missions
Annie, without question, was loyal to her church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist boards. She was an organizational genius and a self-starter who could do many things well. In addition, she had unlimited energy, was resourceful and preserving, stood up for her convictions, and expressed her opinion openly and strongly. Seen often as a unifier, Armstrong worked tirelessly to pull missions efforts together at a national level for the Southern Baptist Convention.
When Lottie Moon suggested setting the week before Christmas as a time of prayer and offering for missions and requested missionary reinforcements for her work in China, Annie Armstrong led the nation in a missions support campaign. She prepared and distributed materials for women and children in churches to use in promotion of Lottie’s request. Though one cannot measure the success of prayer, the Foreign Mission Board (International Mission Board) was able to appoint three women missionaries instead of the two requested.
Armstrong, as a supporter of home missions, wrote, visited, and encouraged frontier missionaries and she led the women to raise funds for the Home Mission Board (North American Mission Board). When the board requested help to get out of dire straits, she and other WMU leaders led an effort to establish the third week of March as a time of special prayer and financial support. Again, her efforts were successful and in 1934 the annual Week of Prayer for Home Missions was named in her honor.
Annie Armstrong had the ability to put dreams into action. Seeing a need, she could dream how to meet the need, then move ahead in action to carry out the dream. Her rally cry throughout her service was “Go Forward.”
--Adapted from Annie Armstrong: Shaper of Missions by Bobbie Sorrill
Resources
To request materials for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, fill out this online request form or contact our Administrative Assistant in the WMU of NC office.
Helpful books available from national WMU
The Story of Annie Armstrong |
The Lottie and Annie Upside-Down Book |
The Story of WMU |