With fall in the air, lots of people think football. I’m no exception, with a favorite college team, a special baseball team—and a favorite missions team. The WMU Foundation is truly a team effort, and I feel privileged to serve on its board. Our goal is not for just a single game but to be a working part of the game of life. Every time anyone gives through the WMU Foundation, he or she is helping the whole team undergird missions both right now and into the future.
WMU is part of our family at least back to my grandmother, Ann Judson Wells, who was the backbone of her Sumter, South Carolina, Woman’s Missionary Society. Grandmother had two daughters who became missionaries to China. Mama, Alice Mellichamp Wells, went to seminary in Louisville on a WMU scholarship. Then when she was appointed for China in 1929, the Foreign Mission Board (now IMB) said they could not send her just then for lack of funds. Kathleen Mallory and WMU said, “Send them. WMU will pay the full salaries of that group of new appointees.” So it was thanks to WMU that Mama could go to China. She met Dad, a single missionary to China, in a nearby city, and they married in Shanghai. You can see why WMU is in my bones!
I love the fact that every penny Bob and I give to the WMU Foundation goes for keeping missions alive and well through WMU. Several of the WMU Foundation endowments are favorites of ours, but we especially enjoy unrestricted giving because we know the WMU Foundation will use it for the most urgent needs. Our WMU Foundation is truly the “foundation” of support for WMU both now and in the future.
Longtime missionary friends of ours in Indonesia have had three daughters attend college on MK scholarships through the WMU Foundation. One of those is now a missionary herself, another a pastor’s wife and the third, a nurse. Another young woman who attended seminary on several WMU Foundation scholarships is now serving as a missionary in the Middle East. It’s wonderful to see our giving to the WMU Foundation being invested in lives that go out and serve. Thank you each one for being a vital part of the team. We could aptly name our team “The Legacies.”
Written by Rosalie Hunt, author and WMU Foundation Board Member.