Day of Prayer Offering

Your gifts will help change women’s lives
from Florida to the Canadian Arctic

NABWU’S 2012 DAY OF PRAYER OFFERING PROJECTS

JOB SKILLS IN SCOTCH PLAINS, NEW JERSEY: A year ago, Uhura had hit a ceiling in her job. Thomasina needed to get back into the workplace after a five-year retirement, but lacked the computer skills for today's jobs. The two women got a fresh start at Women Mentoring Women, a six-week course for underemployed and unemployed women at St. John's Baptist Church in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, that received a $3,750 grant from your 2011 Baptist Women’s World Day of Day of Prayer offerings.

Job placement was the ultimate goal of the program, designed and directed by Nellie Suggs, St. John's director of women's ministries, and Dollie Hamlin, a purchasing agent and associate pastor of Ruth Fellowship Ministries. Through mentoring and seminars on resume-writing, interviewing for jobs, dressing for success, computer use (photo above), and other work-related skills, the fifteen participants aged 30 to 65 learned “new ways of going after what the world has to offer,” said Rev. Hamlin. “The focus was on reinventing yourself.”

Uhura broke through her job ceiling after some crucial lessons in organization and time management. Thomasina landed a customer service job after mastering the art of applying for work online. On March 3, they told their stories over lunch with some of the women who had helped make this fresh start possible: six NABWU officers who were meeting at the Renaissance Newport Airport Hotel in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

The 2011 program was such a success that there is a waiting list for the 2012 Women Mentoring Women program, which will have a new component on starting a small business. Judy Dozois, the NABWU vice-president responsible for Day of Prayer offering grants, was pleased to tell Nellie Suggs and Dollie Hamlin that Women Mentoring Women will receive a grant of $4,000 from the 2012 Day of Prayer offerings for their expanded program.

EMPOWERMENT IN BRADENTON, FLORIDA: Teaching financially and socially disadvantaged young women to take care of themselves (body, mind, and spirit) is the aim of Insight and Empowerment. Coordinated by Paula Styles, it provides health screenings, psychosocial assessments, nutritional education, counseling, and tools to help them make good decisions and avoid teen pregnancy, STDs, and other ills. They also learn “lost” lifeskills like sewing, cooking, and gardening. Your 2010 offering helped get this program off to a great start. Participants told their friends at school. Word of the program’s success reached the Manatee County juvenile justice system--which asked Paula to develop a model that they can use. A 2012 grant of $5,000 will fund training materials and equipment, health screenings, and healthy snacks, and help ensure the program’s continuing success.

RECOVERY IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: The 2011 Tie introduced women across North America to The Next Door, a residential program in downtown Nashville which provides recovery support services to women coming out of prison and other crisis situations. As we look forward to NABWU’s 2012 Assembly in Nashville, we’re thrilled that $5,000 from our 2012 Day of Prayer offerings will help what Tennessee WMU director Candy Phillips calls “a wonderful example of missional women taking action in their local community to make positive change.”

FREEDOM FESTIVALS IN KENTUCKY: Intentional Innovative Community Evangelism provides carnival games free of charge for churches to use in block parties. It’s a friendly way to bring the gospel into communities and institutions, with specific evangelistic and educational activities for families in subsidized housing, women prisoners, homeless women, and seniors. A grant of $4,000 will help purchase a trailer for transporting equipment, and also Bibles, prizes, a hot dog cooker, and a snow cone machine.

SUPPORT GROUPS AND COUNSELING IN TORONTO, ONTARIO: Spanish-speaking women who have faced violence in past or present relationships will receive help in their own language at the Oasis Dufferin Community Centre, facilitated by Erika Abele (a member of NABWU’s new networks). A $4,000 grant will help fund four 7-week support groups, each for 6-8 women, plus individual counseling as needed.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING IN YELLOWKNIFE, YUKON: Women in the Canadian Arctic are hungering for anything that will help them grow as women of God, but most of them can’t afford to travel south for the workshops offered by Women in Focus (Canadian Baptists of Western Canada). Last year your Day of Prayer offerings helped fly facilitators to Yellowknife and Thomson, Manitoba, to give workshops on “Gifted and Called”. A 2012 grant of $4,000 will go toward the cost of sending two more workshops (empowerment through spiritual formation, and mentoring and spiritual friendship) to these remote communities plus Whitehorse, NWT.

BAPTIST WOMEN’S
DAY OF PRAYER
Monday,
November 5, 2012

Every year on the first Monday of November, Baptist women around the world gather to pray for each other and give to support projects that improve the lives of women and children. Our global sisterhood needs the prayer and financial support of women in your church.
GIVE GENEROUSLY

Half of your Day of Prayer offering dollar supports the Baptist World Alliance Women’s Department and international projects described in the Day of Prayer program. The other half goes toward NABWU and the projects described here and in NABWU’s annual newsletter, The Tie.
Here’s a challenge to our American sisters: Did you know that one third of the Day of Prayer offerings in North America come from Canada, where the population of Baptist women is much smaller than in the USA?

In the US, send your offerings to NABWU Day of Prayer, Box 234, Alden, Kansas 67512. In Canada, send your offerings, clearly marked “Day of Prayer” to your NABWU member body.

DO YOU KNOW A PROJECT THAT COULD USE SOME HELP FROM THE 2013 DAY OF PRAYER OFFERINGS?
NOTE THE EARLY DEADLINE for 2013 Day of Prayer grant applications: August 30, 2012. For an application form contact Judy Dozois, NABWU vice-president for Baptist Women's Day of Prayer promotion, project grants and prayer partners.

Projects must meet the following guidelines:

The project must be supportive of leadership development for Baptist women within NABWU, including work among new groups or in new areas.

Project must be for assistance of new or ongoing ministry projects by Baptist women or groups within NABWU. Women and/or children are to be the beneficiaries of the project. Projects involving "bricks and mortar" would generally be discouraged.

The project must receive some or additional funding from a Baptist women’s organization within NABWU or at least have an endorsement from it.

Grants to approved missions projects are usually in the $1,000 to $5,000 range (in local currency).

In funding these missions projects, consideration will be given to wide geographic and member body representation within the NABWU constituency.

No project will be funded for more than two consecutive years.

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