BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — National Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) has selected Mary Caitlin Clark of Galeed Baptist Church in Bladenboro as one of six teens to serve on the 2009 National Acteens Panel.
Acteens is the WMU missions organization for teenage girls in grades 7–12.
Clark was chosen for her outstanding leadership and strong missions involvement.
The WMU Foundation also awarded her a $1,000 scholarship from the Jessica Powell Loftis Endowment for Acteens.
WMU leaders said Clark actively seeks to share the love of Christ in word and deed. She participates in missions projects and trips and leads conferences at Acteens retreats.
“I feel that God has blessed me with a missions heart and a burden for other people,” Clark said. “Missions has helped me realize that not everyone has it as good as some people, and we have to help each other and show the love of Christ in our own actions.”
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BR photo by Dianna L. Cagle
Mary Caitlin Clark, a junior in high school, speaks during a session of Woman's Missionary Union Missions Extravaganza. |
Clark said people usually will listen to someone who has helped them.
“It amazes me how God can work through things as simple as cleaning a yard or singing songs with elderly people and how he uses individuals, like me, to make a difference in someone’s life,” said Clark, who is a junior at West Bladen High School and is part of an interpretive movement group called Hands of Praise.
She’s planned and hosted a WorldCrafts party to showcase pieces from all over the world and participated in a county-wide revival. She’s taken part in Operation Inasmuch and loves WorldChangers. WorldChangers provided Clark with her first opportunity to go on a mission trip.
She grew up in GAs and says she was saved at an early age. Around the age of 10, Clark said she rededicated her life to the Lord.
Last year she went to Pennsylvania to help with Camp Angel Tree, a camp for children of prisoners.
Clark shared her testimony March 22 at the 118th annual meeting of the Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina.
“Acteens has enabled me to serve God,” she said.
She shared her experience of helping provide wells to an African village and her life in school.
“Every day in public school listening to profanity, witnessing illegal and immoral activity,” Clark said she finds it a tough environment but her friends in Acteens have supported her.
She encouraged the ladies to share their God-given spiritual gifts to help others.
North Carolina has had a representative on the national panel for several years.
Members of the Acteens panel will be featured during the WMU Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting in Louisville, Ky., June 21–22, prior to the Southern Baptist Convention.
They will also have the opportunity to interact with missionaries and national leaders involved in missions; and may be requested to speak to church, associational, and/or state Acteens and WMU groups.
They will serve from Feb.1 to Dec. 31. Throughout the year, they will write articles for The Mag, the missions magazine for Acteens, and for the Acteens web site, www.acteens.com. In addition, they will work together as a focus group to help shape the future of Acteens.