PHOENIX – Susie Hawkins was honored with the 2011 Willie
Turner Dawson Award during the Ministers’ Wives Conference at the Southern
Baptist Convention annual meeting.
Hawkins is the wife of O.S. Hawkins, president of GuideStone Financial
Resources and a former pastor’s wife in Oklahoma, Florida and Texas.
In presenting the award June 14 in Phoenix, Donna Gaines praised Hawkins’ service on the Baptist
Faith and Message Committee “that presented us with our 2000 statement of
faith.”
“Ministers’ wives who know Hawkins say she is a woman of great vision, passion
and action,” said Gaines, wife of Steve
Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn. Gaines added that the “Great Commission Christian”
leaves God’s aroma everywhere she goes.
The mother of two married daughters and grandmother of six, Hawkins lives in Dallas and has been actively involved in women’s ministry as
a frequent conference and retreat speaker, Bible study teacher and missions
volunteer.
Photo by Bill Bangham. Susie Hawkins accepts the Willie Turner Dawson Award as her husband, O.S. Hawkins, president of Guidestone Financial Resources, looks on during the ministers’ wives luncheon June 14 on the first day of the two-day Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center, Ariz. The award is presented annually to a pastor’s wife who demonstrates a distinct contribution beyond the local church at the ministers’ wives luncheon. |
She also has contributed to several periodicals and was one of the authors of
the “Women’s Evangelical Library Old Testament Commentary” and the author of “From
One Ministry Wife to Another – Honest Conversation on Connections in Ministry.”
Hawkins is a past president of the Ministers’ Wives Conference and serves on
its executive committee and on the board of the pastors’ wives session of the SBC
Pastors’ Conference.
Hawkins, who formerly served as the director of women’s ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, holds a master of arts degree in Christian
leadership and a master of arts degree in theology from Criswell College in Dallas.
She accepted the award on behalf of all retired pastors’ wives who serve
through GuideStone’s Widow’s Might program, a ministry of widowed women across
the country who pray daily for the ministry of Southern Baptists around the
world.
Honoring those who worked faithfully alongside their husbands for decades with
little recognition, Hawkins said, “These are women who never get to come to the
Southern Baptist Convention and to wonderful luncheons like this.”
Each year, the Dawson Award recognizes a minister’s wife for making a distinct
denominational contribution beyond the local church and for her Christian
character and service to others.
It was established in 1963 when the ministers’ wives group posthumously honored
Willie Turner Dawson, wife of J.M. Dawson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. Willie Turner Dawson was a teacher and lecturer who
in 1930 successfully challenged the Southern Baptist Convention to give more to
the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Shannon Baker is a national correspondent for BaptistLIFE, www.baptistlife.com,
newsjournal of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.)