LOCAL WOMAN TO HEAD WOMAN'S MISSIONARY

As a child attending First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau, Barbara Popp learned about Southern Baptist missionaries working abroad. Now she will head a woman's organization that promotes Christian missions worldwide. Popp, a member of First Baptist Church in Jackson, was elected state president of the Missouri Woman's Missionary Union Friday afternoon at the 72nd annual meeting in Cape Girardeau. The group is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

The WMU annual meeting will conclude today with a joint service of the Foreign Mission Board. About 40 missionaries will be appointed during that service."It's an opportunity to meet many of the people you have been praying for all year," Popp said.

Many of the missionaries will speak about work in their country at the WMU meeting. "When we found out about the Foreign Mission Board service, and since supporting missionaries is our focus, we decided to conclude with that service," Popp said.

For the first time ever, a state meeting will end with a commissioning service of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, she said.

WMU sponsors missions projects both in the United States and other countries. Some projects include collecting food for hunger relief in North Korea or migrant workers in the U.S. The group also has a prayer partnership with churches in Lesotho, a country in South Africa.