Women on Mission – March Update

Karen Pace, consultant with Georgia Baptist Women, and particularly Pinnacle Retreat Center at Clayton, shared about the camp in which First Baptist Women on Mission have invested so much when WOM met Monday, March 10.

Testimonies by First Baptist’s own Chelsea and Isabella Stanley were read to the group, each expressing their deep appreciation to WOM for providing the means by which they might attend camp each summer.   WOM Director Nancy Brock announced that this summer WOM will be sending at least 16 girls to Camp Pinnacle.   Last year WOM sponsored 24 campers, including Mother-Daughter weekends.

Camp Pinnacle is about “all things missions discipleship,” Karen said.  “Our objective is to make disciples who make disciples,” developing girls’ walk with Jesus and helping leaders help them grow in their relationship with Jesus.

Karen pointed out that interacting with missionaries is what sets Pinnacle apart from every other camp in Georgia. “Our mission is unwavering, affecting lives, lives that are changed,” Karen said.  She noted that the spiritual disciplines the campers learn strengthen their local churches.  The girls’ week at camp immerses them in worship, Bible study, experiences such as culture camp and henna painting (learning to use pictures to share the gospel), interacting with missionaries, and missions giving.

Each summer the mission emphasis is on a certain country or region, along with missionaries onsite to share the culture and spiritual needs of that region.  This summer’s focus will be New Orleans, partnering with Baptist Friendship House which ministers to the homeless and people who are trafficked.

Interestingly, Pinnacle started as a boys’ camp 78 years ago in 1947.  Georgia women wanted a place where girls could learn about Jesus, learn about lostness around the world and reach nations for Jesus. Camp Pinnacle opened after another camp in Rabun County sold 39 acres to the Baptist women of Georgia for $1.  The landmark chapel was built in the 1950s, the first dining hall in the 1960s, and the newest lodge in the 1990s.  The camp facilities offer water sports at a lake and a pool, hiking, a vespers garden, amphitheater, archery, pottery, and volleyball, among others.  The camp depends on volunteers and donors like Women on Mission “to continue what God began,” Karen said.

Karen shared several testimonial videos. A nurse of more than 30 years told how she was impacted by a caring nurse at Camp Pinnacle and carried that same compassion into her years of nursing. Another woman shared how having experienced the emphasis on sharing Jesus and seeking God’s will while at Camp Pinnacle caused her to follow God’s calling to be a missionary wherever He led her. In a third video a young girl shared how she had come to know and accept Jesus while at Camp Pinnacle and upon returning home could not wait to share the Good News with her family – particularly her two young cousins.

Next month Women on Mission will be collecting peanut butter and jelly to take to Union County schools, to be distributed to students of low-income families so they will have something to eat over the summer months.  First Baptist Sunday School classes and small groups are invited to join WOM in this project so that no child goes hungry when school is not in session.

When WOM meets on April 14, Svitlana Brovko will share about having to leave her native country of Ukraine because of war and how God is using her here to minister via the internet to those traumatized by the war.

Svitlana joined Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as Cru) in 2002 as a team member of the students’ ministry at Kyiv Technological University.  From 2003 to 2006 she was a team member of the first Ukrainian international missionary team to Russia. Svitlana was an active team member from 2006 to 2009 at Kyiv Tech University, where she was responsible for evangelism and discipleship, leading Bible studies, and coaching students. In 2009, she was assigned to a Cru mission in Hungary where she conducted training for senior leaders in Budapest, cross-cultural training, and organizational leadership until 2010. From 2010 to 2014 Svitlana worked as Cru Operations team member handling media communications. In 2014 she was given the role of national and regional prayer coordinator and national prayer leader for Ukraine and Europe.  She became a member of Cru military team in 2019 where she led groups and seminars on mental health and trauma for the military and their families. Svitlana also worked with business leaders, conducting seminars and leading groups.

When the war in Ukraine broke out, God relocated Svitlana and her family to the United States and she had to leave the Cru staff.  After a year of serving with Discipleship Makers providing a humanitarian aid to Ukraine, she was invited to join the staff of Reboot Recovery. Her task is to build peer-led, faith-based trauma support for Ukrainians in Ukraine as well in other countries.  As a program coordinator for many non-English speaking countries, she is building that systematic trauma response through identifying and training local leaders, leading courses, sharing the Gospel in one-on-one conversations weekly in start-a-group calls, and helping people overcome trauma using transformational prayer.

The April 14 meeting will begin with a covered dish luncheon at 11:30 a.m. in the Buchanan Hall at First Baptist, followed by the speaker’s presentation at noon.