Passing the Torch of Missions:
Annie G.T. Mellen and Maude M. McCain  
by Noel Forlini

Jesus's death on the cross was arguably the most forward-thinking event in history. In a place and time where religious guidelines were firmly established, any resistance proved iconoclastic. Indeed, Jesus's teachings were radical. They are radical even today. But as Jesus's disciples walked with Him, they began to catch His vision. Jesus's vision was not limited to only what was in front of Him. Seeing what lie beyond the cross, Jesus encouraged His followers to do the same. When God began to whisper plans for WMU in its formative stages, discerning Christian women leaders caught His vision for missions. This vision was passed down to generations of women who encouraged their daughters and their daughters after them to "catch the vision" for missions. One of the first mother-daughter teams to catch this vision was Annie G. T. Mellen and her daughter Maude M. McCain.

As a young woman, news in Annie's Baptist circle was stirring. There was talk of plans for a new organization called Woman's Missionary Union^® (WMU^®). And in 1888, Annie decided to attend the organizational meeting of WMU. What happened at that meeting would forever alter the course of her life. Though she later admitted remembering little about the meeting, most notably the beautiful new dress she wore, she dates the beginning of her missions interest to that meeting. She later stated, "The Woman's Missionary Union sparked the vision of missions!" It was two years later that this vision would really solidify into something tangible in her life.

In 1890, Annie and cousin Hermione Brown attended the WMU annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. Brown remembered, "We were a merry bunch of young people who went to this convention, and we had thrills galore. Just being in big Texas, in a Woman's Missionary Union meeting with Miss McIntosh presiding and Miss Annie W. Armstrong as secretary and having Alabama join the Union with fine report, seeing that great body of men of the convention rise and sing those grand old hymns, riding on an electric car for the first time…I have never seen anything so wonderful."

Annie was equally impressed by her surroundings. Hearing Armstrong's request at the meeting to send boxes to needy home missionaries showed Annie the heart of missions. Throughout her life, Annie continued to be active in her church as a Sunday School teacher, WMU leader, and musician. She often served as a delegate from Alabama to the WMU Annual Meeting, later working as Alabama's vice-president of Southern WMU. Annie also served for a decade as superintendent of the Bigbee Baptist Associational WMU. Annie's quiet, unassuming manner and reputation for dependability and faithfulness characterized her life. Annie also passed her vision for missions down to her daughter, Maude.

Like her mother, Maude's vision was also for missions. She presided as Young Woman's Auxiliary (YWA) president at Judson College in Marion, Alabama, later joining the Livingston Woman's Missionary Society. Maude was always interested in youth organizations, and during the 1940s, she helped organize YWA at Liberty Baptist Church. She later took the group to one of the first national YWA conferences at Ridgecrest from which many future church leaders emerged. Maude faithfully served as associational WMU director, Alabama state prayer chairman, and stewardship chairman. Despite this long list of achievements, daughter Grace McCain Lee still believes her mother's greatest achievement to be the legacy of missions she left for her and her three sisters. "The greatest contribution of Maude, now deceased, was the example she lived before her own four daughters. She loved all people regardless of race or circumstances. She witnessed to the lost. She ministered to those in need, taught missions, promoted the Cooperative Program, and gave generously through her church," Lee once wrote.

Both Annie and her daughter Maude caught the vision for missions at an early age. They began to see like Jesus, truly realizing that He was humanity's only hope for spiritual and physical healing. They saw WMU as a tangible method for ministering to the lost. And they saw through the lens of the cross a clarification of hope, grace, and the way home.

Annie and Maude's vision for missions inspired Lee to establish the Annie G. T. Mellen-Maude M. McCain Endowment in 1996. The purpose of the scholarship is to prepare students for Christian leadership either in the US or overseas.

Send your contribution to the Annie G. T. Mellen-Maude M. McCain Endowment to:

WMU Foundation
P. O. Box 11346
Birmingham, AL 35202-1346