This week at the American Baptist World Mission Conference
my friend and colleague the Rev. Dr. M. Cecilia Broadous was remembered. M. Cecilia passed away in June of this
year. Though she had been in poor health
for some time, it was still unexpected.
There is much that could be said
about the life, influence and ministry of M. Cecilia, but there is one thing
especially among the many things that I will always appreciate about my
friend. M. Cecilia has had a profound influence
on my children, particularly my son.
This is something that I am keenly aware of at this conference, as he is
“the man who rode his bike around the country” to raise awareness about human
trafficking and in the process raising support for various projects through
American Baptist missionaries. He has a
display in the exhibit hall and when people read my name tag they ask if I am
related to the guy who rode his bike. He
calls himself a missionary.
When my kids were in elementary
school, I was a campus minister at USC and M. Cecilia was the Minister of World
Mission Support for our denomination in Los Angeles. Two or three times a year she would gather
the Mission Advocates from our churches in the city for a time of training and “charging.” These would happen on Saturdays. Often it was the Tuesday before that I would
get a call from M. Cecilia telling me that she had put me on the program to
talk about campus ministry at USC.
“After all,” she would say, “Campus ministry is a mission of our churches
and people need to know about it.” What
could I say but, “See you Saturday!”
Saturdays were one of the days that
I was home with my kids. My husband
worked on Saturday mornings and after they had been in daycare all week after
school, I had a hard time putting them with a babysitter on Saturdays. So they would go with me to these
meetings. After they went to their first
Mission Advocate meeting it was not hard to get them to go to the next one and
the next one after that. My kids were
excited to go to a Mission Advocates meeting.
It was fun. M. Cecilia would give
them both responsibilities like putting papers at each place setting and other
important jobs. But most of all, M.
Cecilia could get anyone not only interested in missions, but excited! These meetings were pep rallies on
steroids. As a result, churches that had
never given to missions became regular supporters. And my kids became avid fans of missionaries!
Eventually, M. Cecilia was
appointed to be a missionary in South Africa.
My kids became aware of this as we went to services and celebrations to
send her off. From then on, my kids
would say that when they grew up they were going to be missionaries like Auntie
M. Cecilia.
My son continued to answer the
“what do you want to be…” question with “missionary” clear into Junior High
where he wrote a paper about it in one of his classes. After a while he changed his answer to
“engineer”, then “mathematician”, “professional athlete and philanthropist,”
“musician,” “film maker,” “um, I don’t know”….
And then he graduated from college and began “Riding Against
Traffic.”
At this stage of her life my
daughter is not looking to be a missionary, but she provides hospitality to
everyone she meets at the front desk of the hotel where she works. And I know that M. Cecilia has been a role
model for her of a strong, gifted and empowered woman.
I thank God for my friend for many
reasons, but right now for being “Auntie M. Cecilia, the Missionary.”
