BCM’s Birthplace Celebrates Diamond Jubilee

by Joe Dukes, VP of Personnel, with Jeanette Windle

Miss Bessie Traber was serving as a missionary in the Philippines when she first developed her innovative children’s outreach focused on using neighborhood Bible Clubs to reach children with the gospel of Jesus Christ and ground them firmly in God’s Word. Today the BCM-associated Bible Centered Fellowship, Inc. (BCFI), encompasses more than 100 churches with as many full-time BCM Philippines missionary personnel along with hundreds more volunteer lay-leaders and three training centers.

A Persistant Young Hero

by Dr. Mildred Yancey (BCM USA, Retired)

Back in the late 1930s when I was a teenager still in high school, I lived in Philadelphia, PA. These were the beginning years of the Bible Club Movement, and I began volunteering at a Bible Club. The Maxwells had offered to host the Bible Club for the sake of their son Richard, who at eleven years old was partially paralyzed so that he couldn’t get around easily.

BCM UK: Going Beyond the Call of Duty

by Jan Aucompaugh (BCM UK, Retired)

From the beginning, what impressed me most was the personal sacrifice and dedication of our BCM personnel across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, in their commitment to reach the children of their nation with the gospel of Jesus Christ and raise up a new generation well-grounded in God’s Word.

Walking Where Jesus Walked

by Jeanette Windle

For twelve days we toured Israel from Caesarea on its eastern seacoast to the Jordan River along its western border, from the Golan Heights and ancient city of Dan in the north to Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat on the Red Sea, crossing the border there into Jordan to visit Petra. For four days, we explored the sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem where Christ spent His final days. We prayed at Gethsemane and broke bread of Communion at the Garden Tomb.

Junior Missions Takes Wings

by Joyce Murray and Eleanor Riker (BCM USA, Retired) with Jeanette Windle

Not all children’s ministry is confined within the walls of a church. For one group of Pennsylvania grade-schoolers, it took place in the cabin of a USAir jet.

Because Children Really Do Matter!

by Jeanette Windle with Stephen King (BCM USA) and Olga Zaitseva (BCM Ukraine)

The Nigerian pastor was wrapping up his visit at a church member’s home when he noted one of his host’s young sons hovering nearby. He broke off conversation with the adults to greet him. “Hello, I’m your pastor.” But as he introduced himself, the boy only looked confused. “I don’t have a pastor. Maybe you are my father’s pastor. But you can’t be mine. You don’t even know my name.”

ISMT Goes to Kenya

by Esther Zimmerman, Director of International Children’s Ministry

I was worried when laughter erupted around the classroom. Participants in the Train the Trainer (TTT) conference I was teaching in Nairobi, Kenya, were reading a case study I’d put together of a “small church children’s ministry.” The study described a Sunday school with 100 children between ages 3 to 16, only one teacher whose helper hadn’t shown up, frequent canings, no resources and a poorly organized two-hour program. Was the case study too extreme? Had I offended this group of leaders?

Chloe Chamberlain: Inspiring the Next Generation

by Marion Jean Grant (BCM Canada/Pakistan)

I met Chloe Chamberlain at my Canadian church while I was still in my teens. She was then serving as a BCM missionary teaching Bible in Canadian public schools. One day she took me to see what her classes were like. I was very interested in watching the students listen so attentively as Chloe taught the Bible lesson. I’ll never forget that day and the fun we had in Chloe’s little “bug,” her Volkswagen car.

Triple Celebration for BCM Canada

by Jeanette Windle

Overcast skies did not dampen the enthusiasm of crowds pouring into Mill Stream Bible Camp and Retreat Centre Saturday, June 4, 2011, in Omeemee, Ontario, for a triple celebration: Mill Stream’s 65th Anniversary, BCM Canada’s 70th, and BCM International’s Diamond Jubilee.