Donna Culver: A Childhood Calling
Donna Culver’s passion for children’s ministries started long before she applied with BCM in 1953, a passion that has carried her through fifty-plus years of sharing Jesus Christ with children.
The summer of 1940, Donna was nine years old when her parents took her to hear a born-again, Jewish evangelist. As the altar call was given, Donna went forward, her feet sliding through fresh sawdust on the floor. She waited at the wooden bench up front. But no one acknowledged the nine-year-old girl who wanted to confess her sins and accept Jesus as her Savior. When Donna left that day, she knew she’d been freed from her sin. But a burden to reach other children for Jesus filled her heart. </p>
In 1944, during World War II, Donna attended a Bible camp where she responded to God’s call to serve Him in missions. At a Christian college, Donna received training in children’s ministries. Returning home, she began leading a Bible Club. Then at a conference, Donna met two BCM missionaries—Bernice Jordan, writer of BCM’s <em>Footsteps of Faith</em> curriculum, and Dorothy Scott, who gave a request for summer counselors at BCM’s Camp Sankanac. Two weeks volunteering at Sankanac began many years of children’s ministry for Donna.
In 1952, Donna volunteered full-time, leading Bible Clubs in twenty-five townships. In 1953, she applied with BCM and for the next fourteen years would teach about 500 children a week in Bible Clubs as well as helping with summer camps.
In 1966, Donna was asked to go to Sweden to bring Bible studies to Swedish youth. Suffering from chronic pain and back problems, Donna was hesitant about going. But as she prayed, God gave her reassurance through Isaiah 58:11. “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
In only four months, God provided the funding she would need. Mission offerings from the New York camps where she served covered airfare. At Christmastime, 1967, Donna arrived in Sweden. Over the following two and a half years, Donna came to love the Swedish children. This was a foundational time when Bible lessons in Swedish were developed. The Sword Forged was written; this publication would be the beginnings of BCM’s youth curriculum, Steps to Maturity.
Battling continued health problems, Donna traveled back to the U.S. with every intent of returning to Sweden. But she never would. When she left Sweden, Donna’s Bible Club class gave their beloved teacher a pewter vase and card with Isaiah 58:11 written inside, the same verse God had given her years before: “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs … and will strengthen your frame…"
Despite physical disability, Donna continued to serve, working throughout the next decades on the children’s curriculum BCM uses today. In 1983, she created a newsletter called “Gleanings,” which twenty-five years later is still sent bi-monthly to encourage missionaries. God is so faithful, Donna shares, always keeping the promise of Isaiah 58:11 to guide, satisfy needs, and strengthen her each day.
