Father to the Fatherless
How do you reach thousands of children for Jesus Christ in inner-city Philadelphia, PA?
Go where they are.
Bible Centered Ministries International got its start in 1936 when Miss Bessie Traber organized what was then the Bible Club Movement to carry the gospel to children of inner-city Philadelphia. Seventy-three years later, BCM International missionaries, Lorraine Stirneman and Christine Wigden, still take time to drive up and down North Philly streets, writing down addresses where they find groups of children playing outside. In the summer, trained short-term missionary teams go back and conduct five-day Bible Clubs on those streets and in the housing projects.
This past summer, one such team consisted of university students Mark Levengood, Eva Hall and Ashley Reed who shared the love of their heavenly Father with approximately 1,000 North Philly youth. Neither persistent rain nor constantly changing ministry responsibilities dampened the spirits of these three young adults as they shared their testimonies, taught Bible lessons, answered thought-provoking questions, and evangelized neighborhoods of children.
Perhaps that's why Lorraine refers to them as her Dream Team.
"Within the first week of training, I knew what jewels these three young people were, so I began to refer to them as my 'Dream Team'," shares Lorraine. "It was a dream to have capable, reliable young people who loved the Lord and bonded well together as a team. To give them an assignment and know they would be prepared and do a good job. And to have three young people helping for six whole weeks!"
The Bible Club House in Philadelphia
Eighty-five percent of those who accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior do so between the ages of 4-14, less than ten percent after age 19. With just under 40% of the world's population under the age of 21, what has become known as the 4-14 Window is a prime age group to reach. The Dream Team came to North Philly with that vision in mind. Challenged by rain as they taught outdoors, Ashley, Mark and Eva sought vacant houses with porches, held up tarps, or gathered children into their van to keep dry while they taught Bible lessons from the open door, getting soaked in the process. Thunder and lightning posed a real threat, especially for Mark who is blind and Jeter, his seeing-eye-dog, whose harness is leather covered metal.
"I don't mind working in the rain," Mark said. "But, it's especially dangerous to work in the lightning. Jeter's a walking conductor."
Born with sight, Mark was blinded as a result of surgery to mitigate a brain tumor. At first he had difficulty getting close to the children because many of the inner-city kids, familiar only with guard dogs trained to attack and protect, were afraid of Jeter. But as they became comfortable with the friendly animal, Jeter became a bridge that helped the children open up to Mark. In inner city Philadelphia, a majority of these children have no father or father-figure in their lives.
"And most don't know where their mother is at any given point in the day or how to get a hold of her," adds Mark. "The fact that they don't seem to have any parental influence in their lives means they're raised by their peers and the ways of the street."
The Dream Team understands well that the only hope for these oft fatherless inner-city kids is coming to know Christ. Mark refers to his own family before he became blind as once-a-week Christians who had no saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. On his most frustrating days, Mark reminds himself that his eyesight is a small price to pay for him and his whole family coming to know the Lord Jesus. He consoles himself with the surety that "the next thing I'll see will be the face of God."
Eva, whose earthly father had been absent from her life since before her earliest memory, came to realize that making a decision for Christ wasn't just a heaven or hell decision. She explains, "I slowly began to see that being saved was a full-on, huge and magnificent relationship between me and my heavenly Father."
Ashley, who grew up in West Philadelphia, has witnessed first-hand the damage that poverty, discrimination, abuse, broken homes and addiction has on kids. She empathizes with their hurt, anger, bitterness, and shame. "It doesn't matter what you've done," she says. "God wants you any type of way."
This personal and heartfelt understanding of their heavenly Father's love and compassion impelled the Dream Team to shower North Philly children with the love and attention they were starved for. They taught five-day Bible Clubs in housing projects and on streets. They taught Adventure Clubs to kids who had participated in the year-round Bible Clubs. They helped run a VBS for an inner-city church and pitched in for a Mothers' Cookout.
And ministry proved to be a two-way street for the Dream Team. They share how the kindness of one little seven-year-old girl from a housing project heartened all of them when she approached Mark, who was having a rough day, to say, "Mr. Mark, you shouldn't worry because you know what, you have Jeter, and you have an amazing God who loves you and wants to take care of you." The team felt as though God had sent a little angel to remind them that He is Father to all, in all and through all.
Housing for the Dream Team's summer ministry was at the Bible Club House. A 101 year-old, 15-room house with 8 bedrooms and 27 beds, the BCH is administered by BCM missionaries Ed and Ellen Carwheel and is an integral part of BCM-Philadelphia ministry. It is used for monthly overnight retreats for faithful Bible Clubbers, for lodging and training out-of-town groups assisting with Five-Day Bible Clubs as well as church and para-church groups that come into the inner-city for ministry. It hosts weekly adult Bible studies, prayer, committee, and missionary meetings and an annual luncheon for mothers of Bible Club children. Local groups also rent the facility for seminars, youth functions, various fellowships and planning meetings. During summer months the Bible Club House is used as a bus depot for children and youth going to BCM's Camp Streamside up in the Pocono Mountains.
"The BCH has a comfortable, homey atmosphere where intimacy with God may be experienced," Ed Carwheel says. "Many spiritual decisions have been made here by people of all ages over the years."
Loraine Stirneman thanks God for the impact of this summer's Dream Team on BCM's inner-city Philly ministry. "The three worked well together as a team, but also blended in with five church youth groups that came to serve." And the best part? "In all more than 130 salvation decisions were made during the five-day Bible Clubs, Adventure Clubs and VBS."
Prayer requests for this ministry:
- God to send workers to train and equip.
- The Lord to open doors for weekly clubs to follow up the children during the school year and hostesses for these clubs.
- Increased funds to pay the camp bill which was over $6,000.
