From Bible Camp to Mayor
The 60th Anniversary celebration of BCM Northern Ireland this past November in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, had a special guest, the city’s mayor, Councillor Ronnie Crawford. As a young teenager, Crawford was part of the very first BCM Northern Ireland youth camp at Carnlough in August 1966. Today as mayor, Crawford is only one of countless Irish children reached through six decades of BCM ministry who have grown up to become adults making a vital impact on their society.
“The theological foundation for my life,” the mayor shared at the celebration, “came as a result of attending BCM camps and Bible Clubs.”
The McKinstrys celebrate 60 years of BCM ministry in Northern Ireland
The “wee” island called Ireland is actually two separate countries. Sometimes referred to as Ulster, the northern part belongs to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland occupies 80% of the land and holds approximately 70% of its total 5.7 million population. BCM ministry in Ireland began in the northern city of Lisburn in 1948. The first afternoon Bible Clubs were held in a small hut on the local YWCA property. Among the first volunteers was school teacher Tom McKinstry. He had been asking the Lord to show him how to reach children and young people of Northern Ireland for Christ. Sometime later BCM sent its first full-time missionary from England, a young lady named Joan. It wasn’t long before Tom and Joan became Mr. and Mrs. McKinstry.
Tom left his teaching job in 1967, allowing the McKinstrys to expand Bible Clubs, evangelistic rallies, and teacher training classes to cities and towns around the country. Area Bible Clubs came together for annual sports days in Lisburn’s Castle Gardens and Wallace Park and for rallies where clubbers competed enthusiastically for awards in Bible memorization and inter-club quizzing.
Kids celebrating at Mullartown House in Northern Ireland
As the ministry increased in Northern Ireland, God led two Americans, Alice Lloyd and Claire Burford, to begin BCM ministry in the Republic of Ireland. They followed a similar pattern of children’s Bible Clubs, five-day Sunshine Clubs, and teacher training seminars. In 1970 a significant development impacted this ministry. Alice and Claire received an invitation from the Sandes Soldiers Home at the Curragh Army Camp in County Kildare to start a Bible Club for boys. Within a few years, more than 250 boys were attending.
This led to opportunities for ministry to women, some being mothers of these boys and the establishing of a Ladies Club that still meets today. The Ladies Club led to a Sunday night Fellowship Meeting that eventually resulted in the planting of Newbridge Bible Fellowship Church by two American missionary couples, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lenahan and Mr. and Mrs. Brian Duffield.
Kids dancing at Mullartown House
Camping has been a vital part of BCM’s global ministry strategy. BCM Northern Ireland has held annual camps since that 1966 summer camp attended by a future Lisburn mayor. In 1978 God provided Mullartown House Camp, a beautifully situated property on the coast of the Irish Sea. Around 1970 the Republic of Ireland missionaries began holding their own camps on rented properties. Today more than a thousand children and youth attend BCM camps throughout Ireland each summer.
Over the years more than two dozen missionaries from home and abroad have ministered with BCM in both parts of Ireland. Some are still there reaching children, young people, and adults for Christ, directing camps, teaching clubs, evangelizing, discipling, planting new churches, and assisting existing ones. This group has been bolstered by hundreds of volunteers who serve as trustees, committee members, teachers, helpers, and camp counselors. An example is the children’s ministry begun in Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland in 1970. Started by Mervyn and Joyce Young and numerous members of the Harper Family, these clubs continue today with well over 100 children and young people attending.
Mullartown House
After six decades, the fruit of BCM ministry in Ireland can be found today in thousands of young people and adults now living their faith in Jesus Christ, not just across that country, but literally around the world. Ruth and Keith Henderson grew up attending BCM Bible Clubs and camps, then served as volunteers. Today they are missionaries in Australia. But they have never forgotten the impact of BCM missionaries and volunteers on their lives.
“Our greatest memories of BCM and Mullartown House Camp are spiritual. It was a place where we found ourselves being grounded on the precious Word of God. The continual challenge to live a spirit-filled life and to permit God to have control of our life did not go unembraced by us. Part of the reason we are in full-time service today at the other side of the world is because of the challenge given to us in those missionary meetings at Mullartown.”
