December 2006

Happy 70th Birthday, BCM!
More than a million children regularly hearing God's Word in Bible Clubs worldwide. BCM Bible and teaching curriculum moving into new languages like Romanian, Russian, Czech, and modernized Spanish. Muslim islanders coming to Christ through tsunami and earthquake disaster relief. A new camp in Bolivia. A crop of new, young missionaries in Peru and the Philippines. What God is doing today through BCM around the world is direct fruit of past faithfulness and hard work on the part of so many of God’s servants who have gone before us with BCM.

In 2006, BCM International celebrated its 70th Birthday since it was organized in 1936 as the Bible Club Movement. BCM Canada celebrated 65 years. BCM India its 30th Birthday. The world’s longest running Bible club turned 50 years old in Scotland. Celebrate these milestones with us in this 70th Anniversary issue of our on-line magazine BCM World. We cannot mention all by name, but we honor the hundreds of missionaries and thousands of volunteers who have given time and love and service over these decades to reach children and raise up God’s church worldwide. Happy Birthday, BCM!

BCM Articles

A Message From the President - A Time to Remember
For Bible Centered Ministries, International, 2006 is a time to remember. To remember BCM International is in its seventieth year of ministry since its beginning in 1936 as the Bible Club Movement. To remember that it is our 30th year of ministry in India. To remember 65 years of Bible clubs and children’s ministry in Canada. To remember that next year will be our sixtieth year of ministry in the UK and Europe.
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Because Children Matter - The Bible Club Movement Turns Seventy!
Why leave the comforts of home and career for an uncertain future? To Bessie Traber, founder of BCM International, the answer was plain — because children matter. Joyce Sacher, a long-time BCM missionary, remembers Miss Traber when she came to their home as a dinner guest.
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One Step At a Time - BCM Canada Turns Sixty-Five!
“Father, I miss the Bible Clubs that I used to go to back in Erie, Pennsylvania,” pined the little daughter of Dr. Franklin Logsdon, recently moved to London, Ontario, to minister at Central Baptist Church. “I wish we could have Bible Clubs in Canada too.”
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Still Leaving Footprints
“I sure wish someone would write a series of lessons that would go through the Bible,” Field Representative Bernice Jordan announced, walking into the office of Bessie Traber, founder and director of the Bible Club Movement. Miss Traber looked up from the letter she was writing. “Well, why don’t you write it?”
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Longest Running Club Celebrates 50 Years in Scotland
It was 1956 when Bernice Jordan, BCM Field Representative and author of Footsteps of Faith children’s curriculum, visited the home of Lucy Bacon in the Clarkston suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. Inspired by that visit, Lucy Bacon began a Bible Club in her home. The Bible Club continued as a church group was organized. Children grew up and became leaders. Other children took their place. In time the growing church built a stone church building, and the Bible Club moved into the church.
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An Unlikely Moses - Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai
“I prayed like Moses prayed. I said ‘Lord, why did you give me all this? Leave me alone!’”
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BCM Memory Briefs

We put out a call for people to send us their memories of the Bible Club Movement and its missionaries, and the response was overwhelming. Take a look at just a sampling of your memories of BCM.