BCM International

Reaching Children and Strengthening Churches Worldwide

A Border Crossing for BCM Peru

By: Shantal Artieda The neighboring countries of Ecuador and Peru share many things in common. The friendliness of their people. The Pacific Ocean. The same national language. A similar Latin culture. More pertinently, the same great need to reach one of their...

BCM Ukraine: Speaking Unchanging Truth to an Ever-Changing Nation

By: Lisa Biegert While BCM ministry in the Eastern European country of Ukraine has existed since 1993, political circumstances have recently changed, re-shaping ministries to meet needs of the Ukrainian people in their present circumstances. Because of ongoing...

COMING HOME TO AFRICA’S HEARTLAND

By Jeanette Windle with Lois Lass BCM missionary Lois Lass was just turning thirteen years old the last time she’d set foot in her birthplace—and her heart home. Lois was born in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) to missionary parents Ray and...

Fire Loss in Muntinlupa City Becomes Eternal Gain

By: Gerlyn de Jesus (Director, BCM Philippines) It was just after midnight, February 3, 2016, when fire broke in Bagong Sibol, a neighborhood of Muntinlupa City located in the southeastern part of Metro Manila, Philippines.  Within three hours, at least 100 homes were...

NATIONAL HOLIDAY + FAMILY FUN = MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY

By: Shantal Artieda For Peruvians, October 8th is a national holiday in remembrance of the famous naval battle of Angamos fought in 1879 against the Chileans. Families take a break from life’s daily hassles to enjoy parades, naval reenactments and other interesting...

SINGAPORE WELCOMES LITTWORLD 2015

By: Jeanette Windle “In the end, it will be OK. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.” Opening keynote speaker Andrew Goh’s reminder of God’s sovereignty and ultimate victory was a timely message for the 278 delegates to Littworld 2015, a global Christian publishing...

NEW LEADERSHIP FOR BCM NETHERLAND’S DE HERIKON

By: Jeanette Windle with Erik Bolhuis When his bride of one year announced she’d become a Christian and wanted to be baptized, Erik Bolhuis feared it might be the end of their marriage. Instead it proved the beginning of a faith journey that has led to Erik’s recent...

MISCOMMUNICATION LEADS TO LIFETIME OF SERVICE

By: Jeanette Windle “My involvement in BCM leadership actually began through a misunderstanding,” recently-commissioned BCM Europe regional director Richard Thompson explains. A communications lapse for which he now thanks God. If BCM Ireland celebrated its 50th...

“Past! Present! Future! What’s next for BCM Europe?”

By: Jeanette Windle What links a Star Trek officer’s uniform, a Celtic fiddle, Scottish bagpipes, and the babble of intermingled Russian, Spanish, German, Romanian, Dutch, Italian, and English (make that Irish, Scottish, British, and American, respectively!) raised in...

THE CALL TO CAMP MINISTRY CONTINUES!

By Norman Wray, Camp Sonshine Director I was eleven years old when I attended Camp Sonshine’s first annual weeklong retreat the summer of 1980. A ministry of BCM International, Camp Sonshine was situated that first summer near an active corrections facility with just...

God’s Choice for BCM Germany

By: Lisa Biegert On Sunday, July 12th, 2015, new BCM Germany director Waldemar Muks accepted the baton of leadership from retiring director Dale Sigafoos in a joyous celebration held at Bibelgemeinde Nordrhön (Bible Church of the North Rhine), BCM Germany’s church in...

God is not Dead in Bourges, France

By Jeanette Windle with Tony Schaapman “God is dead,” Madam Louise repeated insistently. The French woman who’d paused on a park bench to answer a few survey questions was not being obnoxious nor difficult. She was simply reiterating her honest conviction. A...

Field Briefs: Because You Prayed

NEPAL UPDATE: Our last BCM World issue shared the 7.8 Richter scale earthquake that struck Nepal’s Kathmandu region Saturday, April 25, 2015, and its devastating impact on BCM ministry in Nepal, including the destruction of Milestone Church (see God’s Church Still...

NEW LIFE FOR “QUIRUMAS” IN PERU’S AMAZON RAINFOREST

By: Shantal Artieda BCM Peru first expanded its ministry to the city of Iquitos in 2005, reaching children through an evangelistic outreach known as Pennies for Peru. Training for children’s ministry leadership and Bible clubs followed, then camps for children and...

“NEITHER RAIN NOR HEAT . . . NOR FLYING BULLETS!”

By: Jeanette Windle with Lorraine Stirneman The Friday afternoon offered a perfect ending to a five-day open-air Bible club. No summer downpour had necessitated scattering to shelter. As teenage volunteers taught the final Bible story, children listened avidly, eager...

BCM Madagascar

BCM Madagascar has a thriving Bible club ministry with 18 in the capital city and surrounding communities that impact 2000 children per week. Madagascar ranks among the top 10 poorest countries in the world with more than 75% of the population below the poverty line....

PREACHING A RISEN SAVIOR EVEN IN THE MIDST OF BULLETS

By: Jeanette Windle The shooting began before dawn on April 2, 2015. Both Christian and Muslim students at Garissa University in eastern Kenya about 200 kilometers north of the Somali border had risen by 5a.m. to attend pre-class prayer meetings. A half-hour later,...

Setting Captives Free at BCM’s Camp Sankanac

By Sierra Guenst The Civil War had not yet begun when a family of escaped slaves moved into a stone farmstead in Spring City, Pennsylvania, donated to them by fellow abolitionists, the Bertolets. After escaping slavery themselves, the Massey family went on to risk...

FROM AN EMAIL TO GABON’S CHILDREN

By: Jeanette Windle with Olga Zaitseva and Pat Black It started with an email. BCM missionaries and ISMT Master Trainers Olga Zaitseva from Russia and Pat Black from the USA had conducted teacher training courses in Africa before. They’d taught together in Nigeria...

GOD’S CHURCH STILL STANDS IN EARTHQUAKE-SHAKEN NEPAL

By: Jeanette Windle “It was Saturday, April 25th, and our believers were all gathered in church for the 11 a.m. worship service,” describes Rev. Robbin Vaidhya, BCM Nepal director and pastor of Milestone Church in Kathmandu. (Since Sunday is a work-day in Nepal,...

DISAPPOINTMENT BRINGS BLESSING IN BANGLADESH

By: Lisa Biegert with Stan Tyson The phone conversation just days before he was scheduled to speak at a conference in Bangladesh was not what BCM missionary Stan Tyson was hoping to hear. “Because of the hartel [a political strike with potential violence], we are...

A Monument of Praise: God Is Not Finished With BCM Italy

By: Jim & Fran Lines with Jeanette Windle “Great are the works of the Lord!” (Psalm 111:2) Had the time come to shut down BCM ministry in Italy? After a half-century of ministry, founders and directors of BCM Italy Jim and Fran Lines were well past retirement age,...

Earthquake Devastates Nepal

If you are following the news, you are aware of the earthquake magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale that hit Kathmandu area in Nepal, Saturday, April 25th, 2015.  Aftershocks continue to hit the area, and death toll is now upward of 7000 and rising. We have shared often...

A NEW HOME FOR MYANMAR’S LOST CHILDREN

By: Jeanette Windle with Jacob and Sandar Mung By his eighth birthday, Sai Ja Aung had lost everything that means security to a child. Sai Ja Aung was Kachin, one of many tribal minorities in Myanmar (once called Burma) involved in what has been listed as the planet’s...