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...

DAVE AND LOIS HAAS: PASSING ON THE BATON OF FAITHFUL FOOTSTEPS

By: Lisa Biegert Retire? The Haases? Is that even conceivable? After fifty-six years of faithful service across numerous spheres of BCM leadership and ministry, it took an engraved invitation to their retirement celebration for family, friends, and colleagues to...

GOOD SAMARITANS STILL NEEDED IN THE UKRAINE’S WAR ZONES

By: Lisa Biegert Ongoing conflict between Russia and the eastern European country of Ukraine has filled headlines around the world since Russia’s takeover of Crimea in February, 2014. As always, those most affected by war are the smallest of citizens. BCM missionary...

BCM Camps – Summer Fun Leaves Lasting Impact

By: Lisa Biegert Going to camp is a summer staple for North Americans. Countless adults remember with fondness being finally old enough to attend a week of summer camp. Away from home for the first time. In a cabin. Making new friends. Doing crazy things parents won’t...

MISS DEWEY AND THE GOSPEL PUPPETS GO TO THE FAIR!

By Jeanette Windle The last week of August, 2014, thousands of visitors streamed into the small town of Gilbert in northeast Pennsylvania to savor the delights of the annual West End County Fair. Prize-winning animals to admire. Cotton candy and fried foods galore....

BCM UK—Get Real! and JaM at Barton Camp 2014

By: Jane King What do sheep, cheese, fresh air and kids have in common?  BCM-UK’s Barton Camp! Located not far from the town of Cheddar in the rolling hills of Somerset County, Barton is only a short drive from England’s southwest coast across the bay from Cardiff,...

Streamside Camp and Conference Center

Hiking and playing outdoors are adventures children growing up in the country take for granted. But an entire population of children grow up in urban areas where they rarely if ever get to experience the wide world of outdoors or the beauty of nature. Since its...

Mill Stream Bible Camp & Retreat Centre

Mill Stream Bible Camp and Retreat Centre in Omemee, Ontario, Canada hosted seven weeks of summer fun in 2014. Two weeks were segregated—boys and girls—but the rest were co-ed and divided up by ages. Each camp week had a different theme. Among the most popular was...

Mandaville Camp and Retreat Center

Bob and Sharon Emmett have been directors at Mandaville Camp and Retreat Center in the upper New York State city of Winthrop for fourteen years. Their three children grew up on camp property. Now that they are all teenagers, all three contribute camp ministry work...

Corning Area Bible Club Camp

Corning Area Bible Club Camp was founded 70 years ago. For the past 22 years, the camp has rented its facilities from Penn York Camp in Ulysses, Pennsylvania. The camp runs for two weeks each summer. The camp director David Mogren was a camper himself since he was...

Camp Sonshine

2014 marks the 35th anniversary of BCM’s Camp Sonshine in Honeybrook, Pennsylvania. Camp Sonshine runs for just one week during the summer, but it impacts more than 80 children during that week. Campers enjoy a variety of activities including horseback riding, mini...

Camp Sankanac

The very first BCM International camp was founded in 1941 in Spring City, Pennsylvania. Today Camp Sankanac is a flourishing year-round camping and retreat complex, which includes a conference center named after BCM founder Bessie Traber. While Camp Sankanac is mostly...

Bliss Summit Bible Camp

For 2014’s summer program, Bliss Summit Bible Camp in Bliss, New York, ran a medieval theme entitled “For the Kingdom”, based on Matthew 6:33 (“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”)  Young people learned...