BCM International

Reaching Children and Strengthening Churches Worldwide

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...

Big Sky Bible Camp

The setting of Big Sky Bible Camp in Bigfork, Montana, just begs for an unforgettable camping experience. The campground is surrounded by Montana’s beautiful Rocky Mountains. A lake right on the property is available for swimming and tubing. Big Sky offers...

CUBA: WIDE HORIZONS IN THE PEARL OF THE CARRIBBEAN

By: Marion Odicio Cuba (BCM World) —Cuba has been lovingly termed the “Pearl of the Caribbean”. Now I know why! I’d never been to this often forgotten—and certainly surprising—country in the northwestern part of the Caribbean. But Latin America has always had a...

MULTIPLYING “BREAD AND FISHES” FOR BOLIVIA’S FLOOD VICTIMS

By: Jeanette Windle with Freddy Camacho Cochabamba, Bolivia (BCM World)—It was raining again as it had been—not for days, but months. Already flooding rivers had devastated the potato crop that was a mainstay against starvation for this high mountain community in the...

WOMEN REACHING WOMEN AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

By: Jeanette Windle with Shila Vaidhya Kathmandu, Nepal (BCM World)—Why is Shila Vaidhya, BCM missionary in Nepal, so passionate about ministry to women who are hurting, down-trodden, widowed, abandoned in old age or left to raise children without shelter, food, basic...

A ROYAL CELEBRATION FOR BCM PHILIPPINES

By: Lisa Biegert On the island of Mindanao, Philippines, just below the inactive volcano Mt. Matatum amidst tropical fruit trees and pineapple fields, lies BCM’s Camp Española. Over Easter weekend, April 22-25, 2014, multi-colored traditional Mindanao and Manobo...

CANDIDATE ORIENTATION: A BLESSING FOR THE FUTURE

By: Lisa Biegert Pennsylvania, USA (BCM World)—Candidate orientation for new BCM North American missionaries was held the first week of January, 2014, at BCM’s Traber Center in Spring City, Pennsylvania. Classes were taught by Vice President Joe Dukes, International...

PRAYING FOR ‘LA VICTOIRE’ IN TOULOUSE

By Elizabeth Anneville with Jeanette Windle France (BCM World) —Four year old Claire was still too young to attend BCM children’s Summer Camp in Toulouse, France. But BCM France directors Chuck and Cathy Powers yielded to her pleas to accompany her older brother....

CAMPING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

By Shantal Artieda, BCM Peru Lima, Peru (BCM World)—The last day of camp season had arrived at BCM Peru’s campground in Pachacámac, a half hour away from Peru’s capital city, Lima. Even from a distance could be heard the resounding chant of an entire auditorium full...

JUST TELLING STORIES

By: Lisa Biegert Nairobi, Kenya (BCM World)—Pulling out a teacher’s manual or flipping open a laptop to start up a PowerPoint presentation are common practices these days for teaching a Bible class. But what does one do in a country like Kenya where such resources are...

“PLEASE COME BACK AGAIN, AND WE ARE WAITING!”

By Jeanette Windle with Dr. Djawotho Kisa and Mrs. Pat Govender Democratic Republic of Congo (BCM World) — When BCM missionaries Dr. Djawotho Kisa and Mrs. Pat Govender stepped from an MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) prop plane onto the grass airstrip of Aungba in...

Rev. Dr. Vararuchi Franz Dalavai — 1940-2014:
An “Unlikely Moses”

By Chris Martin and Jeanette Windle Hyderabad, India  (BCM World)  — “I prayed like Moses prayed. I said ‘Lord, why did you give me all this? Leave me alone!’” When Chris Martin received word that Rev. Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai had passed into the presence of his heavenly...

BRINGING GOOD NEWS TO GRENADA

By: Jane King Grenada (BCM World)— Where can a BCM missionary enjoy warm tropical breezes, miles of sugar fine white sand and nutmeg, along with the privilege of sharing God’s word and serving God’s people? Try the spice isle of Grenada. Southernmost in a chain of...

“I JUST SAID YES!”

By: Lisa Biegert Bangladesh (BCM World) — Ask BCM missionary Stan Tyson how he got involved with Bangladesh. His answer: “I just said ‘yes’ when God opened the door!” In early 2012, Stan Tyson and his wife Mary Ann had flown from their home base in Pennsylvania,...

BRAVING LIONS, HYENAS AND HIV TO REACH ZIMBABWE’S CHILDREN

By: Jeanette Windle with Arnold Maviya Zimbabwe (BCM World) — It had already been a long day for BCM Zimbabwe missionaries Arnold and Paulin Maviya. After finishing up a children’s ministry event in the remote village of Gokwe, they’d headed their elderly...

BCM ITALY: COMPELLED BY LOVE

By: Jeanette Windle If anyone understands the value of persistent, unflagging ministry to children, it’s Jim Lines. Accomplished shop-lifter, burglar, and truant from school before he was eligible for a driver’s permit, he worried little about what his parents would...

WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT

Rev. Dr. Vararuchi Franz Dalavai – 1940 – 2014 Rev. Dr. Vararuchi Dalavai, Senior Executive Vice President of International Ministries for BCM International, passed into the presence of his heavenly Father on January 14, 2014, at age 73 in his home city of...

A Look Back at BCM Netherlands

By: Jeanette Windle “I was part of the very first Bible club.” Wil Buitenweg had just arrived for seniors camp at BCM Netherlands’ Bijbel Club Centrum ‘De Herikon’, but she paused in her unpacking for an interview. “There were only five of us. It was just after the...

Christmas Greetings

Back in 1914, a communication titled “Open Christmas Letter” was sent to the United States press core. The authors were a small but passionate group of Americans who sought to reach out to a world ravaged by The Great War. The letter, published under the heading “On...