The Faces of BCM — A Portrait of God's Love
2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that “we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory.”
In this issue you will catch just a glimpse of the ever-changing and infinitely varied faces that not only make up BCM International, but a portrait of God’s love to a world in need.
Missionaries: 750+ representing more than 40 nations serving in over 50 nations on five continents.
Ministries: children, women, and men with both spiritual and physical needs whose lives are being touched by BCM outreach around the world.
Volunteers: willing to travel across the world to share God’s love as well as their own time and resources with people who have no personal claim on their lives—and who find themselves losing their own heart in the process.
As you see their faces and read their stories, my prayer is that you too will glimpse the reflection of God’s glory and the likeness of Christ in these brothers and sisters of the global BCM ministry team. And that you will be as blessed and challenged as I to come on board with us in ‘praying, giving, going’ that a world in need may come to know the compassion and mercy and love of God.
By Rev. Martin D. Windle
President, BCM International
2008 marks the 72nd year of ministry since BCM International began as the Bible Club Movement in the fall of 1936. Spanning five continents, BCM International’s 750+ missionaries represent more than forty nationalities and minister in more than fifty countries to a half-million-plus people every month. Walk with me through some of the images of this last year.
By Lauri Barrette
BCM Canada
Twenty-four years ago, a split second, a sheet of black ice and a spinal cord injury changed the course of our lives. Some would shake their heads and call it tragic. Yes, it was. But as I sat dazed in the snowbank beside the car, waiting for rescue workers to free my newly-paralyzed husband Daniel from the wreckage, I had the deepest sense of peace and knowledge that whatever happened from here on in would be used for God’s glory.
By Bob Evans
International Representative
BCM International is involved in ministry in six locations on four major islands of Indonesia—Nias, Bali, Java, and Papua New Guinea. In some locations the majority religion is Islam, in another Hinduism, while others are steeped in traditional and animistic beliefs. But in each location BCM’s ministry purpose remains the same—to make disciples of all age groups through evangelism, teaching and training.
By Marilyn White with Jeanette Windle
BCM Canada missionary Marilyn White offers a smiling invitation to tag along with her on a Monday morning. It’s been nine years since Marilyn was first invited to conduct a Bible class for mentally-handicapped adults at the Essex County Association for Community Living Center in the town of Essex not far from her own town of Leamington, Ontario. “Although I had no training,” Marilyn shares now, “I started and haven't looked back since!”
By Jennifer Hamilton
After the Indonesian earthquake of 2004, Christian churches and organizations around the world mounted relief teams to help tsunami survivors. My church, Lancaster Evangelical Free Church, sent a short-term team to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, to see what could be done.
By Dawn Moore
The street kids of Iquitos knew their trade. This boy, plying bracelets handmade by his grandmother from wood and beads gathered in the Amazon jungle, was about the same age as the 10 year-old son I’d left safe and comfortable in New Jersey. We short-term missionaries had been warned that the child vendors could steal your heart—or pick your pocket.
By Jennifer Hamilton with Maria Gusmão
Where the Beberibe River and the Capibaribe River meet, the cultural metropolis of Recife, Brazil beckons tourists with art, music, dance and Carnival. Four days before Lent, partygoers hit the streets to dance and drink their woes away. What potential tourists won’t read about when planning their tropical getaway are the children living in the slums.
By Steve Marr with Jennifer Hamilton
The head teacher didn’t want the Bible Club in his school. Though he couldn’t throw them out, he got creative, allowing meetings only in the foyer. He banned words like salvation, heaven, hell and sin. He sent a member of his staff, Miss Roberts, to watch the club for anything that could be used to force its closure. She was an imposing figure, rather scary in her unsmiling rigidity with a reputation for strictness. One step out of line—actual or perceived—could be fatal.
Other Articles:
There is nothing more beautiful and inspirational than seeing the body of Christ in action. The courage and sacrifice of brothers and sisters in Christ in some of the most difficult corners of the planet where they face persecution and the possibility of death as a matter of course.
BCM International is please to announce our Spring 2008 Missionary Candidates!
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