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Early Days with Mr. Hunter Regardless of the true beginning of the ministry, the history of Bible Impact Ministries is intricately tied to the history of one man - J. Lloyd Hunter. Hunter, a farm boy from Frankfort, Illinois, accepted Christ as his Savior as a child of six years of age and surrendered his life to service for God at the age of 15. Hunter went on to schooling at Shutleff College in Alton, Illinois, and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. During his last year at Moody, Hunter served as minister at the Ridgewood Baptist Church in Joliet, Illinois, and would also preach at pacific Garden Mission. It was at this Mission that hunter knelt with a ragged drunkard and led him into the family of God. This grown man, this drunkard saved by grace, was a picture of years of waste and futility Hunter would not forget. As Hunter knelt with this man, saw the filth, smelled the alcohol, and witnessed the changing power of God's grace and mercy, he thought to himself, "If only this man had been won to Christ as a boy, his whole life would have been saved." There in that mission, with that drunkard, Hunter felt the call of God to give his life to teaching children of Christ. From here Hunter went on to work with the American Sunday School Union in Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. While in Minnesota, Hunter and his wife found themselves working among a group of communist sympathizers. Hunter wrote of them in a later R.B.C. newsletter, "They were holding weekly meetings, plotting the overthrow of the government, fostering hatred, violence, rebellion." In this atmosphere of hatred, God brought forth a plan to save many. Here, Hunter came up with the plan of the Bible Memory Contest, which is still used by Bible Impact Ministries today, almost 80 years later. Hunter said of the contest, "Children can find Christ and know His power to save, most surely and quickly through His Own Word." Hunter started the program, offering children prizes such as New Testaments, Bibles, and story books for memorizing the verses. The memory contest was so successful that the local newspaper reported that "over 1500 people have professed conversion." This same method found success when Hunter went on to organize the Canadian Sunday School Mission, a ministry that saw 15,000 conversions in seven and a half years. It was out of this mission that God called Hunter to start a
new work. Hunter received a letter from W.A. Jensen of Florida
asking him to come to Florida to start a mission in the states
similar to the Canadian Sunday School Mission. Hunter sent reply
to Jensen that he was too busy to come at that time. But the
fields of children were white unto harvest, and God was ready
to send His laborer, Lloyd Hunter, into the Harvest. Soon Hunter
and his wife were joining Jensen in Florida, where they learned
that over 3,000,000 children were living south of the Mason-Dixon
line who had never been told of Jesus Christ. With great faith
in the power of God's Word, Hunter and Jensen started the Bible
Memory Contest in the southern United States. Through this program,
missionaries went into the country school houses and presented
children with the opportunity to earn prizes for memorizing scripture. Sixty five years ago, in 1937 while living in Wheaton, Illinois, Hunter, who was then in ill health, officially organized Rural Bible Crusade, a ministry using the Bible Memory program to reach children throughout the states. The first Advisory Council of R.B.C. consisted of great men of the faith, such as J. Oliver Buswell Jr., V. Raymond Edman, J.D. Hall, John R. Rice, Bob Jones Sr., Wendell Loveless, Oscar Lowry, William McCarrell, Harry Rimmer, Paul Rood, George Strohm, Walter Wilson, and Louis T. Talbot. Under the leadership of Hunter and this council, about ten or twelve full-time workers organized Scripture memory programs in rural schools in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, and New England. When starting a new work, Hunter would visit a state and help local Christians organize the Bible Memory contest; a chairman would be chosen and missionaries would begin to work in that state. In the March 6, 1943 issue of the Sunday School Times, Hunter reported, "We have never seen rural children so eager for the Gospel. . . By November 15, in Iowa and Wisconsin alone we had nearly ten thousand children, besides hundreds of school teachers, memorizing Bible verses." Hunter went on to tell how the work of the Word of God in these children's lives was leading them to share this Word with others. He wrote, "We have never had so many reports of souls won by our children as we are getting this year." Hunter tells the story of a child who, within a week of her conversion, won five others to Christ in a single day. In the spring of 1943, Hunter entered the hospital where he would
do his last work for his Savior before meeting Him face to face.
Even while deathly ill, Hunter led three nurses in a hospital
in Rochester to Christ and also a patient who was his roommate
at Elmhurst Hospital. On June 17, 1943, at 2:10 p.m., Mr. Hunter,
at the age of 55, went home to be with the Lord he had served
so faithfully. Hunter's obituary in the Wheaton newspaper stated,
"His fervor for souls and great love for his Savior inspired
many to give their whole life to Christian service. He was a
staunch believer in child conversion and had great faith that
they in turn could win others." Bertha Hunter knew that her husband's goal had been to win souls, which he did daily, and not to organize. Mrs. Hunter realized that now the future course of action for R.B.C. must be more plainly defined. "At his home going my burdened heart cried to God day and night that the work would not die but continue to be used of God to reach rural youth," Mrs. Hunter said. She asked the members of the R.B.C. Advisory Council to meet on November 18, 1943, at Moody Bible Institute to discuss the future of the ministry. Only Rev. Wendell Loveless, J.D. Hall, and William McCarrell were able to attend this meeting, with all other members of the council, with the exception of one, sending their regrets on not being able to attend. The present members decided to dissolve the Advisory Council, which consisted of 14 men from all parts of the country. The council had held no executive powers and had experienced difficulty in gathering together so many men from various parts of the country. It was also decided at the meeting that a committee be formed to draft a constitution for Rural Bible Crusade. On December 20, 1943, this committee, made up of Elliot F. Gibbs, W.L. Graham, D.L. Forsythe, and C.H. Benware, met at Wheaton College. During this meeting the committee wrote the first five articles of a tentative constitution. This constitution defined the purpose of R.B.C. as "to proclaim the Gospel primarily to spiritually neglected children." Work on the constitution continued for three months, and upon completion, copies were submitted to all state organizations for consideration. A four-day conference was held August 3-6, 1944, with representatives from states interested in organizing into a national organization meeting for the following purposes: 1) For the perfecting and adopting of a permanent constitution, 2) For the selecting of a permanent national committee, 3) For the selection of a national director, 4) For the purpose of getting acquainted and making the work known as far as possible. From this convention, the Rev. J.H. Kornelson of rural Kansas was called to serve as Executive Secretary and Rural Bible Crusade National was formed. This convention united the work of Rural Bible Crusade across the nation under one national office. However, some states, such as Missouri, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Iowa, continued to work independently, choosing not to merge with R.B.C. National. During the first year of Rural Bible Crusade National, more than
60,000 students in rural public schools were enrolled in the
Bible Memory Program. The following year enrollment stood at
80,000, then 90,000 and continued at over 100,000 for the next
three years. Missionaries were putting the Gospel of Christ into
the hands of 100,000 children, and thus 100,000 households, that
previously may have had no knowledge of Christ. One teacher wrote
to the R.B.C. office in 1949 saying, "when I came to this
school there was only one home in the community that had a Bible
besides mine. Now through the Crusade every home with children
in school has a Bible that was earned by memorizing Bible verses.
camp. Individual camps were held across the active states. Clark recalls one eight-year old girl who learned the 500 verses in Iowa in 1950, then faithfully completed R.B.C. correspondence courses for many years. Eventually this young girl joined the staff of R.B.C., then went on to become a missionary to Iran. "She told me her missionary work began when she began memorizing those first 500 verses," Clark said. And she is one of many children whose lifetime of service began with a leaflet of memory verses. During the summers when school was out of session, R.B.C. missionaries
would work at R.B.C. camps and organize summer Bible School programs.
While traveling during the school year, the missionaries would
note communities where summer Bible School programs could be
held. "I would take my county map and circle the places
that I thought would be good locations for Bible Schools,"
Clark said. The missionaries would then gain permission from
the local school board to conduct Bible School in the public
schoolhouse, and would make arrangements for living quarters
with a local family for the week. Clark can even recall spending
one week sleeping in the schoolhouse. Many rural young people
came to know Jesus Christ during these weeks. "We pioneered
the Vacation Bible Schools," Clark said. "Many areas
had never heard of a Bible School." In areas where no schoolhouse
was available, Bible schools were held in such places as rest
homes and firehouses, anywhere where the Gospel of Christ could
be shared with children. R.B.C. National did not own a campground for many years. Campgrounds
were rented each summer in Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, and South
Dakota, and the Camp staff would travel from state to state carrying
all the supplies for camp in vans and cars. But more important
than the volleyball nets and baseballs, each week of camp would
include, as it still does today, a camp pastor to proclaim the
Gospel to children, a camp missionary to give the children a
vision of full-time ministry, and camp counselors to daily encourage
the children in the Word of God. The church that Bible Impact Ministries has set as it's target
is the small to mid-size church. As we listened to these pastors
and youth leaders, they were increasingly interested in "more"
for their youth that just scripture memory. Since these churches
don't have a full-time youth staff and rely on those already
busy, they needed assistance for the entire program - the opening,
the lessons, the outreach, and the games. School year 1991 -
1992 was the first year for the "Bible In Me!" Youth
Clubs program, a program that is still actively producing "Tomorrow's
Leaders".
The move to Missouri took place in July of 1994 and camp was
first held here in 1995. Hundreds of individuals volunteered
their time in the early years, and construction began. Camp attendance
increased 72% in the first 6 years that BIM has operated from
WWBC. From one outdoor program in 1997 to 6 in 2002, God has
allowed us to use the facilities He provided in a great way,
as well as the natural resources of the Ozark region. |
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We trace our beginning back
to 1937 when J. Lloyd Hunter organized Rural Bible Crusade in
Wheaton, IL. But perhaps the true beginning of the ministry was
in 1918 in a communistic community in rural Minnesota where Hunter
and his wife, Bertha, were inspired with the idea of the Bible
Memory Contest. Or perhaps the beginning of the ministry was
in 1913 in a mission near Joliet, Illinois, where Hunter was
called to minister to children. Or the ministry could be said
to have began in 1896 when Hunter, as a small child, accepted
Christ as his Savior. Or the ministry may be traced to thousands
of years ago when a Man from Galilee told His disciples, "Suffer
the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of Heaven. 
a freshman at Kansas City Bible College when two men from Rural
Bible Crusade came to the college to present their work. Sitting
in a dark room, watching a slide presentation, Bob Clark felt
the call of God. A slide was shown of a small boy feeding a pen
of pigs while the sun was setting. Clark, who had grown up feeding
the livestock on his grandparents farm in rural Kansas, felt
the call to minister to children such as this young boy. 
Clark would go to these schools,
which were mostly one-room school houses, sing a chorus with
the children, quote John 3:16 with them, show them the prizes
they could win and distribute leaflets of 500 verses. The very
first verse in these leaflets was what Hunter called the "Golden
Text of the Bible," "For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten son . . ." John 3:16 - the first
verse children involved in Bible Impact Ministries today learn.
Children who learned this verse were given a copy of the Gospel
of John. The teachers would then help the students learn the
leaflets of verses, and sometimes the teachers themselves would
memorize the scriptures. "Very few teachers would say, 'No,
we're not interested'." Clark said. One Kansas teacher,
Wanda Schmidt, after learning of the R.B.C. program, would change
schools every four or five years in order to evangelize another
school.
Upon memorizing all 500 verses,
the children were sent a Bible and were qualified for a free
week of summer
"We began to see children get saved and
begin to grow in grace, and what better way to grow in grace
than through Scripture memorization" Clark said. Soon after
the formation of the clubs, R.B.C. leaders realized that many
children were memorizing 250-300 verses but were unable to complete
the 500 verses required for camp. At a convention in Wheaton,
Illinois, it was voted to reduce the required number of verses
to 300, and eventually it was lowered to 200, to give more children
an opportunity to attend summer camp free of charge. 
R.B.C. underwent a second change in 1966 when the ministry's
headquarters was moved from Wheaton, Illinois to Salina, Kansas,
and Bob Clark was named as Director, a position he would fill
for 24 years. Clark began to work on expanding the correspondence
courses available to children who had completed memorizing the
first set of verses. At that time, only 4-5 years of correspondence
work was available to students who wished to continue in the
R.B.C. program. Soon the program expanded to 15 correspondence
courses children could work and continue to come to summer camp.
After many years of service, Bob Clark began to seek new leadership
for the future of the ministry. "I realized after I'd been
in the work nearly 40 years that we needed some new blood,"
Bob Clark said. He found this new blood within his own bloodline.
Bob Clark's son, Doug, was serving the Lord in New York at that
time, but he was feeling the call of the Lord to move on to a
new ministry. "You know, Dad could really use some help
down here," Bob Clark told his son, and in 1985, Doug and
his family moved to Kansas to begin their work with RBC. Doug
worked along with his father in administration until 1990, when
he was named Executive Director and CEO and Bob took on the work
of Field Representative. 
In 1950, Mr. Vallie Douglas, a tool maker from St. Louis joined
the RBC board as treasurer. Soon after, he was appointed as the
director of the young outreach to the youth of Missouri, serving
part-time. On November 29, 1953, he was installed as full-time
Director.
Remember the decision of the Bible Impact board in 1992 to develop
a permanent camp facility as part of the long range plans? By
the fall of 1993, the first team of staff and interested volunteers
had made the first trip to St. James, MO and the prayer that
God would make His will clear had been offered many times.