870 Graduate From Mountain View Discover Bible Schools

 870 Graduate From Discover Bible Schools

Story by Mountain View Conference Staff

This fall, the Mountain View Conference celebrated the 870 graduates from their recent Discover Bible Study campaign. Graduates, volunteers, Voice of Prophecy (VOP), conference and Columbia Union Conference leaders joined the graduation and praise services in Charleston and Bridgeport, W.Va., and in Oakland, Md.

The King’s Heralds quartet provided the music and VOP leaders Kurt Johnson and Jordana Ashburn, as well as speaker/director Shawn Boonstra, led the program. Baptisms also took place in Charleston and Oakland.

Many of the graduates are now taking more Bible studies, some are attending church and some have become members of local Adventist congregations. Bessie Stewart, a 73-year-old graduate from the Toll Gate church in Pennsboro, W.Va., says, “I finished the first set [of lessons] and I liked it to much that I began the next series called Focus on Prophecy. I’ve been a Christian since the age of 14 and I’m still learning [from the Bible].”

During the last two years, VOP sent Discover Bible Study (DBS) cards to more than 900,000 households in the conference’s territory. The conference’s nearly 2,300 members, pastors and a few Bible workers worked hard to respond to and visit the more than 10,000 people who requested studies because of the mailings.

“It was a joint effort and the transformation was remarkable,” says conference leaders. “Lay members who thought they were too shy and untrained to give Bible studies learned that, with the Holy Spirit’s help, they could do all things.”

Joan Skinner, a Discovery Bible Study instructor from the Marlington (W.Va.) church, shares another bonus of volunteering: “I'm spending more time reading God's words. What a joy.”

The recent successes are the result of the Holy Spirit’s moving and planning that started at a visioning meeting with conference members and leaders in 2008. That meeting resulted in a plan to encourage members to give Bible studies through weekend training seminars. During those seminars, members learned how to operate a DBS in their church and how to obtain personal studies from the interest cards. ShareHim and Lillian Torres, Columbia Union Bible worker, led the meetings.

Pictured: Shawn Boonstra, VOP speaker/director, congratulates Tia Patton as she receives her KidZone Bible studies completion certificate at the Charleston, W.Va., graduation service.