A nonprofit organization with a global reach has its headquarters in Hempfield.

On Sept. 24, BCM International (Bible-Centered Ministries) offices moved from Granite Run to Estelle Drive in Mountville.

"We're in what I call a growth season in the organization and adding key team members," president Rick Rhoads said. "We outgrew the space we had. There's good stuff happening."

BCM International is a faith-based nongovernment organization (NGO) that seeks to reach children and strengthen churches globally in 56 countries, Rhoads said. Through camping ministry, orphanages, schools, disaster relief, and church ministry, BCM International serves approximately 3.5 million people on a yearly basis.  

"BCM International was the original Bible club movement and started 89 years ago in Philadelphia," said Rhoads, who has been the group's president for three years. It was founded by Bessie Traber, who was a missionary to the Philippines. "Home on furlough, she was working with some children, and a child asked her what she did in the Philippines," said Rhoads. "She told him, and then he said, 'Why can't you do that here?' And that's how it started."

Rhoads noted that in 89 years, BCM International has become involved with 56 countries and has 42 camps in 32 countries, as well as 5,000 churches, including ones in India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, as well as all throughout Africa.

"Our churches and our camp ministries, like all of our ministries, are centered on the work of Jesus in the New Testament and disciple-making principles," Rhoads said. "Our passion is all about making disciples, empowering leaders who in turn can go make other disciples. At the end of the day, we have almost 17,000 workers, so it's one of the larger Christian organizations on the planet. But we're tucked in here in Lancaster County as the home base."

BCM International's primary focus is on reaching children. Second is strengthening the church. BCM International also has orphanages, provides disaster relief services, and offers kindergarten through 12th grade schools, he said.

BCM International holds camps and Bible clubs in Lancaster County. "We look at each culture and each country and ask what it needs," Rhoads said. "We look around here and say, 'There's endless amounts of churches. There's no need for another church here.' But there is a need for camps that can service churches and strengthen the church. There's also a need for Bible clubs where we can connect to children for schools. That's what we do primarily here in the states."

In the past year, BCM International has expanded to Ecuador, Argentina, South Sudan, and Sao Tome and Principe. It has created a marketing department and hired a new director of marketing and communications to move into the digital age.

"I think our heartbeat is for just disciple, disciple making, and empowering national leaders in their countries to lead," said Rhoads. "Though we oversee the vision and provide accountability globally, we're all about empowering local and national leaders to develop teams and to lead. We really want this to be something that, in Brazil, we want it to be a Brazilian movement, (and) in Ecuador, we want it to be an Ecuadorian movement. We want those people to know that they have what it takes to do this. ... I think our passion, at the end of day, is how we serve the kingdom and serve others well."

Go to http://www.bcmintl.org for more information or to donate. "We're a nonprofit, and we raise funds," said Rhoads. "The finances we have all need to be raised, and we're looking for partners that see our vision, believe in the vision, and would want to join through prayer and then also giving financially to us. We really try to connect people on a deeper level, so they're not just giving to something random, but to connect to very specifically a country or a national leader or a person in country that's reaching that country."

"We're a missions organization, but we differ from most missions organizations," he continued. "Most are sending people from the West, from North America, other places. That's what we were 89 years ago. But about 30 years ago, we started making the switch, and now the people that are our missionaries, those 17,000 that I'm talking about, are all people in their country reaching their country."