Eventually, we moved to Georgia and lived with my grandma who attended a small church in nearby South Carolina, which had a bus ministry. We later moved again 45 minutes away from the church. The youth pastor, who had also grown up in the bus ministry, began picking us up for church.

I’ve grown so much in the Lord, and am now a bus worker in the same church. I work with the children’s ministries and wouldn’t trade my Sundays or Wednesdays for anything in the world. I am so grateful for the bus ministry and all those people who continue to run the buses.

We have been married now for 35 years and have raised five children. All are saved and in church and three are in full-time ministry. Our two daughters are married to full-time pastors in Virginia, and our youngest son and his wife are on deputation to be missionaries to the country of Liechtenstein where there are currently no Bible Believing Baptist Churches. Our eldest son is in the Air Force in Germany with his family and is involved in youth and song leading ministries. All this would not have been possible had it not been for a local church bus ministry and faithful bus workers that picked up my wife as a young girl. I too would have probably not been reached.

I attended and graduated from Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1983 and have pastored now for 30 years. God has truly been good to our family and much of it is due to the bus ministry.

I am Pastor Steve Brown and my wife and family were helped by the Bus Ministry!

In the 1960′s, I was a bus kid from Spring Lake, Michigan. I had moved to the small town and didn’t know anyone. The girl down the street invited me to ride with her to church and I went and was welcomed.

That was in fourth grade, and I went to that church until I left for Maranatha Baptist Bible College. Throughout all those years there were many people that helped me. You don’t realize how much time is spent on visiting kids and having them become part of your life. The people made us a part of their life. I remember going to members houses for dinner and various different activities.

Yes, the bus ministry is worth it. Keep up the great job that you are doing.

My name is Lynn Hileman; and in 1973, in Hudson, New Hampshire, a bus worker knocked on our door. I was thirteen years old at the time. My brothers and sister started riding the bus to Tabernacle Baptist Church in nearby Litchfield. My mother soon started attending but drove to church instead. My father, whose mother was a Jehovah’s Witness, was slow to come with us—until, that is, the bus broke down in front of our house three Sundays in a row! My father had always loved to tinker with old vehicles, and there was one in the front yard! He, like my mother, my brothers, and sister before, started attending and, too, got saved. My dad was the bus mechanic until weeks before he went Home to be with the Lord in 2001. He was also a deacon for most of those years.

I, on the other hand, was a rebellious teenager; but on May 5, 1975, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and, from that day, have not looked back. Within a week of getting saved and baptized, my mother and I took over a bus; and I am still a bus captain! I can’t even imagine a higher calling.

In 1978, I met my soon-to-be husband on the front steps of our church; he, too, was a bus captain. We served at Tabernacle, running the bus ministry until 1993 when God called us to start the Heritage Baptist Church in Nashua, reaching bus families. Our children all serve in the bus ministry, and two are bus captains. I know the responsibility that they have had through this ministry have kept them serving Christ.

There is not a week that goes by that my husband and I don’t have someone come to us to tell us that they rode our buses as children. Four of our Sunday school teachers were bus kids.
A few Sundays ago, a young woman and her husband came to church. She immediately hugged me and, with tears in her eyes, asked to see “Bro. Larry” (my husband) and our oldest daughter. I did not know that we had picked her up as a young child on the bus. She and her husband got saved and baptized not long after. The bus ministry can be difficult, but the blessings will last more than a lifetime—through eternity!

My name is Joe Laughlin,
and I am a bus kid.

At 5 years of age, while living in the projects of southwest Los Angeles, two men in suits knocked on our door. They asked my parents if we could ride the bus to Sunday school to learn about Jesus and the Bible. I had no idea who Jesus was since I had never heard of Him in our home. Week after week my brother and I would go to Sunday school to learn about the love of Jesus. Little did I know the impact it would make in my life.

Although I was not saved until I was twenty-one, what I learned as a young boy brought me to salvation on January 16, 1999. Since my salvation, God has called me to preach and has given me a beautiful, godly wife and wonderful daughter to serve Him with.

I was five years of age when I started riding the church bus at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church. My mom, stepdad and I had moved to California in October 1990, and that very weekend Mrs. Boise knocked on my door and invited me to church.

I did not grow up in a Christian home; in fact it was very much the opposite. My parents were daily putting drugs and alcohol into their bodies, and I was dealing with physical abuse from my stepdad. Riding the church bus and going to church every week was my haven. Although my parents did not attend faithfully, I am glad they attended one time where they heard the gospel and were saved.

I am beyond blessed for the life God has given me and for those who have invested in my life. My husband (who was also reached in the bus ministry) and I now have the wonderful opportunity to serve in the bus ministry and the children’s ministry at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church. We now look forward to see how God will use us to reach children for Christ.

I can’t even begin to think where my life would be had it not been for the bus ministry! My name is Angel Medrano; I live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. My wife and I are current members of Southwest Baptist Church under the leadership of Bro. Jason Gaddis who became pastor when Bro. Sam Davison retired in 2010. I was first introduced to the bus ministry when I was four years old and newly arrived from Central America with my parents and my older brother. Some faithful bus workers knocked on our door and invited my brother and me to ride the bus the following day. Without knowing any English, my brother and I blindly agreed and got up in time the next day to ride a school bus to church. My parents wanted us to have a church influence in our lives but never bothered to attend themselves. For the next 20 years, I faithfully attended church while riding on a bus. It was because of some caring bus workers that I was provided the opportunity to attend our Christian school. The Lord blessed my faithfulness on the bus and allowed me to become a bus worker my senior year in high school. I got more involved in this same bus ministry once I started attending Bible college.

To make a long story short, the Lord has allowed this snotty-nosed bus kid to now be a bus captain the same bus route that picked me up so many years ago. I still ride a bus on Sunday mornings, and I have the privilege of paying back a debt to my bus workers by giving my heart and love to my bus kids just like they did to me back when I was just a four-year-old boy from Central America. I write this testimony to simply say that God hasn’t forgotten about the bus kids and can use anyone who is willing to get involved in the bus ministry.

In the early 1970′s, I was one of six children living on my parent’s dairy farm in upstate, Sherburne, New York. We were a poor family living way out in the country. I remember the Sunday night baths we would take to be ready for school the next day. That was the only time we would bathe aside from the occasional journey to the creek after we bailed hay. We were all stinky little children.

One day, a bus worker from Norwich, New York, came and asked my parents if we could come to church with them. My parents were more than willing to get rid of us on Sundays for a little rest and quiet time. I remember getting physically pushed out the door—my parents angry and screaming for us to get on the bus. After church, I remember reluctantly getting back on the bus to have to come back home! We hated going, but loved it when we got there and hated coming back. At the age of eight, I received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. We moved to Florida five years later.

After joining the Air Force, I eventually got back into church. I had bus routes of my own and saw hundreds of children saved. Some of those children are now missionaries and pastors. I have been serving the Lord regularly since 1985.

We ran a bus route in Biloxi, Mississippi, for quite a number of years—the area that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. We also ran a servicemen center for 10 years at Keesler Air Force Base out of our home church. In that time, we saw at least 18 servicemen that were later to enter full-time ministry. Some are missionaries and pastors today.

For the past eight years I have been Associate Pastor/Pastor near Fort Drum, New York, reaching the Army of that base. During this time, we have also worked with Amazing Grace Missions in fair ministries and have seen multitudes saved. I am the editor of the “Independent Baptist Church Locator” website, which assists in helping people find churches in their travels and when they move. All this because of a bus ministry that was willing to travel out into the country and pick up some very stinky farm kids.

Thank you bus workers for your love and dedication. It is worth it all.

My name is Keith, and I’m a bus kid.

I thank God for the bus ministry. It was through the bus ministry, almost a decade ago, that I trusted Christ as my Savior. I now work in the ministry, and have answered the call to preach. I will attend Hyles-Anderson College in the Fall of 2012.

I am now a member of Coastline Baptist in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I thank God that He counted me worthy, and allowed me the opportunity to start our very own bus ministry.

Had it not been for faithful bus workers and the King James Bible, I’d be lost. The bus ministry is worth the time, effort and cost. Amen!

“I am set for the defence of the gospel.”
- Philippians 1:17

My family moved to Oklahoma when I was nearly three years old. My dad was a drunkard and my mother not far from that. The church people from Windsor Hills Baptist Church started coming by and inviting my sister and me to ride the church bus. I don’t know exactly when we began riding the bus; however, when we did, the Lord began using me to speak to my mom’s heart.

We would come home from church singing the bus songs, which made an impression on my mother. She eventually would come and get saved. My dad on the other hand hated it all. Nevertheless, my mother was faithful and two years later my dad came to church and walked the aisle and got saved. I had the most wonderful privilege to grow up from then on in a Christian home, Christian school, and then God called my dad into the Prison Ministry.

I strayed from God in my early adult years. It is my love for the bus ministry that had a part in me getting right with God and serving him now. I am now the Bus Director at Longvue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas where I continue to work hard bringing families to Christ like that bus captain did for our family.

I’m Russell and I’m a bus kid.