MOUNTAIN, Mo. -- When Virginia Boucher came to McDonald County in 1949, the rural area was sparsely populated. She, along with Marjorie Barnhart, came to the Mountain, Mo., area as missionaries. The two ladies, one from Kansas and one from Illinois, had met at Faith Bible Academy on the Lake of the Ozarks in 1946.
Sunday, Miss Boucher was surprised with a 90th birthday party at Mountain Bible Church and presented with a book comprised of her sketches made during her many decades serving rural McDonald County.
Pastor James Duncan and his wife, Kathy, said the celebration was well attended.
Miss Boucher said she was surprised and honored. She spent the afternoon signing copies of her sketch book.
A vision is born
Miss Barnhart and Miss Boucher understood God's call on them while in training in central Missouri, according to pastor Duncan, and began, during school days, working together doing Vacation Bible schools and camps. After graduation, when Miss Barnhart's pastor, Homer B. Fisher, shared his heart for the children of the Ozarks, they responded. He and others started a mission organization and the young ladies followed the call to come to the Ozarks. Their pastor opened the door by contacting the rural schools and setting up the opportunity for the ladies to start Bible clubs in the schools, Duncan wrote in one of his blogs.
In the beginning
Most of the homes had no running water or electricity. Transportation was on narrow, rocky dirt roads.
The two ladies strode the hills together going from home to home visiting with the residents and going to 23 schools to teach the Bible to the students. By 1951, they were teaching in more than 30 schools.
In 1956, they rented a building in Washburn, Mo., and opened a store to help raise money for their ministry.
The Bible Ladies, as they soon came to be called, held Bible clubs across the area.
Over the ensuing decades, the Bible Ladies taught in Busch, Bayless and Beaver schools in Benton County, Ark., and in Buzzard Glory, Antioch, Jacket, Powell, Poplar Hill, Enterprise, Kings Hollow, Roller, Rocky Comfort, Southwest City and White Rock in McDonald County, Mo.; Trents Creek, Measel Prairie, Cormus Grove, Seven Star, O.K., Paisley, Washburn Prairie, Stoney Point, House, Maple Grove, Ridgely, Wayne Black, Quaker, McDowell and Washburn (Southwest), in Barry County, Mo.; and Stella in Newton County, Mo.
Mountain Bible Church
There was no church in the area and the ladies held Sunday school classes in the Buzzard Glory School house. In 1960, a couple from Wichita, Kan., who owned land in the area, donated land for Mountain Bible Church. In 1967, a one-room concrete block building was erected.
Over the years, the church body outgrew the tiny original building and has constructed another larger building.
Their own home
The ladies rented the small rock house in Antioch for several years, then were able to purchase a portion of land on a hillside in Mountain. There, with help from family and neighbors, they built a house. Miss Barnhart died Dec. 25, 2008.
World-wide influence
People from several states visited the birthday party Sunday, Kathy Duncan said.
Thousands of children were touched by Boucher and Barnhart, pastor Duncan said, explaining that letters are still received thanking Miss Boucher for her teaching and ministry. He said he once mapped the locations of people influenced by Miss Boucher and they are scattered across the United States and around the world.
"All of us who knew these ladies have been blessed," Duncan said, "and have been reminded that faithful service to Jesus has a reward unmatched by any earthly prize."
Editor's note: Some information is from The Bible Ladies of Mountain, Missouri; The Ministry of Marjorie Barnhart and Virginia Boucher, by Dawn Bohl and Lynette Schmitt.
Community on 08/03/2016