Big Springs, CA - Rev. Nollie Malabuyo

Big Springs Community Church (BSCC) started in the early 1990s with a group of families in Big Springs, Montague, California committed to the Reformed faith. A few years later, they were then taken under the care of the Christian Reformed Churches. For a time in the early 2000s, the church did not have a pastor, and was considering closing its door. However, the Lord was merciful to the congregation. In 2005, Rev. Bernie Van Ee was called by then Trinity CRC in Visalia, CA (now Trinity URC) to the ministry at BSCC. He served at BSCC until he retired in January 2015.

From Rev. Van Ee’s retirement till June 2015, BSCC’s pulpit was filled by several Reformed and Presbyterian ministers. In June 2015, after my wife Evelyn and I came back from a four-month ministry in the Philippines, I accepted BSCC’s invitation to serve as minister for an indefinite period.

Trinity URC still oversees the work here at Big Springs. A week each summer, a group of young people from Trinity URC comes to conduct Vacation Bible School at BSCC. The VBS is well-attended by children from the community, and so serves as an outreach program. In addition to spiritual oversight, Trinity URC also continues to financially support the church.

The members of the church faithfully come for Sunday school and worship. In Sunday school, we finished the Doctrine of Scripture, so we've gone back to the studies in Ligonier Ministries' Dust to Glory. For worship, we continue our series on the Gospel of John, but we're taking a break from this study to start a short series on the Book of Ruth. We also continue our second service on the fourth Sundays of the month, which is attended by about 80 percent of the morning service attendees. I'm also conducting an office bearer training for 8-10 men. Lord willing, we will be done by summer, and a few men would be qualified and willing to serve.

We continue with our biweekly men’s and weekly ladies’ Bible studies. In addition to our Sunday services, we hold special services on Good Fridays. Our Thanksgiving Day services are held on the Sundays before. We also join a small Reformed church in Montague for their Christmas Eve services. We also open our doors to the community during our annual Valentine’s Day Dinner Fellowship.

Most of the members are elderly, so we are exploring ideas to encourage younger men and women to come. One of these ideas is to start a Bible studies in members’ homes, and in the local community colleges. Another outreach effort is a 15-minute broadcast at KSYC, a radio station in nearby Yreka, aired every Sunday morning. In addition, in early December 2015, I started writing a short biweekly pastor's column at the local newspaper, Siskiyou Daily News. We are praying that the Lord will grant fruit from these outreach programs.