History
BSF grew out of a program of structured Bible study that A. Wetherell Johnson, a missionary with China Inland Mission, agreed to run for a group of friends in California in 1952. "In 1958, Ms. Johnson accepted an invitation to go to San Francisco to conduct Bible classes for the revival converts of Billy Graham's neo-evangelical crusades." BSF began in 1959.
Upon Johnson's retirement, Rosemary Jensen became Executive Director (ED) and served for nearly twenty years. In 2000, she began serving as the head of the Rafiki Foundation International which has since moved from San Antonio, TX to Eustis, FL and Mrs. Jean Nystrand assumed the position of ED. In 2009, Susie Rowan took over as Executive Director.
In Australia, BSF spawned a popular and less intense program of Bible study called Know Your Bible or KYB. The first teaching leader in Australia, Jean Raddon, recognized a need in Australia for a structured Bible study that could be run over a shorter time and with smaller groups than the BSF program. The KYB study is run under the auspices of Christian Women Communicating International.
Read more about this topic: Bible Study Fellowship
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