SC group works to provide Bible story books for children

Some local people have been working together to provide Bible story books to children across South Carolina.

Pat Milley, a member of the board of the organization, Children’s Bible Story Books in Every Home, said they are trying to raise funds to enable them to purchase more books and make them available in homes and other locations.

Currently, Bible story books are being given to newborns and older children at Conway Medical Center, A Father’s Place. Coastline Women’ Center and numerous other places, Milley said.

Some churches and other places are “paying it for forward” by purchasing books for their children and for others.

The members of the board of the nonprofit organization are David R. Gravely, Larkin Spivey, Sheila Cunningham, Johnnie Bellamy, Beverly Weaver, John Reaves, Wayne Brown, Gloria Reaves and Milley.

Milley is very determined and choosey about the books that have been selected and there are only two; Elsie Egermeier’s Bible Story Book, which has brought these stories to life for generations of children and continues to remain among the most popular Bible story books ever produced, and the New Bible in pictures for Little Eyes.

The group hopes to give Elsie Egermeier’s book to every second grader is South Carolina and the New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes to every newborn. Of course, parents can choose not to get the books.

Part of the nonprofit group’s mission statement reads, “We, the board of Children’s Bible Story Books in Every Home, believe that this ministry of placing Bible story books into every home will increase the faith of our children and thus strengthen the home, the church, the school, the government and the support of the Constitution and the United States of America.”

Milley, a retired teacher, said teaching is in her DNA, and there have been many teachers on both sides of her family.

Her grandmother, Lettie Harrelson Gore was the first supervisor of education for Horry County schools and rode her horse and buggy to the different schools When she married and had her two sons, she taught at Simpson Creek.

Milley taught in several schools before coming home to teach at Daisy Elementary years before retiring. Although she wasn.t allowed to teach from the Bible, she would buy Bibles for students and take them to their homes. Her experiments and the results gave her faith in what she was doing then, just as it does today.

For more information or to donate, call Milley at 843-347-4972 or mail donations to Milley at P.O. Box 51593, Myrtle Beach SC, 29579.

This story was originally published July 27, 2017 at 8:11 AM with the headline "SC group works to provide Bible story books for children."