California Bible Study Club Changing Lives of Gang Members, Troubled Teens at Schools

Bible study time

Gang members are coming to Christ, students are being cured of suicidal tendencies, taken back from a life of drugs and violence, and hundreds of others are finding new hope in life at California public schools.

The new revival is sweeping the public schools in the Golden State through One Voice Student Missions led by Brian Barcelona, who also speaks at many of the Bible club meetings in different high schools across California.

Barcelona recalled an incidence while speaking to CBN News that occurred during one of his Bible studies. Rival gang members came into the room.

"And I will never forget when I finished, there was this awkward silence in the room," said Barcelona, "and this gang banger stands to his feet and he looks at me and says, 'What do I have to do to be saved?'"

Even though public schools have not been hospitable to the Bible in the past, Barcelona says that after staff of many of the schools saw their students improving in social behaviour and academic performance, they urged him to go on with the Bible studies. The school principal even encouraged him to continue the Bible studies in one instance, as gang members have been approaching counselors and expressing the desire to leave their gangs.

Barcelona started the student ministries in 2009, when he was at a Bible club meeting, 'Ammunition Conference', where he got the "word of the Lord to take the high schools of America, starting in California."

Enthusiastic volunteers have helped take Christ to about 20 schools in California, with a participation of over 2,000 students.

Student volunteers would ask such questions as, "What are your dreams?.. If money wasn't an issue, if time wasn't an issue, what would you believe for God to do in your school?'" in the school hallways, he told CBN.

Barcelona remembers a student leaving a letter at the Bible study class room, which made Barcelona realize the impact God can have on individuals' lives.

"There was an anonymous letter, left in the classroom that we were meeting in, to the Bible club president and to the guy who preached. They didn't even know my name," Barcelona said.

"And it was a thank you letter, and it read something like, 'Yesterday night I was planning on killing myself, but during school I went to your meeting and I found hope and today I am alive.'"