The Community Bible Study group of women and their preschool children has just started its ninth year in Austin. The day classes meet Wednesday mornings at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 802 4th St. SW, Austin. Being an ecumenical organization, however, there are representatives from about 35 different churches and 13 denominations from Austin and surrounding communities -- Hollandale, Lyle, Brownsdale and Albert Lea, to name a few.

There are also night classes for men, women and teenagers (no children). They meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday evenings in their host church, Faith Evangelical Free Church, 1805 12th St. SW in Austin.

The main objective of the CBS is to study and grow together -- growing in knowledge and relationship with the Living God. The program entails individual study at home and small group study. Effective teaching on Bible passages by a teaching director, a trained lay leader, is a requirement. This enhances fellowship during class and school functions.

The adult courses run 30 weeks in accordance with the school year. Because all leaders are volunteers, only a small fee plus free will offering to cover cost of material and annual gifts to the host churches are required.

Delores Luther is prayer chairman for CBS. She works with the leaders and also with a core group. According to Gail Haddon, the Community Bible Study organization started up in Virginia 28 years ago, and the first time they opened, 500 women showed up.

"All the other classes have grown from that," Becky Whithaus said. "All of them start with a prayer group. There are three of us, Bonnie, myself and Gail Haddon. We gathered and prayed for Bible study and brought women in. We began meeting with women who had gone to Bible Study in Rochester. It's just amazing how God worked!"

That's how all CBS groups start, she pointed out. There are more than 400 classes in the United States and more than 800 classes in 58 countries, internationally.

"It's a wonderful organization. We're in prisons -- I think they have a couple of prisons in Iowa, and we're working on getting into prisons in Minnesota," she said.

What they now wish for is a team ministry, something Austin lacks but other towns have, so it's "just growing and growing" over the 28 years. They all agree: God has really used CBS in a wonderful way. As the adults meet, they begin with devotion, prayer and singing in the sanctuary, then split up into smaller groups to study and discuss the lesson of the week.

Afterward, they all gather for lecture and receive the following week's lesson, which ideally inspires them to get into daily Bible reading.

The children's program, directed by Elli Sunde, is modeled after regular preschool. There are three adults in each classroom, and for structure and comfort, the schedule is posted on the classroom wall for all to see. The children have their own Bible story time, followed by related crafts, games, music, snack and playtime. All the teaching material is published by CBS.

In the nursery, loving grandmothers are taking care of the babies. There is no lack of help in any department, according to Sunde and her assistant coordinator, Van Erkel.

As the leaders so earnestly point out, CBS is not here to draw people away from their home churches. With the Bible study, they aim to teach people how the passages they study apply to their own daily lives. Hopefully, they will then go back to their home churches and serve, using what they have learned from the Bible, the Word of God.

Nini Johnson can be reached by e-mail at newsroom@austindailyherald.com