Beaver’s visions eventually came to fruition, starting with Backyard Bible Club, held for neighborhood children in the yard of a home in the barrio. The first Backyard Bible was Jan. 27, 1994, and 63 kids attended.   

“The one spot (where Backyard Bible Club was held) became two, and the two became four, and the four became eight,” and eventually 15, Reynolds said. Other Backyard Bible Clubs have since sprung up nationwide, using San Angelo’s as a model.  

While Reynolds delights in the ministry’s spread, he also experiences regular faith builders in his own back yard – pun intended. Just last year, Reynolds made the difficult decision to not take kids to summer camp, something the ministry had been doing for more than two decades, due to a lack of funding. “Three days later I got a phone call from the HEB Foundation,” Reynolds said. “They wanted to foot the bill for us to get the parenting initiative started in San Angelo. We had dabbled in family ministry by doing one weekend a year (for families at HEB Foundation Camp in Leakey), but they provided an opportunity to expand from one weekend a year at their place to regular ongoing parenting education here in San Angelo. Had we been going to summer overnight camp with the kids, we would not have had the capacity as a ministry to begin a new ministry to the parents. The (partnership with HEB Foundation) enabled us to do that.”