Wendy and I were both greatly influenced by Sunday Schools as we were growing up. We heard many interesting Bible stories and I had the advantage of Godly parents who also taught me that I needed to trust Jesus as my saviour.  Wendy, on the other hand, had parents who had no interest in the Bible or salvation but her mother sent her to Sunday School with some of her other children to enjoy a quiet afternoon on a Sunday.

Wendy says she was at times a problem to her teacher because she distracted the others in her class by her behaviour.  However one day her teacher Mrs Lister noticed Wendy crying as she was reading from John’s gospel chapter 19 describing Jesus being scourged, crowned with thorns, slapped in the face by cruel men and then left to carry a wooden cross to somewhere called Golgotha outside Jerusalem. Wendy was crying because she was upset at the way that Jesus was being treated, but that day as a twelve years old she learned that Jesus had died for her sins.

I had become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ two years earlier at the age of 10 having also believed that Jesus Christ had died for me. Wendy and I were born four days apart in 1934 and met at the age of 16.  In 1957 we were married at the age of 22 and since since then have devoted out lives to telling others our story and have helped many young people come to faith in Jesus Christ too.

In 1958 while living in Cork we started the Postal Sunday School which later became known as the Postal Bible School. In 1971 we had moved to Mountmellick in Co Laois and there started the Bible Educational Services. BES included the running of the Postal Bible School, supplying Bible lessons to other independent  PBS centres which we had helped to start.  In addition we promoted the bible message through a literature distribution ministry.

Wendy (centre) with the first PBS student (left) in 1958.

Many others joined us in the  ministries but the one who continued with us the longest was Patrick Grant who took charge of the printing department.  Paddy married  Heather who was our bookshop manager until it closed in 1989 when we moved BES to County Cork. Paddy and Heather are now involved in a Church in Carlow.

In 1992 wendy and I  passed on the running of the PBS in the Republic of Ireland to Noel and Liza McMeekin who last year 2018 passed on the administration of it to their son Gareth and his wife Margaret. See www.postalbibleschool.ie

In October 2000 Wendy and I moved to live in Sully, In the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales and established BES UK as a charity and that has the responsibility of publishing the Bible lessons and now holds the copyright.  BES began to expand worldwide and publish translations of the lessons into many languages. Millions of lessons are being used worldwide and Sam Balmer is now the Chairman and Director of operations from the office now in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.  Stephen Gillham of Dorset UK is Editorial Co ordinator and our grandson Steve McDonald the graphic designer of the English edition.

In 2017 our grandson, Stuart Price and I launched Silver Servers to provide a channel for Grandparents to introduce and encourage their grandchildren to the Bibletime lessons published by BES.

www.besireland.com is managed by Patrick Grant and I to promote BES, PBS, Silver Servers, GoodSeed Publications, other Bible Courses and provide a service for SEEKERS SERVERS AND SUPPORTERS.

SEEKERS are individuals who want to know God. It you are seeking God you can be helped by reading the Bible and using any of the Bible resources that we promote.

SERVERS are any who want to serve God by introducing our Bible courses to others including children, young people and adults.

SUPPORTERS are those who would like to contribute to the cost of maintaining this website www.besireland.com, the Silver Servers website, www. silver-servers.org. BES exhibitions and events and any special projects that we promote from time to time.

For further informations contact me at Bertgray@me.com or 0044 7966766508