Our Ministry
Vision: Helping
Children See Jesus
Mission
quality teaching tools and relevant training to ministry partners worldwide.
CORE VALUES: We Will…
Stay True to God’s Word
Partner with Teachers (the individual context)
Prioritize the Local Church (the discipleship context)
Equip Global Missions (the big picture context)
Bible Visuals International Staff
Tom Luttmann
Executive Director
Serving since 2010
Tom Luttmann has served as BVI’s Executive Director since 2010. He served previously as a textbook author for Bob Jones University Press and as a summer missionary with Child Evangelism Fellowship of Eastern Pennsylvania. Besides directing the ministry, Tom helps oversee BVI’s production projects and often represents the ministry. His wife, Betsy, also helps to provide the video editing needs of BVI. The Luttmanns have five children, also known as mission field #1.
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Jeff Kilcup
Assistant Director
Serving since 2019
Jeff Kilcup joined BVI full time in September 2019. He and his wife, Tracy, met at Maranatha Baptist University and received degrees in Business Administration and Piano Pedagogy, respectively. Jeff is a native to the Baltimore area and Tracy to the Detroit, MI area. After college they served in a New Jersey church while Jeff supported their growing family in the commercial banking field. From 2013 to 2019, Jeff served in pastoral roles in Pennsylvania and Maryland. He brings experience in banking, ministry, and the arts. Jeff also earned a masters degree in biblical counseling that informs much of his church ministry perspective. The Kilcups bring diverse tools to BVI that assist the mission field of children’s ministry.
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Lee Brooks
Project Control & Licensing
Serving since 2021
Lee Brooks joined BVI in November 2021. His BA in Philosophy and Religion combined with 50 years of business experienced helped prepare him to handle the part-time responsibilities of grant writing and managing/expanding BVI partner license agreements. He and Fagel, his wife of 50 years, have raised 3 children and have 3 (far away!) grandchildren. Lee has a heart for missions and for discipling young men.
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Abbigayle Dunkley
Marketing/Communications Assistant
Serving since 2023
Abbi Dunkley joined the team at BVI in 2023. She brings a degree in Communication Studies and professional skills related to digital marketing and content creation. At BVI, she is excited to share stories about how God is working in and through the ministry while helping support the organization’s marketing efforts. Abbi and her husband, Zach, enjoy playing board games and hanging out with their cat.
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Melody Mayer
Web Store Coordinator
Serving since 2004
Melody Mayer joined the staff in 2004. She serves as BVI’s web store coordinator which involves processing orders and maintaining the web store. She is also involved in several aspects of bookkeeping and general operations.
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Dave Bazzel
Shipping Clerk & QC
Serving since 2018
Dave serves as our shipping clerk and QC inspector for production projects. He brings years of experience in the fields of graphic arts and the printing trade. He and his wife Carol enjoy time with their Cavalier Spaniel “Piper” and four parrots. “I’m always looking for the highest reward on investment. In regard to investing for eternal reward in God’s Kingdom, there is no greater ROI than ministering to children. I pray every book will be used for many years and touch hundreds of lives with the Gospel message.” —Dave
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Heidi Wanjala
Partner Relations
Serving since 2024
Heidi Wanjala joined BVI in 2024. Prior to coming on staff, she served for 14 years with Child Evangelism Fellowship of Eastern PA, Inc. in Philadelphia County. At BVI, Heidi serves by seeking to maintain and strengthen relations with partners around the globe. God has given Heidi a heart for the nations,and she is excited and thankful to be part of the Gospel going forth to children and families all over the world. In addition to serving with BVI, Heidi and her husband, Isaac, are navigating through the new and exciting journey of parenthood with their baby boy, Malachi.
Read MoreBoard of Directors
Dave Hanson
Board President
Joined the Board in 2013
Dave Hanson joined the Board in 2013 and serves as Board President. He is the CEO of Fulton Financial Advisors. He enjoys serving at Harvest Bible Church (Lancaster), traveling with his family and playing an occasional (or not) round of golf.
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Mike Battaglia
Board Vice President
Joined the Board in 2006
Mike Battaglia began serving on the Board in 2006 and serves as Board Vice President. He likes fishing, and service projects that help others who can’t do it themselves.
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Rachel Waldo
Board Member
Joined the Board in 2023
Rachel is currently employed as the Head Human Resource Coach at Fox Meadows. She is married to Jason Waldo, and they have four children in a hybrid education program, where Rachel is highly involved in their education. She sits on the board at Mainstay Christian Academy and volunteers at her home church Westminster Presbyterian.
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Chad Fox
Board Treasurer
Joined the Board in 2024
Chad Fox joined the board in 2024. He lives in Lancaster County, PA, with his wife and four young children. Professionally, he is a CPA and currently co-owns Fox Meadows Creamery with his brother. Chad is actively involved in his local church and is passionate about youth and children’s ministry.
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Trent Gravley
Board member
Joined the Board in 2023
Trent Gravley joined the board in 2023. He serves as the Facilities Manager at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Mechanicsburg, Pa. He enjoys traveling, and outdoor activities with his wife Therasa and three children.
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Gordon Denlinger
Board Member
Joined the Board in 2015
Gordon is a 1985 graduate from Bob Jones University and is a CPA. He served as state representative for eastern Lancaster County for nearly 12 years. Gordon’s father, Harold, helped to start Bible Visuals International back in 1959. Gordon and his wife, Carolyn, are very active in their home church. They reside in Narvon, PA and are the parents of four children.
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Dr. Christine Beiler
Board Member
Joined the Board in 2016
Christine Beiler lives in Lancaster County with her husband and 2 young children. She moved to the area from Illinois when she accepted a position as a pediatrician in 2002. Her love for children and gospel outreach is what drew her to serve with BVI. Her other hobbies are gardening, baking and playing tennis and violin.
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Matthew Black
Board Member
Joined the Board in 2013
Matthew Black is a recruiter for Bob Jones University and is on staff at Christ the Redeemer, a church plant in Greenville, SC. He joined the board in 2013. He enjoys hymn sings with his family, helping people through biblical counseling, and reading Christian biographies.
Read MoreA Brief History of Bible Visuals International
“Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.” Psalm 148:11-13
Children’s ministry is not a work that begins with man. In fact, no ministry starts with man. It starts with a God of grace who comes to men, women and children in their fallen condition and provides redemption through a Savior, Jesus Christ. In His wisdom, God has accomplished this work through His Word, His Spirit and through the witness of His people. That’s where Bible Visuals International starts . . .
The ministry of Bible Visuals International grew out of the ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship of Pennsylvania back in 1959. Under the leadership of director Helen Odenwelder, the ministry focused on publishing lessons and resources for local ministry needs. However, God soon enlarged Helen’s vision for the ministry through a mission trip to the Philippines in 1962. While there, she noticed that flannel graph figures were impractical in an open-air setting. Instead, she imagined visualized flashcard books that ministry partners here and abroad could easily use in a variety of settings.
Back in Pennsylvania, she assembled a team of writers and illustrators to create these kinds of materials. Over several decades the ministry produced a series of 312 visualized Bible lessons simply known as the Visualized Bible. In addition, they created a collection of visualized stories and songs for children’s ministry. These resources were created with not only local ministry in mind but international ministry as well. American idioms were minimized to ease translation. BVI soon established translation and print agreements in several countries to provide ministry partners with materials that were affordable, accessible and adaptable to their needs.
In the 1990s, with the increased growth of the Internet and computer technology, the leadership at BVI once again sensed the need for new formats to help ministry partners. First, BVI materials were digitized and made available in PowerPoint disk format. In 2011, BVI began to make the resources available online in download formats. Now ministry partners from around the world can access low cost ministry visuals along with translated text files! BVI continues to fulfill it’s mission of “helping children see Jesus” by focusing on the production of new ministry materials and on the low-cost or free distribution of these resources in print and digital formats.