King of Kings School for children was founded by BCM in 1998. It began with 22 young students tucked into a few cinder-block cubicles, shaded by a thatched roof. It has grown steadily, and now, in a new facility, hosts about 400 students ranging through eleventh grade. The three-storey school contains 4500 square feet of classrooms, overseen by a full-time faculty of 35 teachers and staff.  King of Kings is officially an “English Medium Matriculation” school, in keeping with historical nomenclature of the British Empire. When the Brits finally left India over sixty years ago, Oxford English remained behind as part of the fabric which ties the diverse nation together, along with trains, bureaucracies and, of course, cricket.

Since the beginning, Unreached Villages has recruited an on-going tag-team of young American disciples, who have braved the sweltering challenge of teaching authentic American English to the beginner students in Rameswaram. ( Two of the first were the daughter and son of this author ).

The strategy of offering American English instruction has proven to be a great open door for the Gospel. Despite the high quality of the education which the children receive at King of Kings School, most of the Hindu, Muslim and Nominal families of India would be very reluctant to send their children to us, knowing that we will always maintain a focus on Gospel teaching, Bible text, Christian discipleship, prayer and worship, which is an affront to their religious loyalties. However, when the school offers English taught by Americans, the whole dynamic suddenly changes. Although our passion at Body of Christ Ministries is only for the Gospel of Jesus, the rare opportunity for their children to have a chance to learn American English is so compelling, that the same families will now join waiting lists in order to secure a place for their children in our school. Putting it plainly, these parents naturally long for their children to escape from poverty, and they wisely perceive authentic English as just the ticket to open those doors. That real hope trumps the religious xenophobia of their village communities nearly every time. Now, even some of the Hindu temple priests are bringing their children to our school …. and we freely disciple every one of them. When my son, Michael, taught English at King of Kings School seven years ago, he was amazed to see about one third of the families of his young students eventually become believers and bring their children to church, simply from their little ones bringing the Gospel home to them from school.