Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge (BGMC) is the missions education emphasis for children in the United States who attend churches affiliated with the General Council of the Assemblies of God. The program provides resources to help teach kids about missions and supports General Council missionaries in their fields of ministry in the United States and around the world. It is the official missions giving program of the General Council's Royal Rangers, Girls Ministries formerly known as Missionettes, and Sunday School programs, as well as Christian primary schools affiliated with the General Council. History In the late 1940s, executives of the Assemblies of God, staff in the Foreign Missions Department, and personnel in the Sunday School Department discussed the development of a missions education program for boys and girls 12 years of age and younger. There currently was a missions program for adults, and there was a missions program for the youth, called Speed the Light, but nothing for children. At the time, children who wanted to participate in missions giving had to become a part of one of these two programs. Sometime in 1949, someone in the National Sunday School Department was reported to say "if children are to grow up to be adults concerned about missions, then they must be taught about missions in their formative years" and "that the not too distant future of our missionary work depends upon the vision of our children of this generation." Thus, the basis for a new children's missions education program—Boys and Girls Missionary Crusade—was established. In October 1949, the BGMC program was launched to meet the need for literature distribution, translation work, and study material. Another need was for the disposal of the backdated literature in the [Gospel Publishing House]. At the Seventh National Sunday School Convention held in Springfield, Missouri, these two needs were brought together, and BGMC was formed as the agent. The specific purpose BGMC was to raise money through the Sunday schools for the literature program. The first task undertaken by the new BGMC program was to raise funds for shipping these materials to the mission fields. It was also decided that a child's training must be accompanied by an opportunity for him/her to personally invest in missions. The Division of Foreign Missions (now Assemblies of God World Missions) had indicated that the missionaries' current greatest need was for gospel literature. At the time, the Assemblies of