The author, Sarah Overstreet Midyett, was one of two Columbia International University Alumni featured in Volume I, Issue 3 of the University's 75th Anniversary publication "Faithfulness" as being representative of the Alumni of her era. The article about her, edited slightly, summarizes why she began to write this Bible curriculum:

His Leading

"Young people, get out and write a faith chapter of your own!"
--Dr. R. C. McQuilkin, first president of Columbia Bible College,
in his final chapel message to the Senior Class, 1951

Young Sarah Overstreet, initiated into the newspaper world by writing columns on the Haines City, Florida football team and other hometown news, had set her sights on writing in the mid-40s.

She planned to attend Columbia Bible College to learn biblical principles to include in her writing, go to New York to take a writing course, then write books for the rest of her life.

But at Columbia Bible College she soon forgot about writing and became engrossed in the newly organized Bible teaching program, headed by Miss Sara Petty. "The greatest lessons I learned were not from the books, but from the people I saw modeling biblical principles. Seeing them live by faith was preparation for my senior year, when my parents got a thousand dollars less for their orange crop than it had cost them to raise it."

There was no money to come to school that year. But when the Lord provided the dress for Sarah to wear in a friend's wedding, she took it as a token: He would provide for her senior year. Arriving in Columbia early for the wedding, she found work and later received a scholarship.

The low price received for the orange crop taught her that God could provide for her apart from her parents. "That was one of the big steps in preparing me to step out in faith in a life of my own."

By this time, she really wanted to teach. But the Lord closed doors that should have swung open to the apt student. So she helped her pastor father with his church youth group, worked at National Pioneer Girls Headquarters in Chicago, then went to the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Norman, Oklahoma, to evaluate becoming a translator. But when the course ended, she felt the Lord would have her go back to Columbia and wait for Him to open up for her a teaching position, so she bought a bus ticket.

The night before her final exam, her mother called to say that a telegram had arrived from Sara Petty, asking Sarah to be her assistant at Columbia Bible College.

On the bus, she thought about the opportunity. How could she train people to teach, when the only teaching she had done was her student teaching? The words of her Bible College Bible professor, Frank Sells, came to her: "If you want to grow, step into a place that is too big for you." She decided the Lord wanted her to step into that place.

Four years later she took a year's leave of absence to teach Bible in City High School, Chattanooga, Tennessee. In her teaching she used a workbook developed by another teacher in Chattanooga.

"The more I used it, the more I realized she had aimed at high school and missed."

As Sarah prayed about how to overcome those shortcomings, she sensed the Lord directing her to develop her own lessons. During her four years as Miss Petty's assistant she had been writing out a few questions to help her students notice the facts of each Bible passage. Now the Lord gave her the conviction that if she would apply herself, she could develop something that would really challenge young people to the extent of their ability. She planned a four-volume series for teaching Bible in the public schools, and wrote her first book during second semester of her year in Chattanooga.

After she returned to Columbia Bible College, she wrote one book each year until the series was completed. She wrote more lessons to use at Bethel Bible Camp, where she spent her summers.

In December 1964, she sensed the Lord's direction to expand the series for use in Christian schools. In 1969, after the Christian school curriculum was more fully developed, she began speaking at Christian School conventions and selling her materials all over the country.

"The last year I kept records, I sold just over 10,000 student books and just over 300 teacher's books to 103 schools, churches and other organizations."

J.T. and Sarah Overstreet Midyett

But things were about to change in her life. In 1976 she married a Columbia Bible College classmate, J. T. Midyett, who had been a missionary to India for twenty years, and was serving in Australia at that time. They went to Australia in 1978 and together helped start a Christian school.

While Sarah was in Australia, the revamped Bible Teaching Program at Columbia Bible College began using twelve of her fourteen books (all except the two topical studies) as required and supplementary textbooks. The university print shop prints the books, and the university bookstore distributes them. They are now reaching into the far corners of the world, where they may be translated and adapted for use in other cultures.

Looking back, Sarah says in wonder, "To think that we have a God who can work together all the details of my life to accomplish what He wants done through me!"