Christian Fellowship began as a high school club in Bloomingdale High School in November, 1973. We met every Friday during the last period of the school day. We were required to leave school grounds to meet, so Roger Tuinstra and Jim Vukelich ("Duke") drove students down to a local restaurant or the town hall. A week after we started meeting on Fridays, we also began meeting in homes on Thursday evenings. When the school discontinued school clubs after nine weeks, Christian Fellowship continued to meet in homes and later in churches in the community. And that's what CF was for the first 5 years.
Then, in the year 1978, three big changes happened.
In May we started a middle school ministry. The first meeting was after school on Fridays at the Bloomingdale Christian Church.
Later in May after a bikeathon to help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which CF ran from the parking lot of an old Seventh Day Adventist Church, Duke and some of the boys looked inside the front doors of that old church building. It was for sale and we all agreed that it could make a great building for our group. But at that time our budget consisted of $25 a month that someone anonymously donated to us. We agreed to pray. About a month later a man named Clark Wolf met Duke out at the building with the keys to it. They walked through the building together. When they were finished, Clark said to Duke "If you will use it, I will buy it." So that is how we got our Youth Ministry Center or "CF Center".
The third thing that happened in 1978 is we incorporated as a non profit organization in the State of Michigan and were granted 501(c)(3) status by the Internal Revenue Service.
Since that time we have continued our ministry in the Bloomingdale Public School district and surrounding communities. CF has weekly meetings for both high school and middle school students, as well as a weekly Bible study for high school students. We also do a three day camp for middle school CF students in June and we do an eight day camp for high school CF students at Wilderness State Park near Mackinaw City. The summer of 2023 was our fiftieth summer of high school camp. We look forward to many more to come, God willing.