Community Bible Study

Bob Jefferson 1932 - 2002

Anne and Bob Jefferson

Bob Jefferson, Teaching Director of the Albuquerque, New Mexico Evening NM class, in an automobile accident on July 18, 2002, went home to be with the Lord.

Bob was born February 10, 1932 in Ohio, but grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas. He attended Michigan Tech, and after serving in the Air Force, he began his career at Sandia Labs. He was a nationally known expert in the nuclear energy and nuclear waste transportation field. However, Bob’s real passion was teaching the Bible and sharing the love of Christ with others. That passion is the legacy that will be remembered by those whose lives Bob touched.

In addition to being an active leader in his church, for ten years he was a Teaching Leader in Bible Study Fellowship. For the past seven years, he has impacted the lives of many throughout the Albuquerque area by faithfully teaching the Scriptures in Community Bible Study (CBS).

Barely a year after Bob became the CBS Teaching Director of the Albuquerque Evening class, he answered another call of God to a larger and very different community. In April of 1998 he was asked by Prison Fellowship to help develop a Christian rehabilitation program called InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI). The State of Texas, at the request of then Governor Bush, had initiated a radically new concept in inmate rehabilitation based on the Bible. Most efforts at rehabilitating inmates are based on therapy — convincing the offender of the error of his ways and teaching appropriate behavior- in other words, teaching men to live with their anger. The IFI concept was based on transformation- allowing the Lord to change men so that they would learn how to live without their anger.

When Bob was asked to develop curriculum for the men to use in the IFI program, he became very excited. He approached his Area Director and the Executive Director of Community Bible Study to see if there was some way CBS material could be used within the prison community. Bob’s enthusiasm was infectious and Camilla joined in his excitement. She encouraged him to use the CBS Condensed Material that the ministry already had developed for Community Bible Study International, as the shorter format would better serve a prison class.

That was the beginning of what would officially become Prison CBS. Bob, with the advice, encouragement, and help of other CBS leaders, trained volunteers to be Servants Teams, and inmates to serve as Core Leaders. Bob also promoted Prison CBS within the national CBS family and recruited leaders who would join him in this mission field. He loved to share stories of the lives of men he saw being transformed through Community Bible Study classes. This gentle, vibrant man would often, with tears in his eyes and a trembling voice, share his passion of setting the prisoners free with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Continue to pray for Bob’s dear wife, Anne, and their three children, Kirby, Russell, Kimberly, and their families. Kim and her husband David are core leaders in the Albuquerque Evening CBS class. We miss Bob terribly in the CBS family. His life was like a sunrise--sent from the Lord, wonderful to watch and enjoy, but far too brief, from our perspective. One of Bob’s friends spoke of his home-going this way: “On Thursday, Bob had breakfast with friends, lunch with his family, and supper with Jesus.” When Bob reached his heavenly home on the evening of July 18, we know he heard his Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”