Brief Biography of Charles Bishop, RPh.
I grew up on a farm near Belle Plaine, KS graduating from high school in 1957 In 1963 I was graduated from Southwestern State College School of Pharmacy and immediately began practicing pharmacy. We lived in Lawrence, KSwhere I served at a church as song leader, bible teacher and deacon as well as pharmacist and part owner of Rankin Pharmacy. After practicing pharmacy for over six years Iwas quite certain there was more to life than dispensing pharmaceuticals. I enjoyed the respect and stature in the community that being a pharmacist gave me. I felt I wanted more especially in the realm of my faith.
We sold our share of the business, sold our home, rented a U-Haul and moved to Lubbock, TX where I spent 2 years at what is now known as Sunset International Bible Institute (SIBI). Upon graduation and further training in missiology, mywife and family of three children and I were sent to Klang, Malaysia to plant a church. During this three year mission several congregations were established out of our work. A number of thriving congregations remain in the Klang Valley Region of Malaysia to this day. In 1975 the mission families in Malaysialost their work permits, and we moved to Wichita, KS where I served as pulpit minister for a church for 12 years. During my tenure the attendance tripled to over three hundred worshippers. During my twelve years serving as a pastor I continued working in pharmacy as I had opportunity. I wanted to keep up with the rapidly changing profession.
I took time off from my ministry to serve as a manager of a local pharmacy, but I was soon preaching for another church where I preached for 3½ years. I continued my work at the pharmacy full time.
About this time the Iron Curtain fell in Europe. Mission opportunities became evident in the former Soviet Union block of nations. The director of SIBI persuaded me to help form a team of families to go to Czechoslovakia as soon as possible. After forming a team of mission families and finishing mission training at SIBI, four families and a single young woman who had recently graduated from a ChristianUniversitymade our way to Brno, Czechoslovakia, where we began evangelizing using the study of English as a means to encourage people to study the Bible. This four year mission materialized into a congregation that remains to this day.
I left Brnoin December of 1995 and to work with a church out ofAtlanta, GA.For the next 4 years I took evangelistic teams into many cities in the former Soviet Union. During that time we inherited a Church called the RainbowChurchin Almaty, Kazakhstan, where I spent some months working with that congregation. I also spent some months in Georgetown,Guyanatraining evangelists during this time.
I returned to working in pharmacy for five years with CVS Pharmacies in the Atlanta area. In 2005 I was asked to serve as minister for a church in Wichita, KS, where I have been ever since. I currently serve as the teaching pastor and as an elder of this congregation. I continue working as a relief pharmacist for a professional pharmacy on a weekly basis.
I returned to Klang, Malaysia in 2013 for several weeks. It was a delight to see old friends who had become elders, teachers, deacons—mature Christians who were planting other churches. Forty years had passed since we began our work there.
The Lord has been so gracious to me. The profession of pharmacy opened doors that otherwise would not have been possible. Who would have thought a farm boy from Kansas would lecture the students and staff of the medical and pharmacy colleges in Irkutsk, Russia? Yet, that very opportunity came my way because of the training I received at SWOSU. I don’t think my life could have been any fuller. Jesus remains—WONDERFUL!