George Murray Winston was born on February 7, 1926 in Belgium to John C. and Grace Williams Winston, missionaries with the Belgian Gospel Mission (BGM). His father was the director of BGM's Belgian Bible Institute (BBI) in Brussels, where Winston grew up. He dates his conversion to 1936. All of the family but Mr. Winston returned to the United States in 1939 due to the outbreak of World War II. Winston began his high school education in the US, studying first in Moorestown, New Jersey, and later at the Ben Lippen Boys School in Asheville, North Caro¬lina, from which he graduated in 1942. He enrolled in Wheaton College in 1943, completed his freshman year and, after a one year absence, re¬applied and re entered in 1945, graduating in 1948 with B.A. in history. Following graduation, he attended Dallas Theological Seminary where he received a ThM in 1952.

Winston returned to Belgium in 1952 to work with the Belgian Gospel Mis¬sion, working first as a church planter. Although he assumed administrative duties with BBI, BGM, and later Greater Europe Mission (GEM), Winston continued this church planting aspect of his ministry throughout his missionary career. His principle duties related to BGM administration and the administration of and teaching at the BBI. In this leadership capacity, the following chronology outlines significant BGM and BBI developments Winston was involved in:

1965 - Winston appointed director of the Belgian Bible Institute (BBI)

1969 - Appointed interim director of Belgian Gospel Mission, continued in until 1971

1970 - Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program started

1971 - BBI accredited by the Belgian government in 1971 as a Higher Institute of Religious Sciences

1972 - Belgian Gospel Mission affiliated with Greater Europe Mission (GEM) and incorporated as nonprofit organization in Belgium

1975 - BBI transferred to newly purchased facility to allow ministry expan¬sion

1977 - Work and Training School started

1979 - Graduate studies program inaugurated

1981 - Winston co founded and served as first Rector of the Evan¬gelical Theological Seminary of Heverlee until 1985

1982 - Counselling and Training Center established

1985 - Doctoral program initiated

Other aspects of Winston's ministry included serving as: conference speaker in various European countries and visiting lecturer at the Free Evangelical Theo¬logical Seminary in Vauxsur Seine, France.

Winston resigned from the Bible Institute in 1985 in order to begin full time involvement in church planting in Brussels. Following a one year furlough, the Winstons returned to Belgium in 1986 to begin this new aspect of GEM's work there.

By mid-1989, the planted congregation was being led by Belgian Christians, and the Winstons were slowly beginning to disengage themselves from leadership, although continuing to participate in the life of the congregation. In the fall of 1989, the Winstons resigned from GEM, due to disagreement over issues of policy. They then affiliated with the D.M. Stearns Missionary Fund, a Philadelphia-based organization support-routing mechanism for missionaries. Also in the fall of 1989, plans were announced for the opening of a bilingual (Dutch and French) undergraduate level school in Brussels, Seminaire Biblique de Bruxelles or Bijbelseminarie - Brussel (Bible Seminary of Brussels) in the fall of 1990. Winston was named president of the school.

Winston married Dora De Looper in 1954. De Looper, a native Belgian, also born in 1926, had been a captain in the Salvation Army in the Belgian Congo. They met while De Looper was taking a correspondence course from the BBI. The Winstons had six children.