Prairie Bible College is the senior post-secondary school of Prairie Bible Institute (PBI), which opened on October 9, 1922 on the property of the McElheran family farm near the community of Three Hills, Alberta. Over the course of its history Prairie's governing board created several other schools including a Correspondence School, a Graduate School (1988–2004) based in Calgary and, the extant K-12 Christian school system (1938 to present) in Three Hills. More recently, two sister undergraduate colleges were created by PBI: Prairie School of Mission Aviation and the Prairie College of Applied Arts and Technology established in 1992 and 2006 respectively. After restructuring in 2004, Prairie Bible Institute divested itself of about one half of its educational interests, but has chosen to retain its resident and distance learning Bible College, Aviation School and College of Applied Arts and Technology as the focus of its educational ministries. PBI became known as a major missionary training centre with alumni eventually working in more than 110 nations around the globe. Its precursor was a local Bible Study group led by J. Fergus Kirk, a central Alberta Presbyterian farmer. L. E.