Calvary Baptist Church

The Hispanic Ministry Team from Calvary Baptist Church will be traveling to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico on July 3. This team is working with MGM International (http://mgmi.org/English/) through the Ebenezer Institute in Hermosillo, Mexico. Representatives from five other churches will join us for the Hispanic Ministry Institute. These sessions will concentrate on immersing the students in the Mexican culture in order to help them gain a better grasp on the language.

Team members will be studying Spanish, helping to evangelize the local area around Hermosillo and participating in local church services. Please pray for our team members as they travel to Mexico. The team will depart on Thursday, July 3 and return on Monday, July 14. They will be reporting about their trip on Sunday, July 20 at 6 p.m. Watch this section of the blog for regular updates from the Hispanic Ministry Team.

Mark your calendars now for a glorious Biblical adventure for your children. Vacation Bible Time will be held at Calvary Baptist Church, Monday through Friday, July 28 through August 1, 6:30-8:30 p.m. each evening. The special feature of this year’s VBT is

The Time Tunnel!

We have formed teaching teams to provide some exciting opportunities for your children to learn about The Bible as they journey back through The Time Tunnel. Make your plans now to join us! Watch this blog for more updates.

If you would like to help with this year’s VBT, please contact the church office.

On Thursday, July 3, our Hispanic Ministry Team will depart for Phoenix, Arizona. After a day-long orientation with MGM International, we will travel to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico on Saturday, July 5. The main purposes for this trip are to immerse our team members in the Spanish language and culture as well as to help the local congregations around the Ebenezer Bible Institute in Hermosillo. Please pray for our team members as they study Spanish within the Mexican culture. We are praying that the Lord will use this trip to prepare us to minister to the Hispanic people here in Ohio. The team will return to Findlay on Monday, July 14.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MGM INTERNATIONAL

AND

THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

By Dr. Richard L. Mercado
from the MGMI History page

The man who was left for dead

The history of MGM International begins with the story of its founder, Leonardo S. Mercado. Leonardo’s father, Gumecindo Mercado, emigrated with his family from Mexico City to northern Arizona during the Mexican Revolution. The family was traveling by railway pushcart toward El Paso, Texas. During one rest stop, they stumbled on a man who had been left for dead alongside the railroad tracks. Gumecindo insisted they do what they could to help the wounded man, and, despite some objections that adding him to the pushcart would jeopardize the onward journey, they lifted him to the cart along with all their baggage and renewed their travel toward the United States. Sometime later they were suddenly ambushed by a marauding group of Pancho Villa’s bandits. Just as those raiders were deciding what valuables to take with them and how to dispose of their captives, the stranger who had been befriended by the Mercados spoke up. “¡No! ¡No les hagan daño!” “No, don’t harm these good people. I was lying helpless by the tracks many miles back. These strangers picked me up. They’ve saved my life. Now you spare them.” As it turned out, Pancho Villa’s henchmen knew the wounded man, and, for the sake of their friendship, the bandits rode off, leaving the Mercados and their new friend to resume their migration northward.

Spiritual Pilgrimage

Arriving finally at Williams, Arizona, the Mercado family settled into their new environment with young Leonardo serving as an altar boy in the Roman Catholic Church. In time, a young Anglo neighbor boy who befriended Leonardo began inviting him to visit his Methodist Sunday School. Despite Leonardo’s objections and insistence that he couldn’t go there, that neighbor pal kept on, week by week, persisting in inviting him. Finally Leonardo went, he heard the gospel of salvation, and he received Christ as his very own personal Savior. That was the beginning of the spiritual pilgrimage that would eventually lead him to the Spanish-American Theological Seminary of Los Angeles, California, where somewhere around 1923 or 1924 he became one of the school’s first graduates.

Early Ministry

While still a seminary student, one day Leonardo and his father were walking down one of the main streets of San Pedro when they heard the strains of a gospel song. Following the sound of the music, they arrived at an old-fashioned gospel street meeting and there was an earnest and attractive young lady playing the little portable organ. Leonardo whispered to his father, “Dad, I’m going to marry that young lady.” Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t miss the Sunday evening service on June 22!

Our Operation Renewed Hope Boot Camp team will be reporting about their trip. Judging by their pictures, they have a great deal to report! They returned to us on Saturday, exhausted but exhilarated.

As you will hear in their report, there is a good deal of excitement about future ORH trips. One of the team members announced, “we are ready to go to Cambodia!”

In their report on Sunday evening, you will hear their testimonies and see an audio-visual presentation about their adventures. I would like to warn you in advance that you will be envious!

Operation Renewed Hope is planning more boot camps of this kind in the future. This is essential preparation for team members since many of the trips take the Gospel of Jesus Christ and desperately needed medical teams to remote regions of the world. When you are that far away from civilization and cell phones, you simply learn to rely on your own skills.

We are excited to see how the Lord will use these team members in the future!

Our Summer Bible will continue this Tuesday, June 17. Our speaker will be Pastor Jason Knight from Heartland Baptist Church in Marysville, Ohio. Please join us at 7 p.m. for this special service.

Please pray for our team. They made it safely to The Wilds. They will be receiving training in how to participate in future medical relief efforts both at home and abroad. Survival skills, safety measures, medical relief techniques, etc. will all be taught during this week. We are hoping that they will be able to instruct the members of our congregation in the skills that they learn.

During the summer, Calvary Baptist Church moves its mid-week service to Tuesday evenings so that we can invite pastors from other churches to deliver messages from the Word of God. We have done this for several years and these services have provided a rewarding experience for all of us.

This Tuesday, June 3, our conference will begin with a message delivered by Pastor Dickson:

The Next Great Event

on God’s Prophetic Calendar

Tuesday, June 10

Tuesday, June 17

Pastor Jason Knight (Heartland Baptist Church, Marysville, Ohio)

Tuesday, June 24

Pastor Denny Coates (Faith Baptist Church, Ottawa, Ohio)

Youth Special Operations for Christ

Operation Renewed Hope (ORH) will offer a special boot camp this summer to train future mission team members.

Due to the nature of ORH missions trips, medical and survival skills can be essential. This boot camp will prepare team members for the kinds of difficulties they will face in remote areas of the world. You can register for this training at the ORH website.

Training is provided by a special forces trainer, and includes:

• Jungle boot camp
• Mission aviation training
• Medical services
• Audio & visual training
• Computer training
• Plumbing, electrical & construction training
• Office management
• Methods of Bible study

A group of nine members from Calvary Baptist Church will be traveling to The Wilds in early June to receive this training.

Here is the latest update from our missionary, Rev. Jan Milton:

Operation Renewed Hope P.O. Box 43242 Fayetteville, NC 28309 910-987-5072 “Myanmar Relief Project” Urgent, please, read this entire message.

I want to say thank you to those who have already responded with a definite “Yes, we will help.” Please, send your suggested donation now and mark them “Myanmar Relief Project.” Mail them to the address at the top of this update. Our accountant will designate your donations for this project.

1. Dr. Steve Reynolds, who is in Singapore, has applied for permission to enter Myanmar. He will begin the process of gathering information so that we can have an accurate means of helping the people. ORH has commissioned him with an expense account of $1000.00 for this initial survey of needs. Obviously, more will be needed in order to properly help. He is hoping to be in Myanmar before the end of this month. I am certain that this man will preach the gospel of Christ to the people impacted by this great tragedy. Read the rest of this entry »