Calvary Baptist Church Flagstaff, AZ

James Graduation

2011-06-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on Calvary

2010-01-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago during our meeting time, everyone was asked to share on a 3X5 card why they enjoy Calvary. We then laid these card out so that everyone had a chance to see what the others wrote. Here are the responses.....

*I enjoy Calvary Baptist because it is a family not just a church. People want to know about what you think and what you're dealing with. People know who you are and you are missed when you are not there. God is love and Calvary Baptist does a good job of showing that to those who attend as well as those in the Brannen Homes neighborhood in which our church is located.

*I enjoy Calvary because I have a chance to share in God's word with the members of a rather close church family. I enjoy being a part of a community of God's servants who are devoted to Flagstaff's outer community, who helps those whom they can, and many times, who shows God to those who don't see His presence or can't hear His call. I enjoy discovering His word and understanding it, feeling it, and living it with this church family. I enjoy the youth at Calvary and the friendships I've made here.

*Because of the thought provoking discussioin. The close knit church family and the warm welcome my family has been shown.

*The bible study. It's informal, more of a family feel.

*I like Calvary because it's so real. I feel like we are genuinely trying to follow hard after Jesus and that we are trying to do what God wants us to do. We aren't about apperance or numbers or what others think of us. We don't try to change in order for the world to like us or want to be apart of us.

*The family of Calvary has always been there for us. Even thought we are gone alot, you always treat us like we are a part of the family. You've helped us through some difficult times and we are truly grateful to have such a loving church family.

*I can just me myself, I am accepted, I am loved, I am prayed for, God can us me without a lot of fan fare.

*I enjoy the intimacy we can have as a group. I enjoy being able to interact during bible study-not just being preached to.

*We are more than an inward thinking church. We minister to the world.

I enjoy Calvary because we make an effort and focus on being a family. We take care of each other here. It is so different from any other church I have ever been involved in. We are not focused on the petty things and the Sunday morning routine, we are focused on God's word and where He is taking us as a church family.

*it's chill, its not really a typical church. We focus alot on helping others and missions

James' family comes to the US

2010-01-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

James, a graduate exchange student at NAU was part of Calvary last fall.(Calvary contributed to a financial need in his home church in West Africa last year) His course study has taken him to Illinois for the next stage of his studies in the US. Through personal fundraising, financial support from Calvary and others, James was able to bring his family (and a new son he has never met) to join him here in the US for the remainder of his time here.

Operation Christmas Child

2009-11-22T15:34:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Calvary wrapped shoe boxes, filled them with gifts and prepared them to send off. Each fall, as a church we enjoy participating in Operation Christmas Child. Every November shoe boxes filled with gifts are collected around the US and sent to children all over the world. This ministry seeks to shares Jesus with children thru gifts, and the story of Christ.

Megan (part of Calvary) has a family member who actually received one of these boxes when he was a child. Below is what he had to share with us-

I remember growing up, between the 2nd and the 6th grade we would get these gifts every year. About Christmas time every all of us in our school would be waiting anxiously for the 2 large semis that would pull into our school yard to deliver the boxes. I remember being so excited because it was always such unique stuff in each box and really cool too. These boxes brought so much hope to us back then and laughter and joy were all around also each box had a little note from the person who packed it and also how to receive Jesus into your hearts.
I think that the greatest thing for me though is seeing how things changed over time and how God worked in my life and blessed me so much and being able to pack some of these boxes myself and knowing exactly how these little kids feel when they receive them. It's truly priceless and I am so thankful to God for every little thing He's done for me. Let's get packin'.

From James and JEMJ Ivory Coast

2009-11-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the generous support of the Calvary Baptist Church Flagstaff and other individuals , our christian ministry ( JEMJ) was able to purchase some useful materials for the evangelization in Jacqueville, Ivory coast.
I would like to thank you all on the behalf of our brothers and sisters back there in Ivory Coast.
Your support will help bring the Gospel of Jesus-Christ to the Alladjan , Ahizi and Akouri people of Jacqueville.
Attached are pictures of the materials and JEMJ leaders gathered for a thanksgiving prayer session.
May the Lord Jesus-Christ keep on blessing the Calvary Baptist church members and leaders.

James Ahikpa

Ps:
The materials are:

1 amplifier
1 mixer
2 loudspeakers
3 microphones
micro cables
accessories

God bless you in Jesus .

Fun and Games...

2009-09-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Calvary met up at the Cogdil Rec center for a Kids game night. It was in fact "fun and games". As members of Calvary we want to each be involved in activities at the Rec. center outside of our scheduled meeting time. The purpose of the game night was to help Calvary join in to the life of our community.

Summer In Asia

2009-08-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday Rachel shared with us about spending her summer in Asia. For security reasons this post won't have specific details but here is the short and sweet!
Rachel and her team spent 4 weeks participating in a cultural exchange with a university in east Asia. Following several adventures with thermometers (they are still concerned with the swine flu) they had the opportunity to meet students, build relationships and share presentations about culture with each other.

As always Calvary enjoyed hearing about this ministry and sharing in it thru prayer and finances.

Things Calvary has been up to the past several months...

2009-08-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Rach spends her spring break in St. Louis MO

2009-08-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Helping the Davis' move from an old home to a new!

2009-08-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Our friend Kelly shares about a trip to central Asia

2009-08-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

Megan sharing about her summer trip to Asia

2009-08-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Saying goodbye to our friend James from the Ivory Coast!

North Africa Team

2009-04-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

We want each of you to know how much we appreciate your prayers for our trip to North Africa! We had the opportunity to share in our meeting a couple of weeks ago.

Here is a brief recap of our trip.

We had 3 main opportunities.

1. Daily Arabic classes
We attended the school were our workers do all of their initial language study. It gave us the opportunity to learn a little conversational Arabic (although I spoke as much French on this trip as I did Arabic) and to help continued relationships with the teachers. I don't think that this was the teams favorite thing but they did learn more than they think!

2. English Class
One of our friends, teaches English at a University and we were asked to join her in class, interact with her students and help them with their English.

3. Prayer Walking
I am so proud of this team, during our time in NA we walked over 35 miles. The workers in NA have put together audio guides giving directions for prayer walking various areas of the cities that we downloaded on our Ipods, both for convenience and security. When I first learned of this project I thought it was brilliant! In fact I have been working on similar audio tracts that are for prayer walking NAU. This is what we did for the most of our stay in NA, and I received a email the other day sharing that things are already happening where we walked and prayed. If you have every had the opportunity to prayer walk for any length of time you know that it is not only physically demanding, but also spiritually demanding. The team pushed hard and covered much ground. I love that God allows us to be part of what He is doing in His Kingdom.

To see more pictures of the trip, contact Lainee for her Blog address...

Another Celebration

2009-01-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

A few Sunday's ago, Calvary had the privilege of worshiping with Village Park Baptist Church in Village of Oak Creek. They were enjoying 10 years of serving in Arizona. We have shared a neat relationship with this sister church for the past couple of years. They have contributed financially to our "Back to School" parties at Cogdill Rec. Center, provided man power to help prepare food at some of our outreach activities, and give us prayer support. For the past year, we have had the opportunity to support them with monthly financial support...

Below are some pictures from our visit to Village Park Baptist Church

Celebrating Baptism

2008-10-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night we celebrated a baptism Calvary style. We meet at a members home, have the baptism in the backyard jacuzzi, pray and share a meal together.

Ministering Together

2008-10-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of weeks, we have had some neat ministry opportunities...

1. Each member of Calvary brought canned food (something they would actually like to eat) to place in a box that would be taken to a family in the Brannen Homes neighborhood. We also wrote notes of encouragement to go in the box, believing that God would use this to further His Kingdom.

2. Some friends have recently taken a postion with the International Mission Board serving in Western Europe. We had the privilidge of writing notes of encouragement to them and their children.

Family Time

2008-09-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we gathered together to pray for LaShay (the mom of a family God has tied us to) who was scheduled for back surgery early this morning. We asked LaShay if she would join us so we could gather around and pray for her. LaShay has come to Calvary in the past, but it has been a while-she graciously accepted out invitation, even though she doesn't enjoy being the center of attention. What a neat time of Worship. We love them as a part of us- in fact, LaShay will say that we are her family.

Early this morning a few of us were able to be at the hospital with LaShay, her mom and oldest son Marcel. I am pleased to report that the surgery went very will. The doctors were able to replace a disk in her lower back and believe that the others are in good condition. She will have about 3 months of recovery-and then back to better than normal.

Here are some things we are praying for, if you would like to join us...

*a good healthy recovery

*for the families finances-LaShay will be off from work for several weeks w/out pay and this has put a huge strain on their family (Calvary is helping out financially as much as she can)

*for the children to do a good job with their chores while their mom is in the hospital the next couple of days, as well as when she comes home.

*for God to continue to use this time to reveal Himself to LaShay and her family

A Baby Shower

2008-08-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

As you may know we meet at Cogdill Recreation Center. Since Cogdill is a City of Flagstaff facility, each week we have a rec. center employee at the building. One of these employees is Kendra, a young woman who has been pregant with her first child. Over the past several months we have had the opportunity to build a neat relationship with Kendra, and ask her each week what she needs prayer for. A few weeks ago she invited all of us to her baby shower. Unfortunately almost everyone had prior commitments and was unable to come. However, we decided to give her a shower. We asked her to let us know what she was registered for and didn't receive at her first shower. During our time together, Calvary was able to get to know Kendra better, be generous with her and pray for her and the baby. We love where God has planted us as a church and as individuals in this community. We are so excited about the relationships that He continues to bless us with.

Being Together

2008-05-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Calvary recently enjoyed following the example of the church at Antioch from Acts 13 by laying on of hands and praying to set apart Lainee Pegelow to the work that God has called her to for the summer. Lainee is serving with the Grand Canyon Baptist Church assisting with their summer ministry and she will be serving with the GCBA team traveling to the Virgin Islands for ministry in June.

Family Day Part 2

2008-04-16T10:21:00.001-07:00

Rather than the leadership team planning and asking folks to join in, we asked them to pray and ask God how He would have them serve by using their spiritual gifts. If was neat to watch the plans for this day unfold.

Here is a list of the days fun activities...
*planting veggies in pots-to take home
*coloring plant stakes and learning scripture
*a table with resources to know Jesus better
*gift cards from Payless Shoesource so each child could have a new pair of shoes
*a basketball shoot-out
*disposal cameras and instruction to use them
*food
*a dunk tank

Here are some things our Calvary Family had to say about the Family Day...

*I really enjoyed manning the table with resources to know Jesus better, and I got to have meaningful conversations with 5 people.
*I enjoyed being able to pass out about 40 Payless gift cards. I was touched by how grateful the families were when they received this gift.
*I really enjoyed serving and interacting with the people who came.

Family Day

2008-04-15T21:51:00.000-07:00

We love the fact that God has planted us in the Brannen Homes housing neighborhood. As Followers of Jesus, we want to serve the people living here. The Cogdill Rec. Center where we meet is a center for activity in this neighborhood. This past Sunday we hosted a Family Day for the neighborhood. So here is why we believe God led us to do this:

1. To Serve this Community Matthew 20:25-28
2. To Develop Relationships in the neighborhood hoping to See Future Needs we could meet Matthew 25:31-46
3. To Interact with People to see if God would open a Door to Share the Gospel Colossians 4:3-6

See next weeks Blog to read about our individual experiences with family day...

Smith Family Housewarming

2008-04-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we celebrated a housewarming with LaShay and her children. We are so excited that God has provided this home for our family...

Smith Family Move In...

2008-04-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

For several months now, we have been asking God to provide a home for the Smith family.They had been living with their Grandmother, 10 people in a small 3 bedroom apartment. We are excited to share with you that last week they were able to rent a nice little house a few blocks from NAU. Last Saturday folks from Calvary were able to help them move in and we are planning a housewarming celebration for tomorrow-Sat. April 12th!

A Trip To St. Louis

2008-04-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

Rachel Rollefstad a college student at Calvary traveled to St. Louis during NAU's springbreak. She and 4 other women involved in NAU's chapter of Intervarsity met up with 150 students from other chapters of Intervarsity to minister with New City Fellowship Church in downtown St. Louis. Part of her responsiblities during the week was to assist and elderly christian woman. Thru this she was able to share Christ's love with the womans care giver and lost family members. Rachel shared about her trip and experiences at Calvary on Sunday March 30. She was asked to take the entire service time to share about their ministry, how God had used this experience to impact her life and things we could pray for. Rachael shared that she was impacted by the fact that as believers, we have a huge God given responsibliy to the poor.

Below are some pictures from Rachel's trip...

Calvary's Blog

2008-03-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new Blog. We decided to set up this site so our friends and family can keep up with what God is doing in the life of Calvary. You can stop by whenever you like, or subscribe to the Posts(Atom) link at the bottom of the page and you will receive notice whenever we add new stuff...

Some Pictures From The Past Couple Of Years At Calvary

2008-03-29T09:38:00.000-07:00