Outreach Efforts
The Calvary family supported the following
global and community endeavors through
prayer or financial assistance, or volunteering
time and talent:
Blitz Build 2010: 50 volunteers contributed
their carpentry and landscaping services over
a two-day period to help complete homes for
two Habitat for Humanity families. Countless
other neighborhood families benefited from
the produce from the “Mother Garden” that
Calvary families helped plant.
Short-Term Missions
2011 will see the largest contingency of
short-term participants serving in multiple
locations throughout the world from Calvary in
recent history - more than 150 Calvary students,
young people, and adults participated in shortterm missions by obeying God’s call to go on
one (or more) of 12 trips this year.
We are seeing many of our own people take
the initiative to involve themselves in a trip that
interests them — from medical trips to working
in orphanages. Some went on construction
trips, others to help with camps, and others
to do relief and development work among the
poorest and oppressed in our world.
Calvary sent three teams to Mozambique.
We continue to seek to make disciples
among the people of our adopted village of
Chinhangane through spiritual development,
micro-enterprise, agriculture, and next
generation ministry.
We sent one adult trip and one student trip
to Poland working alongside Leszek Wakula.
We rejoice in what God did through our teams
and the lives changed.
We sent a work team to India this year
to work alongside our workers, Jonathon and
Hannah Victor. This team accomplished more
than expected, and laid the groundwork for
a future team to not just work, but set up a
medical clinic.
A team of our women ministered alongside
our worker Denise Carter in Odessa. The
doors that opened and the bridges built in
relationships will continue to help Denise in her
church planting efforts.
Our youth also ministered in Marvell,
Arkansas, Charleston, West Virginia, and right
here in Grand Rapids.
Finally, multiple trips were sent into
Central Asia to work alongside some of our
workers who are seeing the church established
and mature through business as mission.
We rejoice for the numbers that are now
involved in Short-Term Missions, but greater
joy comes from seeing lives changed. That
includes how God works in the lives of Calvary
people who will never be the same again after
experiencing what God can do through them in
missions. Plans are in the works for 2012, with
trips to each of the areas described above as well
as a family trip to Honduras.
The 2010/2011 ODV was twofold:
we focused on equipping Pastoral
Residents locally, as well as encouraging
four very special national Pastors. We
learned much from them and also learned
how we can better partner with them.
We have seen our former and
current Pastoral Residents, Nick
10 | Calvary Church Annual Report
School Supplies Project: last fall, hundreds
of students from Palmer Elementary School
received school supplies through generous
giving by Calvary congregants.
Neighbors International: 50 volunteers from
Calvary, including 25 friendship families,
ministered to and connected with college
students from Saudi Arabia, China, the
Netherlands, Mexico, Libya, Ghana, and India.
Thanksgiving Offering: $3,340 was collected
and sent to Servants Center Ministry in Grand
Rapids to encourage them in their street
outreach and ongoing support services to
the mentally ill, poor, and homeless people in
Grand Rapids.
Operation Christmas Child: over 500 boxes
were filled and distributed to children around
the world.
Christmas Baskets: approximately 55 baskets
were filled and distributed to needy families in
our congregation.
Missionary Christmas offering: $28,495 was
collected by the Calvary family and distributed
among each one of our supported missionaries
Missions Conference: dozens of Calvary people
connected with our missionaries through home
fellowships, lunches, adult congregations, and
other activities during the week.
Underwood, JT Richards, Aaron Bolduc,
Shane Cox, and JP Gaylord, serve us as
they continue to develop their ministry
skills.
Thomas Roy from the Bangla Church
in New York. Already some wonderful
connections have been made to further
our relationship with these men.
The four pastors we supported
include Andy Castillo from Honduras,
Sasha Kim from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,
Leszek Wakula from Lodz, Poland, and
We rejoice that because of the
generosity of the Calvary family in giving
over $215,000, we