ť From the desk of Pastor Rex Deckard

Pastor & Sis. Deckard

HMTS
I have been very involved this year in developing an online distance learning program for Christian leaders called HMTS. I have worked with a wonderful team in the Home Missions Division. This is available at no cost to ministers and Christian leaders by registering at http://homemissionsdivision.com/hmts/ . We have seen a huge response to this initiative. It has been funded by your CFC offering dollars.

SFC Yard Sale
It was a lot of hot, wet hard work, but we raised $629.96 for Sheaves For Christ at our yard sale. Thanks to all who helped!

Youth on Missions
Emilie Deckard will be travelling to the nation of India this Summer as part of a Youth ministry team. We are excited once again to have a young person in the Youth on Missions program. She will be raising funds to offset the costs of the trip.

Financial Peace University
Calvary has hosted the Financial Peace University on Wednesday nights from February through April. We have also conducted a prophecy series, simultaneously on those evenings.
Begininng in May, we will repeat the Financial Peace University class on Monday evenings in the fellowship hall. Anyone that missed sessions during the first series is welcome to attend, as well as new participants. Bro. Josh Fitkin will be the host of the sessions.

Easter Revival
We celebrated the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ with revival, April 2-4. Bro. Steven Worley of Savannah, Georgia was our guest evangelist.

International Dinner
In recognition of Missions Month, we had an International Dinner on Sunday, March 28 after morning service. There was a variety of foods from around the world, and competition to see who cooked the 'best dish.' Bro. May won first place! Missionary Edy Kennedy of New Caledonia was our guest missionary.

Webmasters Workshop
There was a workshop for Apostolic churches desiring to have an internet website on Tuesday, April 6 with about 20 in attendance from 9 different churches. This was an interactive and hands-on.

Combined Service Schedule
From January 17 to April 28 we tried a different Sunday service schedule. Instead of having our evangelistic and worship service at 6:00pm, we moved it to 11:00am, following the morning Sunday School. This afforded all of the children that come on Sunday morning an opportunity to be in a full fledged Pentecostal worship environment with the same great preaching, praying, singing shoutin! On May 2, the evening service will resume on Sunday evening.

Sunday School Open House
What a terrific Christmas play and Sunday School Open House this year! The rooms were decorated in fabulous Winter motifs, and the program and food was excellent. The first time I ever saw dancing camels! Go to the photo gallery for additional photos.

Senior Christmas Party
There was a wonderful spirit as we joined the seniors for their annual Christmas party at the Country Kitchen.

Heartland Harvest Conference
Gary Legg was with us for the annual Heartland Harvest Conference, and preached some of the most incredible messages every heard. We had over 900 during the three nights of the conference, and there was a great move of the presence of God!

EMPACT Iowa Workshop at Calvary
Calvary was host to a powerful 2 day workshop for Christian training in January 2009. Over 36 breakout sessions were conducted for preachers, teachers, youth workers, sound ministers, outreach workers, ladies and a host of others. There were also panel discussions in the general sessions on revival, growth, and conducting effective worship services.

Autumn of 2008
8 September has truly been a month of revival. Every Sunday in September someone has either been baptized or filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost! Services have been annointed and powerful, a direct result of the urgent and fervent prayer meetings that had been taking place for a number of weeks.

On a humorous note, somebody forgot to turn the water off in the baptismal, and it filled up almost to the top. When I stepped into the water with my rubber waders on, I realized that they were shorter than the water level, and they quickly began filling with water! Since I was already wet, anyway, I went ahead with 'business as usual' and we had a great baptismal service!

We rejoiced together in the dedication of the baby girl of Julie and Christian Cuarez. We also grieved together in the loss of Sis. Lena Riche, who was 101 years old.

As we finish the first quarter of 2008, it is amazing to reflect upon all that God has done! In March we enjoyed a tremendous month of Missions with special guest Home and Foreign Missionaries, and a great international dinner. In April, our District Superintendent Daniel Flemming cconducted an informative and challenging seminar on teaching Home Bible Studies.

We were honored to host the District Sunday School division's teacher training seminar in April.

The District Youth recently came to Calvary for "UPLINK" state rally and prayer at the Iowa State Capitol.

In our 'ongoing' building program, we have began the process of remodelling the Sunday School restrooms. The Lord blessed us in our building fund drive to pay off our building loan and we received pledges to make the payments for 14th months!

I was recently blessed, personally, to speak at the Ontario District Home Mission Sunday School seminar in Oshawa. What a wonderful group of pastors and churches. In May I will be presenting at Destination '08 in St. Louis, and I am excited as I anticipate what God is going to do for us there.

2008 starts a brand new year! One of the initiatives that Calvary is undertaking in the year of 2008 is the Shepherd Ministry, also know as the Pastoral Care Team. We have came to realize that no one pastor can care for the needs of all members, friends of the church, new converts, and visitors, and do it in a way that is affective. Because of this, we are introducing a pastoral team who are working together. It is our goal that one day, no one will 'fall through the cracks' when they are in need of pastoral care.

What a wonderful and busy holiday season we have just completed! In November we were part of the Iowa District Youth Convention. Calvary also hosted a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner for the community, and then celebrated the Christmas season with a songfest, a candlelit service and a grand Sunday School Program and Open House. On Sunday, December 30 is footwashing and communion service.

We rejoiced to see our Youth have such a great time at the National Youth Congress in Charlotte, North Carolina, and return home safely!

With great relief, we can celebrate the completion of our new parking lot! We are also excited about the new fountain outside of our entrance.

We celebrated Independance Day with a great God Bless America service. The sign choir did awesome, and we had 'visits' from some major American heroes through there speeches.

Steve Grohman (creationseminar.net) was with us July 8-11 for a Creation seminar. Bro. Grohman brought almost 500 fossils with him for the occasion. We had a tremendous time, and discovered truths that many of us had never understoof before.

We had a great time with the Sunday or Memorial Day weekend with our cookout and volleyball/horseshoe tournament! See youth site for pictures.

We rejoiced when we used our new entry way on Easter Sunday. We are excited as we see the final touches of paint, parking lot and final touches being completed.

March was Missions Month at Calvary! Throughout the month, there was promotional and informational activities regarding Home and Foreign Missions. On March 25, we hosted an International Dinner at 5:30pm followed by a presentation by Missionary Randy Adams of Africa. Later that week we had a forum on planting churches and Home Missionary works with Bro. Michael Heasley, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Davison and Bill McCurn.

During the month of January, every Wednesday night featured a teacher training session, utilizing the materials of Apostolic Training Institute, along with other handouts and presentations. We are conducting this for all Sunday School staff, youth staff, and teachers of adults in various venues, such as Home Bible Study, Prison Ministry, Small Group and Nursing Home Ministry.

Early last year, our local Church leaders discussed this need for equipping, and decided that we would kick-off the new year of 2007 with a different type of training venture. On January 26-27, Calvary hosted a "TOOL Workshop." In pioneer days , Wintertime was a season to sharpen the ax, repair the wagon and build new tools. In this workshop, a number of trainers from Iowa and surrounding areas committed themselves to working in small group breakout sessions in a plethora of areas of ministry.

Special guests included (among others) Jimmy Toney of Omaha, Errin Bryant of St. Louis, Delwin Schumann, Sue Tyrell, Adam McCoy,and ministry leaders from Calvary.

The holiday season ended with a wonderful Sunday School program and Open House, a terrific youth Christmas drama, and our New Year's Eve Watchnight service which included footwashing and communion (pictures available on the website photo gallery of these events).

Thanks to all who made our annual Thanksgiving a special evening. The food was tremendous, and the fellowship was great, as well!

In the 2006 Teacher Awards, Sis. Naomi Streyfeller won "Teacher of the Year", and Bro. Bruce Ruggles won "Rookie of the Year." Thanks to Sis. Deckard for moving the Sunday School program foward with our Super Sundays and other great events!

What an awesome time on October 29, as we celebrated Oktoberfest! One child hugged me around the legs and said, 'this was the best day of my life!' It was a time of great fun and fellowship. Thanks to Sis. Deckard and the teachers for all of the hard work. Here are some pictures:

Sunday School picnic

We had great fun at the Annual Sunday School picnic last week!

Building Project

The building addition plans have been approved, and the congregation has voted to move forward with the project! Our district superintendent, Bro. Carl Lagow was with us on October 8 at 5:00pm for a groundbreaking ceremony.

Elview Construction has been selected as the builder, and Todd Hotchkiss of Bluefish Design as the architect. The building will host handicap accessible bathrooms, newly renovated offices, a vestibule, elevator lift, additional classroom space, and a fire sprinkler system. In addition, a new sign has been built by Bro. Steve Doland and Pastor Deckard using original limestone stored from the building program of 30 years ago.

5 State Youth Congress

We were fortunate to be able to chaperone our youth to the 5 state youth congress in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The behavior of the youth was exemplary, as they were the first ones in the altar in every service. We had six services in 3 days, and the preaching of Scott Graham and Jeff Frase was phenomenal. It was old fashioned preaching, delivered with annointing, power, and outstanding communication skills that connected with the youth.

The cd's of these services are available to be checked out from the library.

We are looking forward to the Rally at Calvary on Friday, August 25th at 7:30pm!

Iowa District Camp Report

The move of the Spirit at the Iowa District Camp, this year, was phenominal! The ministries of Bro. John Grant and Terry Black were outstanding. The message by Bro. Black on Friday night- "The Family Business" was a masterpiece. We will upload it to our audio portion of this website later in the week for you to listen online or on your Ipod or MP3 player. Everyone MUST hear this message, and the prophetic words that accompanied it.

Our fine Superintendent, Bro. Carl Lagow preached on being "Pulled to the Future" on Thursday night. What an awesome and annointed message! It was hard to sit down!

Great appreciation is in order for Bro. Milton Vining as camp coordinator for a well run week.

Scouts Have Flag Ceremony at the Iowa District Camp

On Monday night, Iowa District Camp, our Scout Troop performed an opening flag ceremony and did a great job!

Calvary Featured in the Forward Magazine

We were honored to have CAC featured in the Forward magazine, a periodical for Pentecostal preachers and leaders that is published worldwide.

Camper of the Year

We are proud to announce that Rahimma Mayfield was the Conqueror Camp, Camper of the Year this year!

Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School has been an awesome experience, as we explored Treasure Island with Sailors Sadie and Sam, and Captain Salty!

Jim Fisher

We regret the passing away of one of our precious saints, Bro. Jim Fisher. When I read Jim's obituary I was amazed at all of they many accomplishments that he had in his life. A state track record holder, college track coach, and Jim also held a Masters degree in Education. He was a great person, and he loved the Truth. We will miss him greatly.

Perry daughter work

We are in the new building at Perry Plaza, and it has already been filled on more than one occasion! Bro. McCurn and Bro. Davison went to the national Home Missions Training Seminar in St. Louis for intensive training.

The new signs for the building have been installed. Recently,
Bro. Bruce Johnson preached in Perry and one received the Holy Ghost!

Other recent speakers were Bro. Adam Solario. missionary James Crumpacker from Africa, and Bro. Gregory from Alaska. The work in Perry continues to progress.

Spanish ministry

Bro. Christian and Julie Cuarez attended a week of intensive training at the Spanish Training Insitute held at Gateway College of Ministry.

Recently we enjoyed the ministry of Bro. Daniel Yanqui. We are excited about the move of God among our Spanish speakers and their families. .

The Spanish Home fellowship group is a vibrant, growing group, as well.

Easton Farmer's Market

The Farmer's Market met on Tuesdays from 4-8:00pm. We brought it to a close the second week of August due to the other special activities on the schedule. Thanks to all, and especially to Christy Doland, for the support of the market! Also we appreciate Marian Wynn of the ACCENT neighborhood association for her work in the community garden.