23336 Highway 6 E
Batesville, MS 38606-6523
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Calvary Christian Center started in Batesville, MS in November 2010. Being new to the area we needed a way to get known in our town of Batesville. We knocked on doors of referrals we got from other ALJC churches in Mississippi, but how to get the word out in a broader way. In July we decided to have a yard sale to help with the finances. We advertized in the limited way that is provided in rural areas, the local paper which only comes out once a week, radio and signs. I believe the signs worked the best as most of the customers said they saw the sign and dropped in.
About the same time Gov. Rick Perry was talking about a day of prayer for a nation in crisis. Sister Wachtstetter got an email from American Family Association suggesting that local churches have their own day of prayer at the same time as the one in Texas. She called me as the Pastor and asked if we were interested in planning one on the town square in Batesville. We had talked about wanting to do something at the town square to get. As I was out of town I asked her to see what we had to do to get the town square on August 6.
She found out that in order to get the park you had to write a letter to the council and appear at the next council session. Sister Wachtstetter wrote the letter and went to the council meeting while we attended GMC11. When she was called to present her request she spoke before the Mayor, the council and an audience of about 50 people. So now we had let the community know we were in town and ready to do something. They approved August 6th and everything that we had asked for was given to us. We had asked to be able to have different churches come every half hour and sing or pray from 9 AM to 5 PM, and that we could have a barbeque, sell drinks and baked goods.
We than called every church in town and asked them to be involved, and called ALJC churches around Mississippi. We had twenty pastors from different churches around give a prayer in between the singing. Two Catholic churches, three Baptist, a PAW, an independent and many apostolic churches including our own MS Dist Superintendent Bro. Eugene Taylor responded and participated. We also invited government officials and the Mayor of the city stopped in to not only pray but present a proclamation for the Day of Prayer.
In the mean time we had the yard sale. We printed flyers for the Prayer in the Park and as customers came we handed the flyers out and asked if they had a church they attended. When they said yes we asked them to give the flyer to their pastor and ask him to get their church involved. If they said they did not attend a church we were able to invite them to visit our church. As the day progressed we had so many without churches to minister to and with the church right there we were able to take them inside and pray with them.
The yard sale was such a success on many different levels our people asked us to do it again so we have scheduled one again in Sept. as well as another Day of Prayer next year. We had a revival this last weekend and had two receive the Holy Ghost and several refilled. We are having another revival in October with Bro. James Chessor and will be getting the word out and expecting even more exciting things to happen here in Batesville at Calvary Christian Center.