As the Jesus Revolution expanded into Eastern Europe and beyond in the 1980s-1990s, Calvary Chapel pastors heard the call to “Go.” This story from our continuing series honoring CC founder Chuck Smith is reprinted from Issue 98 (Winter 2024) of the print magazine.

God Sends the Teaching of His Word Oversees

Birthed in California, Calvary Chapel was still a relatively new movement when the Lord expanded it overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. As the Lord opened doors, missionaries found that people of all cultures were hungry to hear the pure teaching of the Word and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Some encountered former Nazis, demon-possessed teens, and pastors who needed to learn how to teach the Bible.

Each journey of faith was different. Though each missionary had a clear personal calling from God, they learned to follow Him step by step, not making their own plans. As they let the Holy Spirit lead, God opened amazing doors for the Gospel.

“It was like the Jesus Revolution all over again,” remembered Pastor Greg Opean, an eyewitness to that initial move of the Spirit in Southern California in the 1970s. Greg went on to become a pioneer church planter in Eastern Europe for almost two decades. He reported seeing the same radical transformations among young people eager to hear the truth. Only this time, they weren’t former drug users and hippies, but teens brought up in the grip of communism clamoring to hear the Gospel for the first time.

Some of the first international Calvary Chapels were planted in Mexico, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe during the 1980s and 1990s.

Bringing Light into Mexico

A slender young surfer who had quit his MBA program to serve Jesus boarded a dusty train in Mexicali, Mexico, with about a dozen other students from the School of Ministry at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego, CA. The five-week mission trip cemented his call to Mexico. He would eventually change his citizenship and his name—to Juan Domingo. Because they had arrived late, Juan’s group was forced to take the third-class train, so primitive it had holes in the floor for toilets. As the group rolled along in the hot train, they began to sing songs of praise to Jesus. Other passengers, baffled and intrigued by the zealous gringos in the last car, came to see. As the students shared the love and message of Jesus, many people opened their hearts to Christ.

When the train conductor came to the car to check their tickets, he heard the Gospel and joyously prayed to accept Jesus as his Savior. He was so excited that, at each stop, he directed new passengers to the students’ car for the revival. As the train slowly rolled toward Mexico City over three days, more than 200 people prayed to receive Christ.

One 14-year-old street boy named Alfredo—with tattered clothes, dirty face, and a miserable demeanor—told Juan that he was “living in darkness” and could not escape. As Juan and his friend Rusty Birkeland talked with the boy, they realized Alfredo was demon possessed. They had been taught that if someone was possessed to pray until all the demons left. “We prayed all night, about six hours,” Juan recalled. “Around 4:30 in the morning, the last demon came out.”

Alfredo looked at them and said, “Oh my! I feel like light is surrounding me. I feel so happy, like something really important has happened to me. What is going on?” They told him that Jesus had set him free from all the demons; then they shared the Gospel. Alfredo gladly prayed to receive Christ as his Savior. As they neared Mexico City, Alfredo urged the men to “wait at the gates of heaven” so they could meet Jesus together. Juan shared, “I can’t wait to see Alfredo again when I enter those glorious, heavenly gates.”

In Mexico City, many evangelicals had endured persecution, so local believers enjoyed the fellowship with the newly arrived missionaries. Traditional churches gave services in Latin for years and often discouraged people from reading the Bible. People’s hearts were soft, open to the Gospel and the Word. Juan recounted, “I just fell in love with the people; they were so hungry for God—much different than San Diego.” He knew that the Lord was calling him to serve Mexico for the rest of his life.

Juan went back to California and completed the School of Ministry program, learning to study the Bible verse by verse—something he longed to share in Mexico. Packing his VW van with food and water, he drove back to Mexico in September 1979. Using his limited Spanish, he shared John 3:16 with anyone who would listen.

“I went out like Abraham, not knowing where I was going. I wanted to teach Mexican pastors how to teach through the Word, but then it became clear [after two years] that I was to start a Calvary Chapel in Mexico.” God used the Word, circumstances, and the peace of the Holy Spirit to guide Juan step by step. Once after a bad earthquake, Juan painted a red cross on his white van—enabling him to get into the disaster zones, help rescue people, guide Army trucks to victims, minister to the wounded, and share Christ.

After serving at local churches and Billy Graham outreaches, Juan rented a warehouse in Mexico City and started teaching Bible studies in 1982. The man who had led him to Christ, Pastor Mike MacIntosh, came with Pastors Raul Ries and Ricky Ryan to teach a conference; they also brought an outreach team. College students and doctors from a nearby university came to the Lord. The church’s first Sunday gathering was in February 1983. “People responded because they were being fed the Word of God—not just hearing a motivational message. They started reading the Bible for themselves and sharing with others,” Juan reported. He sought to teach as Pastor Chuck Smith had taught: simply, verse by verse, bringing personal application. Through the years, Pastor Mike returned to speak at nearly 16 Festivals of Life in Mexico; thousands came to Christ.

Chronic illness forced Juan to move several times. In each place, God did a new work. Juan turned the Calvary Chapel in Mexico City over to a godly local man. A few years later, the same thing happened again in Queretero—a fellowship of nearly 1,000 people today which has planted about eight more churches. Finally, Juan came to Ensenada in 1997 where he started not only a church but eventually a Calvary Chapel Bible College (CCBC).

A new door opened for Pastor Juan to pioneer Bible teaching on secular TV stations. “God is doing a work in Mexico! Missionaries are being raised up and sent out,” Juan rejoiced. Looking back, he noted, “It’s funny; if I hadn’t been so sick, I wouldn’t have moved so many times. I wanted to stay in Mexico City and send people out to plant churches. But God’s plan was to have me move from city to city for almost 44 years.”

In our next installment, we'll report on how a Calvary Chapel pastor assisted pastors in the Inductive Bible Study method in the Philippines and Russia who were hungry for the Word of God.