Tag: School

Freedom Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church in Yuma, Arizona. The pastor is Chad Matheny.

Cornerstone Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church in Decatur, Alabama. The pastor is Paul Stowe.

Calvary Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church in Hollister, California. The pastor is Brent Snow.

The Bible Baptist Church of Caloocan started as Maranatha Baptist Mission.  It was in 1973 when Bro. Arsenio Diaz who came to know Jesus Christ as Savior in the United States, returned to the country with a heavy burden to bring the gospel to his own family and relatives.  With the help of some able men from Baptist Bible Church (BBC) Sta. Mesa, a Bible study was started at his residence in P. Galauran, which gradually led his family to salvation.  When Leonardo (Bro. Arsenio’s son) and his wife got saved, they envisioned to have a church right in their place. A year thereafter, an evangelistic meeting was held and attended by neighbors and friends.  A certain pastor who was an alumnus of then Manila Baptist Bible College (MBBC), now Asia Baptist Bible College (ABBC) led the said meeting that yielded many souls to Christ.  This inspired and challenged the Diaz family to formally open their home for a regular service.  Their carport served as the venue to accommodate more people eventually.  Bro. Nicanor Ciron, also from BBC Sta. Mesa, became the regular Sunday speaker. Truly God’s hand is in control for when Bro. Ciron had to leave for his hometown in Bicol for personal reasons, Pastor Gil Aranda, a fresh graduate then from MBBC, was earnestly praying for a mission work.  In answer to his prayer, he was sent to shepherd Maranatha Mission through BBC Sta. Mesa with Pastor Lyons’ endorsement in 1975.  So the first church service was held in March of that year. Incessant prayer was answered after almost five years of gathering in a lowly carport. God provided a new building in P. Zamora.  God must have led Pastor Joe Vella (a foreign church planter and missionary) to P. Galauran for while passing by, he noticed the signage of Maranatha Baptist Bible Mission and talked to Pastor Aranda and offered him his plan.  From this, arrangement and transfer of ownership was made possible with Pastor Lyons’ intercession and vouch for Pastor Aranda’s character.  Along with the lot and building, Pastor Vella entrusted his members to Pastor Aranda while the former and his wife went back to the United States. Hence in 1978 members from Maranatha marched all the way from P. Galauran and transferred to P. Zamora.  It was also the time that Pastor Vella’s pioneering members joined them on that Sunday morning service. In 1981 St. John Academy, a conventional preschool was founded by Pastor Aranda and his wife Ma’am Tess in their pursuit of spiritual and academic excellence for their two school-aged sons.  Through this, children of church members and even some outsiders gained access to quality Christian education for free.  Later, St. John Academy gave birth to Hope Christian Academy that catered not only preschool but also high school education.  It has since subscribed to then Accelerated Christian Education, now popularly known as School of Tomorrow Curriculum.  Until in 1989, Hope Christian Academy with its common name already used by other school entity was changed to Anchor of Life Academy as its new registered name.  With increasing enrollees, construction of Faith and Grace Buildings took place in 1988 and 1990 as learning centers, respectively. When Pastor Aranda with his family had to permanently leave for America in 1995, he entrusted the church to Pastor Jerry Samson who was then pastoring a mission work in Sapang Palay, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan. It was in the late 90’s when the church auditorium back extension was constructed for the church to realize its vision of expanding the ministries and reaching more people with the gospel.  It followed with another widening in 2003.  This time, the auditorium sides were extended to its land boundaries.  Conversion of the Faith Building to a fully concrete two-storey building was completed in 2003 which houses the Nursery and ALA students at present.  New site for future Anchor of Life Academy’s five-storey building was acquired after almost four consecutive years of payment.  While this project had to be temporarily postponed, a multi-purpose gym was completed and was first utilized during the academy’s sports fest in October of 2005.  Adjacent to the rear side of church auditorium is an ongoing four-storey building construction that was started to offer spacious and better facilities for students.  Foundation was already laid in 2012 and steelworks was completed halfway of 2013.  Through continuous fund raising, second floor followed to provide wider room for senior high school students. To date, as the church has grown in quantity, so with its quality of service to God and men by God’s grace.  This is the result of incessant indoctrination, soul winning, and various related programs and activities in which the members have been encouraged to be involved- paving the way to their maturity in Christian life, faith, and service. TBBC came across many inevitable problems in time past though; the divine intervention has always prevailed.  It is because the Church is true to its business of fulfilling the Great Commission and will continue to help change and build lives through its various ministries.  It is determined to accomplish much greater works in honor of Jesus’ name until His second coming.