In The Beginning:
Calvary Downtown Outreach began March 17th, 2001 after many years of patience, persistence, and prayer.

Growing up in the Calvary Chapel movement, as a new Christian, I always related with the compassion that Pastor Chuck Smith had for the hippies back in the “Jesus Movement”, in the late sixties and early seventies. There had always been a hand full of us that I knew of in Las Vegas who had a heart for the outcasts of our generation, The Homeless Population of America. So, most of us just did what we could, as we could, to reach as many people as possible as time and resources permitted.

After years of street witnessing and patiently waiting for someone else to start some kind of solid inner city ministry that we could be a part of, one day God made it clear that it was time for us to start a work ourselves. I (Mike Baumgart) and a good brother in the Lord, Timothy Heaney, stepped out in faith on March 17th, 2001 and decided to cook some hot dogs and have a Bible study in the parking lot of Tim’s carpet store on the corner of Main St. and Washington, in downtown Las Vegas.

It was a total blessing. We fed about 30 people the first night and had about 8-10 people stayed for a simple salvation message after we ate. These are the pictures from that day.

Little did we know what we were in for. The ride of a lifetime. The kind of stuff you read about in books on revival but only hope to be a part of in some small way in a life time.

As you enjoy this “Scrap Book” of the history of Calvary Downtown Outreach I hope you will feel the same way that many of us do about the work that God is doing both in our hearts and in the hearts of thousands who have visited and still attend our various events. Feelings of compassion for the poor and oppressed right in our midst, and a genuine passion for reaching lost people who God desperately loves and desires to draw to Himself through the work that He is doing in and through this ministry.