School of Ministry Boca Del Rio
It was 1989, and Ed Cornwell from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa was hard at work planting churches down the coast of Mexico. One day, walking a long stretch of empty beach, he received a vision from God: God was going to build a place to raise up leaders who would go all around the world.
Obedient to the heavenly vision, he and Alberto Ellis invested in the construction of a giant building in the middle of the tiny fishing village of Boca del Rio. In 1997, through a series of unexpected events, John Kanno and Tom Quirk showed up in Boca del Rio to start a School of Ministry.
“Prepare a curriculum and get ready to start school,” God told Tom.
“There aren’t any students,” Tom observed.
“I didn’t ask you about that,” God replied. “I told you to prepare a curriculum.”
Four months later, Tom had the curriculum translated into Spanish and ready to go. “Here it is, God,” he said as he stacked the materials neatly on his bookshelf. “But there are still no students.”
Early one morning four weeks later, there came a knock at the door.
“Is this the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry?” the stranger inquired
“Kind of,” Tom fumbled. “Why?”
“We have 16 students we want to send down,” the stranger explained. “When do classes start?”
“When would you like them to start?” said Tom.
“How about October?” said the stranger.
“We could start in October,” said Tom.
At the time, there were no student quarters. Tom and John talked about putting the students up in tarpaper shacks so they could live alongside the people of Boca del Rio. They also talked about moving into tarpaper shacks themselves, so they could live alongside the students. Their wives weren’t too excited about that idea.
God gave Naomi Quirk a vision of Americans coming to build a student dormitory. The others were skeptical. They themselves were the only Americans they had ever seen in Boca del Rio. Tom went back to the United States to make some money. He didn’t think it would be too hard. He was a salesman.
But this time, he couldn’t sell a thing.
After a few frustrating weeks, Tom got a call. It was John at a pay phone in Guasave, the nearest town to Boca del Rio. “You want the student quarters done with red brick or cement brick?”
“Shut up and don’t bother me,” Tom said. “I can’t make any money.”
“Some Americans showed up in a Mercedes and said they wanted to build your drawing,” John said.
“Don’t play with me,” Tom said and hung up. It had been a bad week.
John called back. “Red brick or cement brick?” he said. “That’s all I need to know.”
“I told you not to play with me,” Tom said.
“You know what? Don’t worry about it. We’ll do cement.” John hung up.
Was John telling the truth? Tom couldn’t call him back. But that day, he started selling like normal. And by the time he arrived back in Boca del Rio, the student quarters were built.
In 1999, the School of Ministry graduated its first class. Since then, multiple generations of leaders have graduated and gone out from the school into the world. Some are still serving today as full-time pastors in Las Glorias, Las Culebras, Hermosillo, and different parts of the US.