Verbo Christian Ministries was born in Guatemala City on February 1976. Short after a devastating earthquake destroyed the Central American nation, a group of American Missionaries were led by the Holy Spirit to assist rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and to preach the gospel. Little could they have imagined the extent to which their hard labours would give fruit across the continent and for many years to come. Through God’s grace Verbo grew rapidly in the Republic of Guatemala. Discipleship was one of the tools through which God led Verbo to expand His Kingdom throughout Central America, Brazil, and Ecuador, initially. Soon thereafter, Verbo expanded to the northern hemisphere, sending missions to The United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe respectively.
On March of 1991, the Baldizon family was sent from Verbo Guatemala to Canada to establish the Ministry in Toronto, Canada. Several years prior (1983) to their arrival in Toronto, the Baldizon’s had lived in Lloydminster, Alberta where the Lord had begun stirring up their love and desire to spread the Kingdom of God in Canada. During the same period they resided in Lloydminster, the Baldizon’s received the baptism in the Holy Spirit as well as a very specific prophetic word that would confirm their calling. God had called the Baldizon’s to preach His Gospel not only to the Hispanic people, but all other ethnic groups that would, a decade later, make up the Canadian multicultural mosaic.
In 1983, the Baldizon family returned to Guatemala looking for a church where they could get equipped and trained only to return to Canada to preach the gospel. In a supernatural way, God led them to Verbo Christian Ministries in Guatemala City in 1984. There, they would prepare in the Word and the Spirit until God would open doors to return to Canada. In 1991 the prophetic word the family had received in Lloydminster, Alberta was fulfilled.
In 1990, a young group of families living in Toronto contacted Verbo Christian Ministries in Guatemala City requesting for a missionary team to plant the first Verbo Church in Canada. On March 8th of 1991, the first official Verbo Christian Ministries of Canada meeting took place in a home basement.
Through many prayers and God’s promises the Baldizon’s family came about, in God’s time, to see the birth of Verbo Christian Ministries of Canada. The Toronto home church grew at an increasingly fast rate, forcing the group to leave the home basement in four months time. The need to find an adequate and affordable building became imminent. During its early beginnings, the church struggled to find a place of worship for a few months. Thus leading the new church to gather in a public park on the Lakeshore of lake Ontario as a result. Through God’s grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit the congregation found a hall called ‘The Slovenia Home’, located on Pape Avenue on the east side of Toronto. The first Verbo Church in Canada would gather at this place for one year.
Once again, God’s grace would be revealed to Verbo in Canada, bringing people and families to be healed, delivered, and restored. After gathering for a year at the ‘Slovenia Home’, the Lord provided a more adequate and comfortable place to worship His glorious name in the City of Mississauga in a small church called Bethel, located on Dundas Street East.
The church kept growing rapidly. Motivated to find a better and bigger place the church moved to rent a new space at ‘The Resurrection Life Centre’, located on Lakeshore Blvd. and Dixie, near Promenade Park in Mississauga, Ontario.
A couple of years after that, the church saw the need to find yet a bigger place, only now with the vision to start the Verbo Christian School; a school where God’s word could be taught to many children. At the time, the old Canada Christian College building was vacant and for sale. Verbo Church, stirred by their desire to disciple young lives, boldly approached the building owners asking if they would rent them part of the building for the school and church while the property was listed for sale. The owners accepted the church’s offer and Verbo’s vision for a School became a reality in Toronto, Canada.
A few years later, the owners of the old Canada Christian College building sold the property to a new home construction project, forcing the church to move out once again. This time, with God’s grace, the Prayer Palace opened their doors and rented Verbo their church basement for Sunday Services and allowed the Verbo School to operate within their own school facilities. The Verbo Christian School was eventually absorbed by The Prayer Palace School.
From there on, Verbo Christian Ministries of Canada would send missionary teams to plant churches in Mississauga, Montreal, and Vancouver. The vision would continue to be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of Canada.
After many years of working ministry withing the Canadian Hispanic Community, Verbo Christian Ministries of Canada gave birth to a new vision that would truly engulf preaching to all of Canada: a multicultural all-English speaking church. The focus and mission of this new English speaking church would be to reach all the different different nations of the world represented in Canada’s multicultural mosaic. Reinhard and Christian Baldizon, who were only young adolescents when their parents were sent as missionaries from Guatemala, were sent with the task. In winter of 2007 the transition to move from a predominantly Hispanic church to a multicultural church would begin. Finally, on November 2009 the first multicultural, all-English speaking Verbo Church opened its doors. Since, the new Verbo Church enjoys fellowship with people of many nations, all united by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Today, the story continues to be written. Verbo Christian Ministries of Canada has five churches throughout the nation and continues to envision a Canada where every flesh in every province and territory will praise the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks to the Grace of the God and guidance of the Holy Spirit, all churches continue to serve strong and preach the Gospel with burning hearts and dedication.