Here is a brief explaination and dates of the immages of the first year of Victor Beattie and Calvary Baptist Church and the connection to Billy Graham. This information has been obtained from the Battle Creek Newspaper microfilms stored at the Willard Library in Battle Creek MI.
The time frame is from March 20, 1943 to June 3 1944.
According to information from Victor Beattie Jr - Mary Louise Beattie and Victor Beattie graduated from Wheaton College in 1942 and were invited to lead youth and music possibly during the summer of 1942 at a Church in Battle Creek MI the home town of Mary Louise Beattie.
During that time Victor Beattie started(? continued) a radio ministry.
The first image occured in 1943 - 3/20, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17 advertized the Word of Life radio ministry before the first meeting of Calavry Baptist Church. The 3/20 was the first occurance I found (I did not find one on 3/13).
The second image was on 4/23 advertising the first meeting at the Sanitarium Auditorium. Easter was 4/25 that year. Mary Louise Beattie indicated at the meeting there were about 70 people and when asked if they wanted to start a church they agreed. The radio ministry was supported by some business men and encouraged Victor to start a new chruch. Note: that the original Word of Life was broadcast on all days except Sunday yet by this time has it is every day.
The next image was on 5/1 which was the second service held at the Sanitarium Autorium.
Some point between the starting on 4/25/1943 and the "one year Anniversary" celebration sermon topics, special music started to appear in the saturday church activities. Family involvment including "Mrs Robert Lindner" (Mary Louises sister) gave flannel story for sunday school on Palm Sunday April 2th 1944 and John Hayward (Mary Louise brother) showing slides on Easter Sunday evening April 9th to the youth and one of the leaders a disucssion on April 15th.
The "one year Anniversary" was celebrated by:
The first article is dated May 7th 1943 describes the events to come including 3 day series with Billy Graham. It gives the topics of:
The next image (my favorite) is in the May 9th 1943 paper. It shows picturesof both Victor Beattie and Billy Graham. Notice who gets top billing. This advertises the 3 day series. Unfortunatly the quality of the microfilm image of Billy Graham is poor.
The next image on May 10th has only Billy Graham with the topic "A Stream of Blood"
The next two images was three columns wide appeared on May 11th and could not be captured with the micro film copy so the top part is on one image and the bottom on the other image.
The second text dated May 11th describes the fellowship banquet. It had places for 150 (compared to the first meeting of 70). Also included is a mention of Mrs. Earl Hayward (the mother of Mary Louise) as the president of the Missionary Ladies Fellowship.
The next image is of the Calvary Baptist Church was in the May 12th Advertizing the anaverery service. I included part of the Mennonite Bretheren in Christ advertisement since I was raised in a Mennonite Brethern church and was unaware of any Mennonite Brethern church in Battle Creek. Notice the photo of Victor Beattie is not included.
The third text is typical of entries which occured in the Saturday edition Churchs section. This one is May 12th describing the May 13th meetings.
The last image is June 3th 1944.
