Calvary Chapel Victorville Victorville CA

Gary Malkus Jr  

Pastor  

 

 

760-241-0778  

 

Click here to contact Gary Malkus Jr  

I grew up in the High Desert and have been around ministry since I was a young child. My father raised us to know God's Word, as he was a pastor at Calvary Chapel of Phelan. Early on, as I grew in age, I came to question the God of my father. For some reason Jesus became no more than just a story told in Sunday school. So, needless to say, when I was old enough to make my own choices, I chose the wide, more popular path that leads to destruction. I was allured by the trappings of this world, and the thrill of sin. I first started drinking to overcome my shyness until it was not long before alcohol became my motivation for waking up in the morning. I became a drunkard and shameless drug user.

When my bondage to alcohol and many other vices destroyed my first marriage, I was at an all-time low. You can say rock bottom. At that time, I met a new girl, who had as much anger and hate in her heart as I did. We both had hurts that alcohol and marijuana could not fix. Instead of turning to the God of my father, whom I knew was relentlessly pursuing me; we instead tried to fill the void with harder drugs and continued to walk the path of self-destruction. I came to a crossroad and I knew we needed to change.

We thought moving out of the High Desert would allow us to escape, so we moved to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Needless to say, we established our lives in a new town, but we quickly found the problem followed us there. We were monsters through and through, and we naturally were drawn to wicked men, and joined the party in our new city. I started working with a drug dealer, and things got worse and much darker for us.

Now, my father and mother had a relentless prayer campaign going on daily for us. And here in this darkness, God began to shine His marvelous light. My girlfriend saw a movie, the Passion of Christ, and in that theater without an evangelist preaching, she saw that Man on the cross, and wept, because the Spirit of the Living God revealed to her that Man, who was a Stranger to her, died for her. She fled the Theater in tears, but did not understand it at all. The young lady who lived with me grew sick of our lifestyle, and that Man on the Cross never left her thoughts, and she wanted to change her life.

So, Easter Sunday, 2004, she went to church, and dragged me along with her. That day, she heard Pastor Ray preach the Gospel and my girlfriend met Jesus for the first time in her life. She told me things were going to be different; I just laughed and told her she would forget about it in a day or so.

Sure enough, she did change and God took her chains of addiction, and He freed her from the bondage she was in, and she resisted and escaped temptation at every turn. I watched the God of my father transform an 87 pound tweaker girl into beautiful woman before my eyes. As she grew closer to Jesus, she realized we were living in sin and convinced me to marry her so she could live right in her Savior’s eyes.

Shortly thereafter, I surrendered my life to Jesus, and He grabbed a hold of our hearts. We got involved with the church quickly as we knew we needed accountability. The pastor and church in Havasu loved us like their own family. We were discipled and immediately started serving the Lord. We served in the Children's Ministry where my wife learned the Old Testament with the 3-5 year-olds we were teaching. We served as ushers, and to this day, my wife has been the best usher I have ever seen in action. We then got involved in youth ministry, and anywhere Pastor Ray asked us to go we learned to say yes. He took us on mission’s trips and outreaches all over the world, and unbeknownst to us, was preparing us for fulltime ministry.

In 2009, Pastor Ray sent us out into fulltime ministry to serve with my father as his youth pastor, here in the High Desert again. While in Apple Valley, we served with excitement as we watched God do amazing and impossible things in the youth.

While being content to serve in Apple Valley for the rest of my life, in 2015, God had other plans, and opened a door for us at a little church down the street, in Old Town Victorville for us to serve the people here. We said yes, and I am serving as the Senior Pastor here currently.

Here at Calvary Chapel Victorville the Lord has put a burden on our hearts for the lost. Our heart’s desire is that the lost would hear about the unending love of God for them. My wife and I have experienced the life-changing forgiveness and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and we want to share it with whoever will give us an ear.

I am excited to be able to work with the community here in Victorville. I look forward in great anticipation of the awesome work God has for my wife and I as His instruments of hope and salvation to our new community and beyond.

Lastly, after hearing for many years that we would never be able to have children of our own, God has done the impossible and blessed us with three wonderful daughters, Sofia, Lola, Daisy, and three sons, Freedom, Cruz, and Uriah.

So here is where my education and training is supposed to be listed. I never went to Bible College or Seminary. I studied horticulture for a couple years in college before I found my calling in construction. I loved to build. So God took me through a different school when I surrendered my life to Him. He in His great wisdom used the sun as it beat on back for 5 years framing houses in Lake Havasu City. It was on the jobsite, that I begin to listen to Chuck Smith, J. Vernon McGee, Charles Stanly, Damien Kyle, David Guzik, Chuck Swindoll, Jim Cymbala, and many other Bible Teachers whom God used to wash my mind and teach me His Ways. I began immediately reading any book I could get my hands on. I call this time of my life my “great humbling.” God taught me to hear His voice.

He had me share His Gospel with the lowest, most filthy men that walk this earth, and I witness that Gospel change many lives there on the jobsite. I learned leadership, problem solving and developed a work ethic framing those miserable houses in that unforgiving desert. God dealt with my pride in those years, and looking back, I see my schooling was much like Moses in the deserts of Midian. At the time, I begged God to take me off the jobsite, to get better equipped for the ministry that I knew I was called too. But now looking back, I would not change a thing, I thank God for the lessons through adversity He taught me. My schooling continues today, and I don’t expect it to end anytime soon.  

 

Charlotte Steenbergen  

Office Assistant  

 

760-241-0778  

 

Click here to contact Charlotte Steenbergen  

15081 Center St
Victorville CA
92395  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KPTG Remnant Radio

Tune in to 107.1 FM Radio to hear Christian music and teachings from various pastors. You can hear Pastor Gary Jr’s teachings every day at 4:30am, 12:00pm, and 8:30pm.