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Wesley LaneWesley was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. His father worked in a chemical plant and his mother was a housewife. He was saved at the age of eight years old at a children’s service that was part of a special revival meeting at the Kingston Park Baptist Church in the Essex neighborhood, a suburb of the city. Led by their father, the Lane Family became members of the Calvary Baptist Church in Dundalk in 1976. Under the leadership of Rev. Lewis Ferrel and then under Rev. Jack Caldwell, Wesley was active as a leader among the young people, in the bus ministry, the nursing home ministry and the rescue mission ministry. Before Calvary Baptist Church built its larger auditorium, they had a second church service on Sunday morning for a while. Wesley was preaching at the nursing homes, the rescue mission and the “B” church service on Sunday when he was fourteen. Having already committed his life to full time service, he made his first mission trip, led by Evangelist Larry Clayton, to Haiti in December 1977, only a week after turning fifteen. The following year Wesley returned to Haiti on another church-sponsored mission trip and shortly afterwards surrendered to go back to the island as a missionary. Wesley graduated from the Calvary Baptist Academy in Baltimore in 1979 and from there went to Baptist Bible College East, now located in Boston, Massachusetts. The College was originally located in New York, and for the first two years of college, Wesley served in the First Baptist Church in Dover, New Jersey, where Rev. Ted Wille was pastor. The second two years of college were in Boston and Wesley served in the Temple Baptist Church of West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where Rev. Ken Armstrong was pastor. Wesley paid his own way through school, often working two jobs while studying and attending church. Wesley graduated from Baptist Bible College East with a major in theology and missions in 1982 and returned to Baltimore. He worked in construction, building the Harvester Baptist Church in Columbia, Maryland, where Rev. Ed Simpson is pastor, until going on staff at his home church as a missionary intern. |