faith fellowship lucena celebrates its 3rd anniversary

In May 2006 the team of church planters settled in Lucena City to plant a church. They gathered their first contacts to start a worship celebration on September 21 of the same year. This month they celebrated their 3rd anniversary and SC Minda, the team leader praised God for His faithfulness and goodness to the people who obeyed and followed Him.

SC Minda had three teammates since then. Abby Galzote was her first teammate who also did not fail to visit the church since she left to study. The second was Alejo Cuyno who only stayed there for several months and finally Chat Relucio who is still there serving with SC Minda in Lucena City.


The anniversary celebration was highlighted by the different presentations of each house church in different barangays. Pastor Mar gave an inspirational and challenging message to the people and many came forward during the altar call.



Today, they are ministering to five different barangays with the help of two lay leaders who assist the church planters with the house churches. Through the years the workers of Lucena give glory to the Lord for the changed lives they have witnessed and the families who came to the Lord.

For more pictures of the anniversary celebration please see the slide show.

FBC students field visitation

On September 4, 2009, ten students of Church Planting Principles in Faith Bible College went to two church planting locations in Region 4 to experience what it is like to be in a church planting field. Two other FBC staffs joined them—Debbie and Loren. The students were divided into two teams. The first team joined the Tagaytay team with Pastor Teddy and Enric Lepardo while the other half joined the Cavite team with Pastors Bong and Gerry Bulilan.

Both teams gathered to spend time in prayer and devotion and for the church planters to give brief orientation of what they do in the field, their vision and mission and some of their experiences. They also showed the students and taught them some of the things they do in small groups and also in evangelism. Then they were ready to go.

The students, equipped with their skills and knowledge in evangelism and theirs heart full passion and excitement an d courage, went out to evangelize together with the church planters. The church planters demonstrated first what they do then let the students did the same. The students reported in class all their first time in evangelism, especially, going from house to house because some of them did that for the first time. But there were also those who were already doing that in their respective ministry assignments.

That was indeed a day full of adventures, learning and fun. The students were not only blessed but were also a blessing to the people they shared the gospel, the people they visited and to the church planters who accommodated them.

Tuy House Church joined Tagaytay Faith Fellowship

It was a day of worship, fellowship, learning and celebration for the churches in Tuy, Batangas and Tagaytay City. The rain did not stop them to gather in Colossian Gardens in Tagaytay City. From morning until evening, they were together to celebrate God's faithfulness in their life.

Pastor Mar shared with them the core values and mission and vision statements of FECPI.
Pastor Teddy with Bro. Pol distributed the baptismal certificate in the afternoon.
Pastor Vadeth, Pastor Teddy and the leaders of Tagaytay facilitated the worship in the morning while the praise and worship team of Tuy led the worship.

These are the young people of Tagaytay and Tuy, Batangas... the future leaders of the church.



The Rodriguez family leads the house church in Tuy, Batangas.

FBC 20th Anniversary Celebration

FECPI Church Planting Teams joined Faith Bible College to celebrate 20 years of God's faithfulness. 18 of our 20 church planters are proud graduates of the Bible College.

It was a week of celebration. On Tuesday, the 25th of August, was the kick off where pastor Brent gave the message during the chapel service. Wednesday was a day of prayer, before each class began, the students and the faculty members spent time to pray. In the evening was a night of prayer and worship opened for everyone. By the way, the classes during the whole week were opened for those who would like to sit in the class.

The peak of the celebration was on Friday night, the 28th of August, where Miss Ermalee Hidalgo was installed as the first woman and Filipino president of the Bible College. It was indeed a night of celebration attended by pastors from the Wesleyan church where Miss Ermalee came from and was molded to be the woman she is right now. FECPI pastors and friends also came, especially those who have been part of the Bible college. PRASIA rendered beautiful music that night but, of course, the highlight would be Miss Ermalee's speech.

It was not just a celebration but a fellowship, a reunion to be exact, of old friends who met in Faith Bible College...

new house church in Bacoor, Cavite

Ariel and Jovie Manahan became Christians in Batangas where we used to have a church planting team. The closing of the ministry there did not stop the growth of this couple. They also experienced a lot of testing of faith and almost gave up but the grace of God sustained them and they continued to serve the Lord.

In May, the couple decided to transfer to Cavite province where Pastor Bong and Pastor Gerry are ministering. They were visited and followed up and soon a house church in their place was opened. Their relatives and neighbors joined them and the group continued to grow. Another couple from the neighborhood who were already Christians but had no church to attend to joined their house church. The couple now leads the house through praise and worship.

it started with a vision

Bro. Pol Rodriguez and his wife Alice
they joined the prayer gathering in Tagaytay together with the church planters of region 4 and P.Mar in June

Pol Rodriguez was an elder in Sta. Ignacia Faith Fellowship, his wife and their kids were also involved and trained in the ministry there. In April 2009 his family had a vacation in Pol's hometown in Tuy, Batangas. It has been 19 years since he left the place and he has been praying for his whole family to be saved and to have a church in their place. He tried to talk to many pastors ministering near their place not knowing it was him the Lord will send to his own family to start a church.

He started with his siblings and their kids a Sunday Worship when they got there. His sister and her husband have been Christians in other place but since they got back there, they were not attending any church. There the vision of Pol grew to start a church not just with his family but in their town because there was no evangelical church in their place and the population is growing. He saw the potential of his town starting with his own family since his parents got saved already.

together there were 5 families which started to gather in April every Sunday for worship and every Tuesday for small group. Pol and his wife preach and teach the Bible, his sister Mia and husband Marlon were in-charged of the praise and worhsip and their children teaching the kids... Tagaytay team is currently helping them with training and materials and also gather with them for fellowship!

God Moves at Faith Fellowship-Israel!

Dear Prayer partners,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It has been more than a week that we are experiencing the favor of God here in Israel. We arrived here on the day that Israel is celebrating their 61st year of independence. We stayed in the hotel for 3 days and after that we moved to the church where we could stay for the rest of our time here in Israel.

When we arrived at the hotel, my Brother Samzon and his wife Mejani with their son Shan and also with his employer visited us and brought us to the beach adjacent to the hotel. There are more than 60,000 Filipinos in Israel working as care giver for the elderly.

Since it was Independence Day for Israel many Filipinos took advantage of the holiday to have some sort of relaxation in the beach and it was a perfect timing for us because there we met my sister whom I did not see for more than 13 years. She is working in Israel with her husband for a long time.
My Sister and her husband (sitting beside my wife) invited us in their church “The Lord Our Righteousness Ministry” for a dinner. This is one of the Filipino Churches in Tel Aviv, Israel. We had fellowship with their pastors, a couple, and their daughter (sitting beside me). They told us how their church is helping the Filipino communities especially for those who have babies; they founded in their church a nursery for children taking care of the babies while the Filipino parents are working. At present they accommodate more than 40 babies in their nursery and one of their full time workers is my sister Elisa.

When we finally checked out from the hotel and went to our church building we were met by some of the members who are so excited to see us including the sisters of my wife who are also working here in Israel.
Our church “Faith Fellowship Israel” covered our expenses for our trip including our accommodations.

I was surprised when I saw the church building because of what God has done in a short period of time; their musical instruments are almost complete, they are renting the building for 3,500 shekels if converted is more than 35,000 pesos, the members are working together for the growth of the church and most especially I have observed how they commit themselves to preserve their testimony as true followers of Jesus Christ.

The following day May 2 our church celebrated their 2nd anniversary. Their theme “We are the salt and light of the world” reveals their commitment and purpose of existence here in Israel. I have seen their joy when I read the portion of Ptr. Brent’s report to the general conference about Israel Faith Fellowship and how he supported the vision for the ministry of the OFW.



The service started at 7 pm and lasted for almost 3 hours. The event was attended by at least 80 people and some of them received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior while some recommitted their lives to the Lord.
I was blessed when I personally heard the narration of the church history. Bro Samzon and Mejani Ocampo stepped out of faith to start the church and later they were joined by Rosie Vallente and Jeana Ocampo who are members of Sta. Ignacia Faith Fellowship in the Philippines. At first they were even ridiculed by some Filipino believers here in Israel who had no idea of the vision that drove them to start Faith Fellowship Israel. But the Lord has blessed the church by sending trained workers like my sister Jenny who is a graduate of Faith Bible College.

Today, there are 8 fully committed workers and leaders in this church and at least a total of 27 regular members.



After the service it was just like a reunion for us because we met some relatives and friends whom we haven’t seen for a long time.

Most likely all Filipino workers here in Israel are looking forward for Saturdays to be refreshed and be strengthened by the fellowship with their relatives and friends. Our church is taking advantage of this free day to worship God together at 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Some members stay in the church until Sunday afternoon and they go back to their work until the next Saturday.
During working days some members of the church, friends and relatives are inviting us to visit them in their work and meet their employers. We praise God we experience the hospitality of the Hebrew people.

After their anniversary, the following Saturday was a different setup of worship service because I divided them into small groups and discussed with them thoroughly the importance of our core values.
They enjoyed and learned because they participated in the discussion focused on the core values of our denomination.
We will make use of every Saturday while we are here to discuss and learn more on our mission and vision as a denomination and how to achieve them through cell group strategy.


We ended the worship service last Saturday by honoring the mothers and they were very happy when the church gave them red roses and few minutes free call to their children and love ones in the Philippines
Please continue to pray for our time here in Israel that we may contribute for the spiritual development of our leaders here. Pray also that God will send and develop more workers in this church that they may reach their vision to build strong and multiplying Filipino Churches in every key cities of Israel. Also pray that they may help in the fulfilment of the rapid multiplication of churches in the Philippines by referring their families and friends to our church planters who are close to their homes.

Also pray that they may help in sending people who are called in the ministry but have no capacity to pay their tuition and other bills for their training at FBC.
Lastly, I praise the Lord for the support of our leaders especially to Ptr Brent, he has been supportive to the ministry here in Israel and to the OFW since this vision was shared to FECPI leaders. Without the support of our leaders (BOT), pastors and members this mission for Israel remains to be a dream.
By God’s grace we will maximize our time to fulfil God’s purpose of sending us here in Israel.
To God be the Glory!
In Christ Service,

Ptr. Mar & Bell

Celebrating God's Faithfulness

Faith Fellowship Laoag church anniversary celebration on May 10...

Jasmin, Jaymar & Kenneth on the worship team
mark lead the opening prayer

during the praise and worship

and of course... eating time!

Many of us are being confused on how seeds grow and turn into plant that bears plenty of fruits, how the ugly duckling turns into a beautiful swan, or how Mt. Pinatubo maintains its perfect cone shape. Those simple yet difficult to answer questions continuously dig our deepest imaginations that can create different non-factual theories and explanations. But if we think and focus more closely to those issues, we can find out the simplest answer: Its God’s will.

Faith Fellowship Laoag celebrated its 6^th anniversary last May 10, 2009 at the Navotas-B Park. Pastor Emil Galzote led the program together with his daughter Jasmine who was the song leader. Pastor Let Malaluan, who was the former pastor of Laoag and currently leading Tagaytay Faith Fellowship, also joined the said celebration. Pastora Let shared us her testimonies and experiences while she was still here in Laoag some years ago. We reminisce all of our unforgettable experiences on how Faith Fellowship Laoag started with the other 3 Pastors, Ptr. Jonathan Cariaso, Ptr. Mau Rivera, and Ptr. Richard Teodosio, challenging activities, and all the joys that we share with each other for 6 long years. As Pastor Emil has said, those memorable scenarios help us to build a strong character that changes our views in life that encourage everyone to promote peace through fellowship. Pastora Let, was so flattered acknowledging the same faces, as well as new faces, continuously serving the Lord. After the program, we’re all gathered for our traditional packed-lunch.

Faith Fellowship Laoag will continue to plant seeds and harvest more fruits for us to build a strong foundation of love and fellowship with Christ.

by: Mark Moneda of Faith Fellowship Laoag

In the Hands of the Master Planner

Just as the Lord prepared everyone else in the Bible when He gave a task, so was He still in the business of preparing His servants today...

Pastor Mar testifies a lot on how the Lord has prepared him for the huge responsibility of being the National Coordinator...

• As the Senior Pastor of Faith Fellowship Dagupan, he was able to plant daughter churches in five years...

He just said that he won't leave Dagupan, but when it was the Lord who said "Go!" who are we to say no?! so he accepted the responsibilities... God's ways are not our ways.

• Before he finally took over as the National Coordinator in April, a summit was held in Antipolo among FECPI Board of Trustees and OMS International leaders to have an agreement on the church planting method to use here in the Philippines... that really set the stage for him to take over the ministry. A direction was already set by the Lord--where to go and how to go about it.

Last day of the summit held at Faith Fellowship Ministry Center

some pictures taken during the discussion held at Gem's Hotel in Antipolo

• The Lord not only prepared his ministry but even their house in Manila, the Lord has provided. From Dagupan they had to transfer to Manila so he would be near the main office. His relatives and his wives relatives were mostly in Tarlac and Pangasinan but Belle's sister bought a house in Montalban which he criticized because it was so expensive and far from their relatives.

"I didn't know that even that the Lord as prepared for us. April was already approaching and we didn't know where to stay then Belle's sister arrived from abroad and asked them to stay in her house in Montalban."

Those are just some of the many blessings they have received from the Lord. If we are faithful, God is more than faithful to bless His servants.

Pastor Mar and Belle hold on to God's promises in Jeremiah 29:11 which was proven true in their life. The future is in the hands of the Master Planner!

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."