Campaign Category: Church

Let me begin with myself. I am Pablo Dela Cruz Medina, 43 years old. I was raised in a Christian family. I became a Christian when I was 13. I was already a junior in college (taking Industrial Engineering), when I became certain that what I really wanted was to serve God as a full-time minister. I knew it wasn’t just a desire, but God was really calling me to be one. God made a way for me to enter the seminary (Philippine College of Ministry) in Baguio City and graduated after three years. I have started ministering in different areas (such as music, youth, preaching and evangelism) even while I was still studying. After graduation, I served as a full-time pastor. When I was called to minister here in Saipan, I responded to the call and have now been ministering to Marianas Christian Church (formerly Saipan Christian Church) for almost 18 years. The journey wasn’t easy, as the church just experienced division shortly before I came. Also, many people here just come and go, especially with immigration issues. The church also experienced calamities, Typhoon Yutu being the most recent one, which has destroyed the church sanctuary. Despite such difficulties, God has evidently been at work in my life and the church.

My wife, MARIA LEONORA SALAZAR-MEDINA, became a Christian when she was in high school. She was the first Christian in her family. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. She has taught for a total of seven years in the Philippines and has been teaching here in Saipan for nearly 8 years now. She came here after our wedding in the Philippines in 2004. She has served in music, youth, Sunday School, evangelism, and leadership ministries in her home church since she became a Christian. Her whole family, as well as some friends and relatives (who became Christians too), have been actively serving too. Here, she has served as a Sunday School teacher and a chairperson of the Women’s Ministry, and is currently serving as a worship leader and the church secretary.

The church will be celebrating its 10th anniversary (as Marianas Christian Church) on July 28. Although a lot of members have already gone either back to the Philippines or to other countries, the church membership still averages to 70 (excluding children), as new ones are also called by God. We are a Filipino congregation, but a few locals also attend.

Church VISION:
“We see Marianas Christian Church 10 years from now as a Vibrant/full of life Church, influencing and leading people of the Northern Mariana Islands to a growing relationship with Christ, nurturing and equipping them to become strong and productive members of the Body of Christ, excitedly meeting at a 200-seater Worship Hall situated at the Heart of Saipan continuously growing in knowledge and in numbers.”

Purpose Statement:
Marianas Christian Church exists to exalt and glorify God through bringing the lost people of CNMI to a growing biblical relationship with Christ and with God’s family and equipping them for their local and global ministry and mission.

Statement of Faith:
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God written by men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit and should be the only rule of faith and practice; that there is One God in three Persons (Trinity); that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lord and Head of the Church; that He is God incarnate and the Savior of mankind; that it is only by God’s grace through our faith in, and union with Jesus in baptism that we can be saved and be called children of God; that Christian calling is believing, obeying, serving and remaining faithful in Him unto the end; that Christ will return to judge, bring salvation, and reign forever.

What the funds are for and where will you use the funds or the support?

The funds that JOFLO will provide for the church will go to the charity fund and other programs/projects. The charity fund is used for needy members. The church also responds to the needs of some needy people in the community. Funds from JOFLO may also be used to help in the rebuilding of the church building. The church actually applied for SBA loan, as it aims to not only rebuild the old church building (this time with concrete roof) but also to make it bigger, in order to accommodate more people. The church even gave a downpayment for a 30-year lease for the land where the church is located. If it’s God’s will that the loan is approved, the church will pay such loan in 30 years. If not, the church will start rebuilding the church building through pledges from members. Therefore, whichever is God’s will, JOFLO’s financial assistance will be of great help. Moreover, such funds may be used for evangelism.

How will it affect your ministry?

The financial support from JOFLO will greatly impact the ministry, as unbelievers usually start to care about what we say when they first see that we care about their needs. Some of those who have started attending the church were actually those whom the church visited, assisted, and given some relief items after typhoon Yutu.

As regards the financial support JOFLO will give to my family, that too will greatly impact my ministry. Two of my three kids are special children. Although they receive assistance from Social Security, their needs are more, that my wife still needs to work full time. She longs to do even more to support me in my ministry, as well as have more time with family (especially our special kids, who should be her primary ministry), but we still need her job, especially that it is also hard not to be able to aid those in need when they ask for help. It is a good thing to pray for them, but it is much better to also help them in their need.

What are other church’s programs, ministries and community support?

The church has a program for Christian Education. We have Sunday School, Youth Class, and cell groups. We do seminars as well. We also have Men’s Training for Ministry where the men are taught Hermeneutics and Homiletics. For evangelism, we do Bible Studies, tracts distribution, and occasional mini-crusades. We will have an evangelistic concert again this year as well. The church also has a ministry for prayer, shepherding, multi-media, finance, music, charity, and maintenance.

To reach out to the community, the church has held VBSs, has produced magazines, distributed relief goods to typhoon victims, held “charity carolings” (where we did caroling but did not ask for donations but instead gave goods to families, and toys to kids), actively participates or organizes activities for the association of Christian churches here in Saipan, and assists Samaritan’s Purse in its community outreach. On March 30, our Church and all the other Christian Churches in the island together with Operation Christmas Child Team will hold a simultaneous distribution of gifts to at least 13,000 kids ages 2-14 here in Saipan. All of those kids will hear and see a gospel presentation. This December, the church will also organize a Youth Conference.

We are the Church of Christ at Santiago City, Isabela. Our pastor’s name is Leo P. Bernardino. He is single, born April 29, 1992. He graduated at Manila Bible Seminary. He is serving now in our church for almost three years. Our house of worship started it’s construction last December 2016 and until now, not finished. I am Michael R. Valentin, one of the elder since 2007 and my wife is Estrella R. Valentin currently the treasurer of our church and chairwoman of our Womens group. Our mission is “to glorify God by fullfilling Christ great commission through evangelism and discipleship toward growth of the church. Our vision is “total evangelization as a lifestyle of every member of the Church of Christ at Santiago, that is, as an evangelist.

What the funds are for and where will you use the funds or the support?

We need the fund for our ministry. We can use it to finance our evangelism activities especially for gasoline allowance and food of our pastor.

How will it affect your ministry?

It can help a lot to the church, why? Because monthly our church is paying P7,200 for our church lot covering a 160 sq. Meter. and at the same time, we are constructing our house of worship. The church also has a very minimal budget for the pastor. If you will consider our request. It will be a great blessing and it can lessen the burden of church has enduring now.

What are other church’s programs, ministries and community support?

The ministries of the church now is focused on daily bible study to every places. We have home bible studies, youth programs and we have also bible studies for the barangay officials including barangay captain and the structure of the barangay. We have also bible studies to the senior citizens and even to the offices in the city hall. We are just praying and giving focused on evangelism and discipleship.

Kingsway Christian Church (KCC) started as a new church plant to gather as a local autonomous church in July 7th, 2013. We first rented a restaurant space in the heart of Scarborough (East end of Greater Toronto Area), Ontario, and 10 months later, the Lord blessed us with a more permanent place of worship at 501 Passmore. Together with a faithful brother in the church and with much prayer, we were able to gather several families to start as the core group of KCC.

Just as our Lord Jesus had said, “. . .the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few,” indeed there is still much work to be done. The undersigned is currently the sole minister/preacher and pastor of the church. He also have existing cell groups in the vicinity, with the “Friday Cell” ongoing as early as February of 2009. From time to time also leads the praise and worship team as he loves music as much as he loves winning souls and making disciples.

We had just had our Annual Planning for the year 2018 with the undersigned presiding it and for this year, he had summited a new ministry action plan. In it, he had proposed that each household will host their own cell group. The undersigned have already started training some of the members of the church on how to host and conduct cell groups. By God’s grace and blessings, this action plan may allow KCC to grow not only numerically but more importantly in the faith as well. This is where we may fulfil the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to us to preach the gospel and make disciples. We will be starting with our own families, our nearest of kin, friends and neighbours. We intend to do this until the Lord calls us home and we are able to say like what the Apostle Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

What the funds are for and where will you use the funds or the support?

The funds that you will be providing will be used for trainings and retreats for small group leaders. I have already written and prepared training materials and a portion of the funds will be used for the reproduction of these materials. Should you want to have a copy of these materials, please let me know and I will send it to you as well.

How will it affect your ministry?

For almost 5 years now, I have been using my personal resources to build up the worship team. We still need to put up some more musical instruments for the Sunday services. A good sound system is not inexpensive, and the same is true to musical instruments. Your help will definitely allow us to have a better audio system. There will also be trainings that will be done for the members of the worship team.

What are other church’s programs, ministries and community support?

At the moment, I am a mentor and accountability partner to another church planter, Pastor Royce Tanedo. His church plant is about 30 miles from KCC. The Sunday services are done in the afternoon and caters to two smaller cities east of Scarborough — Ajax and Oshawa. These two cities are home to about 10,000 migrant workers from the Philippines. We have already started small groups that gather in the homes of the core group members of the church.

CHURCH OF CHRIST at BALIGATAN

MISSION – The Church is called to spread the Gospel of Christ through worship, discipleship and witnessing.

What the funds are for and where will you use the funds or the support?

The funds will be distributed to support our different ministries such as Jail, Military Camps, School and College Campuses and to our less fortunate brethren who wish to attend the Church Services and activities.

How will it affect your ministry?

The fund will provide financial stability for our Outreach Ministry Program.

What are other church’s programs, ministries and community support?

1. Our Resident Minister Pastor Victor Serquiña involves himself in the different Local Government Activities and programs such as Speakers for Drug Forums and Drugs Rehabilitation Center(our Pastor is a member  of the PNP Tokhang by giving Spiritual Upliftment  for the Drug Dependent who surrendered )
2. The Church of Christ at Baligatan serves as a Center for the Pantawid Pamilya Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (Every end of the Month  Parent  leaders  gather for a meeting)
3. The Church of Christ at Baligatan is a Student Center for the Brethren who comes from Churches of Christ in the different locality who enrolled at Colleges and Universities of the City of Ilagan.

Fairview Christian Love Fellowship (FCLF) Is the Lord’s church gathering at 932 Miramonte Park East Bgy 180, Caloocan City. Pastor Luis M. Martin is the lead pastor and his wife Sister Jonah C. Martin supports him in all the ministries of the church.

Praise the Lord for the FCLF house-church which is built by God in His own perfect time in obedience to His Word in Matthew 16:18. Despite of the different backgrounds yet called by God to come together in fellowship, equipping, discipleship and passionate worship.

OUR VISION

“To go and make disciples of all nations…(Matthew 28:19-20)”

OUR MISSION

“To love the Lord our God and to love our neighbors (Mark 12:30-31).”

OBJECTIVES

1. To build a dynamic relationship between God, family and community;

2. To share the Word of God among children, youth, adults and senior citizen;

3. To transform lives through worship, fellowship, discipleship, care groups and missions by doing livelihood, training and entrepreneurship;

4. To establish worthy teams for the mission field through:

• worship,
• Christian education,
• health care,
• environment and disaster preparedness,
• urban-rural farming, hunger mitigation, and poverty alleviation,
• education and scholarship,
• children’s rights and protection,
• women and youth safety,
• human development, and,
• servant-leadership

5. To inform, educate and communicate about good testimonies, practices that will lead to spiritual and church growth through publication and other means of communication.

What the funds are for and where will you use the funds or the support?

The funds are for travel expenses to 6 mission areas (FCLF Main, Barracks, Bagong Silang, Cypress, Norzagaray and Area E, Sapang Palay).

How will it affect your ministry?

The support is useful in strengthening the faith, equipping and spiritual growth of believers in the areas.

What are other church’s programs, ministries and community support?

The community of the mission areas have very low income so the church has difficulty in its financial support. However, they are responsive to the gospel.

Here is the list of the church’s programs:

1. Intercession and Prayer
2. Won by one Discipleship
3. DGroup or Discipleship Group
4. Livelihood
5. Healing and Traditional Medicine
6. I-LEAD (I-Live-Engage-Advance-Disciple) Encounter with God for pre-believers and church leaders
7. Youth Camp
8. Vacation Bible School
9. Partnership building with various groups
10. Home Visits
11. Charity mission
12. Friendship
13. Christmas Caroling
14. Community Bank
15. Corporate Worship
16. Leaders Worship
17. Counseling
18. Coaching
19. Mentoring
20. Mobilization and development of mission group

To view their activity reports, please click here.

I am Pastor Ricardo  V. Santiago, 43 years old and grew up in a Christian family. I am the seventh child of Mr. Teodorico and Consuelo Santiago. As a child, I am an active attendee of Sunday School classes and was the drummer of the church’s music ministry in my teenage years. I also finished my vocational course (Refrigeration and Air-condition Technician).

I worked in the Philippines and a few countries over the years. I was a Laborer in Saudi Arabia for 2 years, a Salesman in Brunei Darussalam for 4 years and a Pest Control Technician for another 4 years in the same country. In 2011, I flew to Madagascar, South Africa where I was a Material Controller for 1 year. To date, I manage our own small business as a sub-dealer of electronic loading for a telecommunication company. I am happily married to Caroline O. Santiago for 22 years and blessed with 2 children, Lars Marielle Santiago who is 21 years old and Maureen Santiago who’s turning 14. Lars took up Bachelor of Arts Major in Mass Communication and is already working as a Marketing Associate in an advertising company while Maureen is a Grade 9 student.

My wife, Caroline Santiago, is 43 years old and has been baptized for 13 years. She took up Computer Secretarial in college. She’s also the church secretary since 2006.

Church of Christ at Pangarap Village was established in 1985 through God’s work in Pastor Cabalteja and my mother, Consuelo Santiago’s life. To date, there are about 75+ active members of the church.

My mission is to flourish in the ministry that the Lord has started in me – to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit [Matthew 28:19] and to reach the lost and introduce God’s unconditional love unto them.

My vision is to help the church’s member and workers to grow in number and provide spiritual leadership to them.

What the funds are for and where will you use the funds or the support?

The funds are for the following causes:

• Church transfer (we are being oppressed by a private company and is taking ownership of our lot)
• Musical instruments for the music ministry and fund for our activities (Daily Vacation Bible School and conventions)

Any form of help we will get is deeply appreciated and will be used accordingly only for the causes stated above.

How will it affect your ministry?

The support we will receive will greatly impact the church in various aspects. If we were able to receive the fund, we can replace our old instruments which we have been using for about 20 years. We can also send a volunteer youth pastor to a Bible School. The support we will receive will help the church’s situation and will help to continue our existing activities.

What are other church’s programs, ministries, and community support?

We conduct a Daily Vacation Bible School annually, visitation and evangelism twice every month, and crusades.