PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY August 1 - 20, 2018
INC CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF FOREIGN OUTREACH, VOWS TO
CONTINUE WORLDWIDE EVANGELICAL PUSH
members who are based abroad, Filipinos and non-
Filipinos alike, because the work of God never stops.
It reaches beyond national borders.”
After the grand launching and kick-off event
in Hawaii, the INC held a special worship service at
the 17,000-capacity Golden One Arena in downtown
Sacramento in California on August 5.
The homegrown Filipino church announced
that twenty-two new chapels would be dedicated in
the continental US and Canada for July, August, and
September this year.
Santos listed the following areas as locations for
new houses of worship: Anchorage (Alaska), Antioch
(North West California), Bristol (Connecticut), Cocoa
Beach (Florida), Copperas Cove (Texas), Detroit
(Michigan), Everett, Spokane (Washington), High
Point (North Carolina), Oxnard, Salinas, Stockton,
El Cajon, Ridge Crest (California), Tucson (Arizona),
Henderson (Nevada), Waipahu, Hawaii and in
Apra Heights, Guam as part of the Pacific islands
outreach, as well as Toronto, Halifax, Saskatchewan
(Canada).
In Canada, INC added it plans to hold an Aid
for Humanity (Lingap sa Mamamayan) in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, to be followed by another humanitarian
mission in Toronto in September.
The Aid for Humanity project around the globe
provides free medical and dental consultations,
medicine, clothes and other food essentials.
“The Iglesia has become more conscious
and more aware of the central role that the Church
plays in our members’ lives as we grow older and
bigger. We try to touch the lives of people; we help
in whatever small ways we can. We’re humbled and
grateful for the gains of the first fifty years overseas.
We’re excited by the challenges of the next fifty. To
God be the glory! ” Santos said.
The Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) commemorated
another milestone in its storied history on July 27,
Friday as it marked fifty years since first establishing
an overseas ministry in Hawaii in the late Sixties while
celebrating its 104th Anniversary in the Philippines.
INC began its evangelization campaign on
foreign soil when it conducted its first worship service
on July 27, 1968 at Ewa Beach, now part of the City
of Honolulu.
That local congregation has since grown and
become a leading symbol and beacon of INC’s
continued push as a global church with a distinctly
Filipino character.
A larger, newly constructed chapel at the
pioneering Ewa Beach site capped the 50th year
celebrations on the anniversary date itself on July 27,
2018.
As the INC celebrated the 50th anniversary of
its foreign mission in the west solemnly and joyfully,
INC General Auditor Glicerio B. Santos Jr. explained,
“Our Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V. Manalo
has expressed a desire for us to be introspective, to
be thankful, and to fully contemplate the weight of this
momentous occasion while at the same time being
mindful of the challenge for continued growth and
evangelization,”
Since the establishment of its Hawaii congregation
five decades ago, the INC has phenomenally grown and
actively expanded in mainland America and Canada,
as well as in many parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, the
Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.
The INC official noted that, “Since September
2009, we inaugurated and dedicated 83 churches in
various parts of the world. We continue to reach out to
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