Today we are celebrating our 24th Church Anniversary, Happy 24th anniversary brothers, sisters & friends in Christ. Each year is a year of praise & worship to Him who deserved all Glory & Honor, a reason for this memorable celebration.

I have witnessed God’s faithfulness through spiritual, numerical, and financial growth of our church; in spite of trials, problems, conflicts, and criticisms that we have gone through.  I thank God for all of you, members and officers, who stood up and remained faithful that we came this far. And let us always remember how it all began.

The formation of the Filipino United Community church could be ascribed as a group of men and women who were members of different church denominations in the Philippines. While we attended different churches here in Winnipeg, we felt that we should form a church of our own.

 In 1982, The First Filipino Christian Church was organized with the support of the United Board for Homeland Ministries, United Church of Christ through the North Dakota Conference, now the Northern Plains Conference, North Dakota, U.S.A. We met at Salem Congregation Church, but years later due to different denominational background, almost half of the members of the First Filipino Christian Church decided to form our own congregation. We held our worship services at homes and different churches.  Through consistent prayers and strong faith, the Lord answered our prayers.  God sent Pastor Erasto Arenas from San Bruno California.  On June 8, 1986 at Crescent Park, in St Vital, Winnipeg, Manitoba, the first fellowship was held.  And the Filipino United Community Church was formally organized.  During the period of organizing, Rev. Marwood Retig, “Conference Minister of North Dakota” came to meet with the group.  He challenged everyone to continue on praying, be united and trust that the Lord is on our side.  With the first offering of $146.00, the group prayed and in hopes that we will have a place we could call our own. 
Because of its growing membership, the group decided to rent a room at the Union Center on Portage Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba to hold its worship services.  Then the Lord answered our prayers, to have a permanent home.  The remaining members of the FFCC decided to leave the Salem Church Building due to financial reason. The Filipino United Community church decided to move back to Salem Reformed Church. On September 1986, the North Dakota Conference offered to us the Salem Church Building at 235 Andrews St. The Building was bought for $55,000.00 US, with the help of Homeland Ministry. With God’s grace “The Buong Makakaya Campaign” was organized through the support of many families, thus the church was paid off in only a few years.

The Church continued to grow.  We saw the need for a bigger place of worship to hold Sunday school classes, DVBS, and other fellowships.  After 10 years and 6 months, we came together in prayer for God to give us a bigger building; again we sold the church at 235 at Andrews St. for $84,000.00 and purchase 1039 Pritchard Ave. church building for $179,000.00 in July 1997.  “Project Temple Campaign” was launched to finance the mortgage. The money raised was used to do some major renovations and improvements on the church building..

On June 2001, we hosted the 38th Annual Meeting of the Northern Plains Conference for the first time. We thank the Lord for the success of “Kapit Kamay in Faith” many were blessed by our unity, hospitality, and friendliness

God is truly so good to us because in May 28, 2005, the remaining balances of our mortgage of $120,000.00 was paid off. Let’s thank Him for His never ending faithfulness that we reached this far. But we will not stop here; it’s just the start of a more challenging mission that God is showing us. Let us continue to move forward with the vision and wider mission with the help of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, For without Him we can do nothing. With God all things are possible.

God blessed our church with many pastors and workers to lead the congregation to a stronger faith in the Lord.  Our interim pastors namely:  Pastor Rolando Lazaro, Rev. Pastor Jose Ormeo, The late Rev. Pastor David Alvarez, and Rev. Pastor Abel Amago.  Also our sponsored pastors namely: Rev. Pastor Socrates Herrera, Rev. Pastor Cipriano Pasoquen with his family, and Rev. Pastor Eduardo Capillar with his family. Pastor Lito Rodriguez, our present pastor. We also want to recognize our conference minister Rev. Dr. Wade Schemmel who is always there to encourage us, share his faith, and talents to meet our needs, help us move towards our goals and to carry God’s work in the ministry.

We also want to remember our brothers and sisters who has helped us through during the times when we had no pastor namely: Bro Ato Gonzales, pulpit supply licensed by the Northern Plains Conference, Elders Mariano Soriano and Manuel Ramos, Bro. Resty Atanacio and yours truly ( Arceli Sarte.)  We would like to recognize the help provided by Rev. Dr. Noriel Capulong and his wife, Rebecca.

We recognize the services of the following church workers who served as Moderators of the Church namely:  Agripina Garcia, Renato Gonzales, Josefina David, Editha Camandang, Carmen Laurel, Marina Atanacio, Adriana Genido, Val Malinis & yours truly (Arceli Sarte.)

 We would like to thank our Licensed Ministers Joe Pelayo and Glen Saria, who had graduated 2008 from Yankton College North Dakota U.S.A. Our Authorized Lay Worship Leaders namely: Resty Atanacio, Elmo Rivero, & Val Malinis. Pastor Khel De Castro who was our first youth worker from 2004-2006 and now our present youth pastor. Our worship teams are truly a blessing to us, namely 4 D cross, Jacob’s Well, Mispah, Psalm 150, Teens, youth and Zimri. 

We are truly blessed with many dedicated workers who became members of our council & organizations, we thank them for their contributions to various church activities, The  tithes and offerings we are giving to our Church; with your support, I believe we will still grow in numbers and in faith.

 We also want to recognize Emie Lasala who served as Choir Director for a period of one year. Jean Cuanan as our volunteer choir director for 8 months who led our Easter Cantata last April 14, 2006. Jean Padrinao our present choir director came to help our music ministry since September 2006 & now with her family. We are also blessed to have a children’s choir which started under the leadership of Aera Estoesta and Lyn Leyba. I also want to remember our outreach mission in Selkirk, Manitoba for two months in the year 2005.

We have also witnessed growing numbers of members from the Provincial Nominee program from the Philippines who are now part of the different ministries, namely Music ministry, Sunday school, and various C.E. organizations: Partners for Christ, seniors, YAYM, YOU, & Teens. I would like to thank our visitors or tourists from the Philippines who are always with us in our Sunday worship.

Let us also remember the launching of our website last June 2008, Audio visual system upgrade in August 2009, The Introduction to Biblical counseling team who came in September 2009 to conduct the “Plumbline” seminar, a discipleship training week for the youth, & basic counseling seminar for all organizations. The trial period of our two services for one month was also a success & it will resume next week June 13, 2010.

Today, let us join hearts in celebrating our 24th Church Anniversary. Let us give God the praise and worship He deserves for HIS faithfulness, ever ending love, and continuous blessings to us;  For being with us yesterday, today and in the years to come.  Let us all continue to work together in faith for the glory of HIS name.

-Arceli Sarte
Filipino United Community Church, Moderator 2010-2011
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it