The El Shaddai DWXI - Prayer Partners Fellowship International, Inc is a Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement from Manila, Philippines. It envisions bringing about a revival of the true Christian spirit in the Catholic faith. It aims to rise up a community of faith-filled generous believers of our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Acts 2:42-47, which by Divine Guidance and Providence has now miraculously established these communities in many areas worldwide.
Description
Its founder and servant leader is Mariano Mike Velarde - better known as Brother Mike. Their Diocesan Bishop is the Reverend Jessie Mercado of the Diocese of Parañaque, and its Spiritual Director is Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani of the Roman Catholic Church.
General Information
HISTORY:
Born in Catanduanes, Bro. Mike Velarde earned a surveying degree from a college in Manila. With a company bonus, he started buying land and developing residential subdivisions south of the city.
Inspired by his recovery from a heart ailment in 1978, he started a weekly Bible-quoting radio show on DWXI, a station he acquired in 1982 as part of a real estate deal. Listeners, he says, began reporting that his voice had cured their afflictions. The first was a woman who said Velarde had ended years of migraines. In 1984, Velarde christened his show "EL SHADDAI," a biblical name for God that he found in a U.S. religious pamphlet.
Bro. Mike Velarde then held once-a-month prayer rallies outside the vicinity of the radio station. It is stated that after the number of attendees kept growing, he made the rallies weekly until the crowd could no longer be accommodated by the area. The rallies were then moved to various locations such as a football stadium and then to Manila's Quirino Grandstand at Rizal Park; then to a field grounds outside the Philippine International Convention Center and the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Pasay City, which is near Manila Bay; and finally in Amvel City, San Dionisio, Parañaque City in order to address the size of the crowds attending.
EL SHADDAI Movement has grown rapidly in the last decade and, as of 2005, had a reported 8 million members worldwide.
On August 20, 2009, El Shaddai inaugurated a 1 Billion Philippine peso House of Prayer on a ten hectare site in Amvel City, San Dionisio, Parañaque, and Metro Manila. The cost does not include the land. The building is 10,000 square meters and seats 16,000 with standing room for another 25,000. There is space on the site for an overflow crowd. The building was inaugurated by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Bro. Mike Velarde's 70th birthday.
INTERNATIONAL CHAPTERS:
USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Saipan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Libya, and some others potentially not listed here.
Thursday, 23 May 2013
