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Establishment of the
DWXI Prayer Partners In August 1984, Bro. Mike invited his listeners for a Thanksgiving Mass and Healing Rally that was held in front of the DWXI Radio Station Compound on the Sunday nearest his birthday, August 20. About one thousand people attended the affair and experienced the miracle-working power of God! Encouraged by the success of the rally, Bro. Mike scheduled a monthly Mass and Healing Rally at the DWXI Compound in Parañaque. Some time later, as more people came to be led back to the Lord Jesus Christ, the rally was held weekly. A monthly Catholic Life-in-the-Spirit Seminar (CLSS) and a weekly fellowship were also held at the Queensway Building (owned by Bro. Mike) at 118 Amorsolo St. in Makati City. |
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After a while, Bro. Mike decided to air his program three times a week and began thinking of a new title and theme song for it. At this time, a friend gave him a magazine entitled "El Shaddai," which quickly aroused his interest. He made a study of the meaning of the term and discovered that it was one of the seven Covenant Names, by which God the Father revealed Himself to Israel. |
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El Shaddai, a Hebrew word, when translated to English meant "The God Who Is More than Enough." The Good News Bible translated El Shaddai as "God Almighty" (Genesis 17:1/35:11). Shortly, he heard the song "El Shaddai" over Radio DWXI itself. At this point, he realized that God wanted His Holy and Almighty Name to be proclaimed and made known throughout the world. He thus changed the title of his radio program to "El Shaddai." Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the weekly fellowship came to be called the DWXI Prayer Partners Family Appointment with El Shaddai, since Radio DWXI was the broadcast medium, he and his first listeners became prayer-partners, and El Shaddai was the Divine Name revealed to him by God. Every week, God added thousands of new prayer-partners to this community by means of the Good News aired over the radio DWXI and the Mass and Healing Rallies held all over Metro Manila and nearby provinces. As the community grew, they voluntarily gave their tithes and miracle-seed-of-faith offerings to support the radio program "El Shaddai" and the Mass and Healing Rallies. Some prayer- partners even volunteered to serve without compensation. Inspired by the outcome of events, Bro. Mike thought it was time to formally organize the community. Thus, the DWXI Prayer Partners Foundation, Inc. was established, which in due time was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was organized, primarily, as an institution where Bro. Mike could channel his tithes and donations derived from his real estate business and other companies to support the religious activities of various Catholic charismatic groups and some projects of charitable organizations. These however were not enough to support the expenses of the newly-founded charismatic community, especially the radio programs of DWXI and the Mass and Healing Rallies. And so, he had to continue shelling out funds from his own personal earnings. For him, though, it was a great enough blessing from El Shaddai that his radio listeners came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and were receiving answers to their prayer-requests. In 1988, the first overseas chapter of the Foundation was established in Hong Kong. It started when Bro. Mike, who was then in Hong Kong for a vacation, was invited to share the Word of God before a Filipino Prayer Group at the St. Joseph Church on May 15. After the meeting, a group of seven Filipino prayer-partners working there and who were at the affair bonded together and held their initial prayer-meeting at the Jones Health Club, a gym formerly owned by Bro. Kenneth and Sis. Tessie Wong at North Point, drawing thirty persons. On August 7, the group invited Bro. Mike, together with Rev. Fr. Archie Guiriba, OFM, for a Mass and Healing Rally at the St. Joseph Church Hall. The rally was such a success that it paved the way for the formation of the El Shaddai DWXI-PPFI Hong Kong Chapter with a core group of seven persons on August 21. On November 20, the first healing rally under the chapter's banner was held at the Christ the King Chapel of the St. Paul's College. An estimated 800 people attended the affair. The chapter increased in number as the years passed that venues for its succeeding anniversaries were held in bigger ones—from the Caritas Hall in Central Hong Kong to Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Ko Shan Theater in Kowloon, Hong Kong Coliseum, Kai Tak International Airport, and Hong Kong Stadium. At the chapter's 11th anniversary at the Hong Kong Stadium in November 1999, approximately forty thousand people attended the affair. Previous
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