El Shaddai Dwxi Ppfi London Chapter

EL SHADDAI is a CATHOLIC Charismatic Renewal Movement from the Philippines.

HISTORY-DWXI (EL SHADDAI) PPFI
In 1981, at the height of his real estate business expansion around the now Ninoy Aquino international Airport, Bro. Mike acquired the DWXI (1314 khz) AM Radio Station in Paranaque from its owner-operators, not because he needed the radio station, but because he needed the parcel of land on which it stood, and the owners would not sell the land unless the radio station was included in the deal. In buying the land, he had to pay an extra amount of P2 million for the radio station.

EL SHADDAI ETYMOLOGY: El Shaddai is a combination of two Hebrew words: "El" means God, and "Shaddai" means Almighty. Thus El Shaddai is translated as "God Almighty" (Genesis 17: 1 and Genesis 35: 11) "El Shaddai" is one of the seven Covenant Names through which God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things seen and unseen, revealed Himself to Israelites, His Chosen people. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the All- Powerful and ever- Living God Who never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13: 8). He is the All- Sufficient One- "The God Who is More Than Enough. " He is the Source and Provider of all our needs, and with Him, all things are possible.

IDENTITY: The El Shaddai DWXI Prayer Partners Fellowship International is a Catholic Charismatic Movement. It envisions to bring about a revival of the true Christian spirit in the Catholic faith. It aims to raise 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.

BRIEF HISTORY OF DWXI (EL SHADDAI) PPFI: Brother Mariano "Mike" Z. Velarde, Servant Leader of DWXI (EL SHADDAI) PPFI, is a geodetic engineer by profession and a real estate developer in business. Among his real estate developments are the Moonwalk Subdivisions in Paranaque and Las Pinas Cities and Bricktown Subdivision and Multinational Village, . located in Paranaque City, near Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Actually, he had neither planned to lead any charismatic community nor dreamed of proclaiming the Good News of Salvation. However, God's thoughts are not man's thoughts, neither His ways are man's ways. By the miracle-working power of God's word, El Shaddai turned Bro. Mike from "a fisher of dollars and pesos, to a fisher of men for Christ Jesus, " and the incident led to the birth the DWXI (El Shaddai) PPFI.

BRO. MARIANO "MIKE" Z. VELARDE

SERVANT LEADER

TESTIMONY: Saved for a purpose: The turning point of his life was sometime in February 1978, When at the age of 38, Bro. Mike was scheduled for major surgery due to heart enlargement and heart block at the Philippine Heart Center. However, none of his 5 doctors could guarantee that he would survive the operation. For 3 weeks he lay on his hospital bed- downhearted, hopeless and fearful for a heart attack. Then one night at one hour past midnight, an angel of the Lord in the guise of a nurse came to his room and said: "Mike Velarde, I've been watching you for the past three weeks. You're down and worried for fear of heart attack. But if you will allow me, I'll open that Bible besides you and show a way out of your predicament. Just read it over and over again and I assure you, it will help. " She then opened the Bible to 1 Corinthians 10: 13 saying thus: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. and God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out that you can stand up under it. " Bro. Mike read it again and again, just as he had been told. Then he prayed thus: "God, if am going to die now, please forgive me for the sins I' eve committed all these years. However if this is just but a test, restore my courage and strength to live. " After that simple prayer, Bro. Mike saw a Man hanging on a cross with blood flowing down from His side saying, "Come unto Me! " His fear completely melted, peace enveloped his whole being and he slept soundly that night.

The following day, he woke up with renewed strength and joy, and with a new life! The doctors were surprised to find Bro. Mike up from his bed - walking along the corridors of the hospital with a new vigor. After a week-long thorough tests, he was discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health. Thus the scheduled surgery was canceled. God Almighty performed a very special heart transplant in Bro. Mike!

From that time on, his desire and ambitions changed. The word of God that was planted in his heart bloomed. He started to seek God Who miraculously healed him at the hospital by attending charismatic movement prayer meetings which were then held at first class hotels. Being a devout Catholics, Bro. Mike desired to share his experience of the miracle-working power of God's Word to his brothers and sisters within the catholic faith where he had received his baptism and confirmation.

GOD'S MIRACLE FOR THE MINISTRY

That same year, Bro. Mike became a born-again Catholics. As he studied the Word of God diligently, he learned about the practice of giving tithes and miracle seed-of-faith offering. He began to give financial support to some charismatic groups that had started to flourish in the country. One of these was the first Catholic Charismatic Mass and Healing rally. Msgr. Fidelis Limcaco of the Quezon, City Catholic Charismatic Secretariat agreed to launch the monthly Charismatic Mass and Healing Rally at the Araneta Coliseum if Bro. Mike would sponsor it. Burning with a rekindled faith, Bro. Mike gave P50, 000 as a seed-faith offering for that apostolate.

That amount was his last "cold cash" in the bank because his real estate business then were in the downtrend due to the economic crisis in the Philippines. Worse, his bank loans had snowballed to over P200 million because of runaway interests and penalties. After giving that seed-of-faith offering he prayed for a financial miracle. And a week before the prayer rally was held, a group of businessmen approached him and bought part of his real estate holdings for P60 million! With joy in his heart, he started telling others how God had returned his P50, 000 seed-of-faith offering a thousandfold!
THE MYSTERIOUS VOICE

Sometime in 1982, one evening, Bro. Mike heard a mysterious voice telling him: "Build Me a center, and I will give rest to you and all who will go with you. " He thought God was calling him to build a church or basillica made of concrete and steel. He immediately called an architect to design a basilica, with a setting capacity of 7, 000, and set aside a piece of land at the Multinational Village in Paranaque, Metro Manila, for that purpose. Then, he had the plans blessed by his Holiness, Pope John Paul II, at St. Peter, Basilica Square, Vatican City in 1982. Upon his return to the Philippines, he immediately held the ground-breaking and cornerstone laying at the site to signal the start of construction with His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin and those involved in the Charismatic Renewal Movement in attendance.
GOD'S PLAN NOT MAN'S PLAN
However, his plan did not push through, inasmuch as his creditors and financial institutions started to foreclose most of his assets and real estate properties. Only one of his assets was not mortgaged- the DWXI Radio Station-a non-performing asset which instead ate most of his savings. Despite Bro. Mike's financial crisis, he remained steadfast in his faith. He soon found himself actively sharing the word of God and by bearing witness to the miracles that God had done in his life thru his radio program "To God Be the Glory". However, after several months, he decided to quit broadcasting. But he was pre-em ted to do so when he received from a woman a letter which read: "Bro. Mike, please don't quit your radio program. One evening when I felt I was going to die of a severe headache (migraine) which I had been suffering for the last seventeen years, I happened to switch on to your radio program. As you were praying, I joined you and asked God to help me. Praise God, that very moment I was healed! Enclosed is P100. 00-my seed-faith offering to El Shaddai. Keep on Bro. Mike! " He read her letter on the air and soon, letters flooded his office from listeners-some were praising God for the miracles they experienced in their lives just by listening to the El Shaddai radio program; and some were asking for prayer and counseling.
EL SHADDAI MINISTRY STARTED
A few years later, people from all walks of life were trooping to his office asking for prayer for the healing of their ailments and counseling for their financial and spiritual problems. Shortly after, they would come back giving their testimonies of miracles God worked in their lives healing of various sicknesses and diseases, deliverance from vices, restoration of their broken family relationship and help in their problems. Then the Spirit of God finally revealed to him the real meaning of the mysterious call, "It is you whom I need to built as a holy temple and serve as a living sacrifice to renew the Church, and to bring them into a family that cares and shares in each others burdens and blessings. "
MINISTRY WAS BORN

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 which was August 20, 1984. About one thousand people attended the affair and experienced the miracle working power of the Living God! Encouraged by the success of the rally, a Mass and Healing Rally was held at the DWXI Compound in Paranaque on a regular basis. A monthly Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminar(CLSS) and a weekly fellowship were also held at the Queensway Building, 118 Amorsolo St. Makati City.

After a while, Bro. Mike decided to air his radio program three times a week then change its title to "EL SHADDAI. " He got the Name from a pamphlet wherein he learned that El Shaddai is one of the seven (7) Covenant names by which God the Father revealed Himself to Israel. "El Shaddai" is a Hebrew word, which is translated to English as "The God Who is More Than Enough. " The Good News Bible translated El Shaddai as "God Almighty"(Genesis 17: 1 /35: 11)He realized that God Almighty wanted His Holy Name to be proclaimed and made known throughout the world.

INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the weekly fellowship was called the DWXI Prayer Partners Family Appointment with El Shaddai. Indeed, during our fellowships, people from all walks of life give their testimonies on how the Word of God touched their lives and worked miracles of healing and deliverance through continuous listening to the Gospel broadcast at DWXI(1314khz)AM Radio and by faithful attendance of our fellowships. the lame and the paralytic share how they stood up and walk; cancer patients and those afflicted with dreaded disease recount their healing; gays and lesbians narrate their experience of transformation that motivated their return to normal lives; victims of broken homes tell how their relationships were restored; non-Catholics relate their religious conversion.

Every week God added thousands of new prayer-partners to this community by means of the Good News aired over DWXI radio and the healing rallies held all over Metro Manila and nearby provinces. As the community grew, prayer - partners voluntarily gave tithes and miracles-seed-of-faith offering to support the radio program "El Shaddai" and the Mass and Healing Rallies. Some prayer partners volunteered to serve, offering their time and talent in whatever way they could help-out of gratitude to God for the miraculous healing, deliverance and transformation they experienced in their lives.


FORMALLY ORGANIZED THE MINISTRY
Bro. Mike formally organized the DWXI Prayer Partners Foundation Inc. It was primarily organized, as an institution where Bro. Mike could channel his tithes and donations derived from his real estate business and other companies to sup[port the religious activities of various Catholic charismatic Groups. It was finally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in July 11, 1985.
EXTRAORDINARY COURAGE
The Lord gave Bro. Mike an extraordinary courage to hang on and to support the Ministry with his time, talent, and tithes from his real estate business in spite of the financial difficulties. To deepen his commitment to the Lord, he issued a memorandum instructing the treasurer of his real estate company to set aside ten percent of every sale and collection as tithe to support the work of the Lord through DWXI Radio Station. Then he went on with his usual radio gospel broadcast, and continued to hold El Shaddai Mass and Healing Rallies with thousands and tens of thousands members and followers braving the heat of the sun, the heavy downpour of rain, and even typhoon signal no. 2, just to listen to the Word of God being preached-the word of God that heals, that sets people free, that saves-and the Word of God that was made flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord of lords and the King of Kings, Whom Bro. Mike decided to follow and serve.
EL SHADDAI-Where Jesus Christ is Lord. . .

"That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. " Romans 10: 9