Wow! Ten Years! God Is Good!
On May 6, 2007, our church celebrated it's 10th year anniversary...and what a celebration it was!
We were blessed to have as our special guests Bruce Sumner (SWBC District Executive Minister) and his wife Kim, Curt Gruber (Associate Executive Minister of SWBC) who gave the anniversary message, and a guest performance by former lead singer of the Santana Band (now turned Pastor) Leon Patillo and his wife Renee!
As you will see on the slideshow, we had a "filipiniana" theme wherein the celebration after worship consisted of various Filipino traditional dances, and lots and lots of Filipino food!!!
THE ABOVE PICTURE SHOWS THE ORIGINAL FOUNDING MEMBERS OF CICF TEN YEARS LATER: Ferdinand and Lilian Cancino, and their children J.R. and Archie, Peter and Kynna Lacanienta and their two children, my wife Cory, myself, and our two sons Myles and Paul.
Of course Paul, and Peter and Kynna's two kids were not there back on May 4, 1997 when we started the church, but it's a great picture because it shows all of us 10 years later (still smiling)!
I LOVE THEM ALL DEARLY. The things we experienced together in starting the church are unforgetable....we laughed together, cried together, encouraged each other, worshipped together, studied God's Word together, and prayed together. We're still amazed how the Lord could start a church through a postal worker, a hospital orderly, and a nurse!
We were often asked,
"How did you guys know how to start a church ten years ago?" And our honest answer -
"We had no idea what we were doing!!!" All we knew was that we had the passion to tell others about Christ, and that I had been given from God a deep burden and a strong sense of responsibility to preach the Gospel to those who never heard it.
So we just faithfully served day-by-day, and week-by-week, completely trusting in our Lord and believing that He would do something wonderful...and that He did! It was a humble privilege for us to witness before our eyes the mighty power of God as He gradually grew the Church.
It's been a long journey, but after 10 wonderful years, the journey has only just begun....please stay tuned for the next 10 years....
Click here for a slideshow of our 10th Year Anniversary Celebration. Make sure your computer speakers are on...and enjoy!Do you want to see how all of us in the above picture looked 10 years ago?
Well just click here and you will be brought to a blog post that has a slideshow showing 10 years of CICF history in 4 minutes, and in the first 3 pictures you will see how we all looked like back in 1997.
