IVCF Southern Mindanao 3.68

Brief History of IVCF-Southern Mindanao (4th Revision)

Based on the statements of Ephraim Orteza, he said he has been visiting and pioneering the Davao ministry alongside with his ‘walk by faith’ trips in the Visayas and Minidanao especially Zamboanga City and then Davao City via Cotabato City port. He said that the work in Davao began when Purita Santos, now Purita Pamaran returned to Davao City after her graduation from UP Diliman. She was with the IV group in Diliman before SVCF was recognized. She invited IV to start work in Davao City. The first staffworkers to start the work were Emmanuel Pizana and Leticia Abakan-Magalit as part of their Visayas assignment. William Girao also testified in many of his talks that there was a time when his assignments covered the islands of Visayas and Mindanao including Davao. Reomida Dalipe, being the product from a chapter in UM-Davao (Vinta Christian Fellowship), testified that the earliest campus work in the region started in early 1960's with Filame Caces as staffworker assigned in Davao City. Carlos & Linda San Luis replaced them in the late 1960's up to early 1970's.

In 1973, Nancy Ruth Ureta, the staffworker assigned in Davao, later moved to USA to practice her profession as a nurse and involved in Balikatan Ministry. To sustain the growing work, IVCF Philippines' General Secretary, Harvey Co Chien, in 1975 organized the 1st Graduate Team with the concept of doing student ministry while at the same time practicing their respective professions (also known as 'Tent Making'). The 1st batch of GT (Graduate Team) who went to Davao City were Thelma Absalon, Juliet Cunanan, Raymond 'Timothy' Bicera, Ed de Guzman and Nonette 'Nona' Pizaña. Lisa Espineli Chinn accompanied and spent about a month with them.

The following year [1976], more graduates joined the Graduate Team and more students were involved in different campuses for the Lord Jesus Christ. This batch was composed of graduates from Davao colleges and universities (University of Mindanao, Rizal Memorial Colleges, Brokenshire College, Harvardian University, Ateneo de Davao University, etc.) who did the evangelism and discipleship in order to organize and pioneer other campuses. They even encouraged other graduates especially those who joined the Kawayan Camp to take an active participation in the student ministry. Raymundo “Ray” Poral, one of those who joined the 2nd batch of the Graduate Team, passionately took part the vision of reaching the campuses in Southern Mindanao.

In 1977, the Graduate Team-Davao commissioned Raymundo Poral to pioneer the student work in Tagum, Davao del Norte and in Kabacan, Cotabato. At the early school year of 1977, the first campus work in Tagum was realized. The first campuses were at the University of Mindanao-Tagum (UM-Tagum) and the University of South-Eastern Philippines-Apokon (USP-Apokon, now USeP-Apokon) with regular weekly Bible studies and fellowships. Vicente “Vic” Espero, Jr. took an active part as one of the student-leaders in USP with the support of Ms. Rodriguez, a faculty staff,as an adviser. Later, Tagum campuses sent delegates to Kawayan Camp. It became a student-led ministry in its respective campuses and later some rank as graduates. Vic Espero expanded student ministry to Kapalong with the help of other graduates from Tagum [Raul Dela Cruz, Irwin Alegre, Grace Alegre andAlma Agayan] and Davao City [Alvin Agayan and Norma Luague]. Norma Aurora Payawan was also commissioned to transfer her work from Davao to sustain the growing student-work in Kabacan while working at the University of Southern Mindanao. She did and stayed until her retirement on [2012?]. Surprisingly, she spends her retirement years [2012-present] to pioneer another IVCF ministry in Palawan.

In the following year [1978], Raymundo Poral did the same in Koronadal City [King’s College and Notre Dame of Marbel] and in General Santos City [Mindanao State University] in South Cotabato Province. More teammates (Jordan Reyes, Laurente & Tisha Montilla, Alejandro and Nenita Magan) were helping one another for the growing work there. One passionate volunteer in Gen. Santos City was Louie Lapore who served as GT member until his deathbed in [2005?]. He was the mentor of Engr. Edcyl Lopez who, after his graduation, returned to his home place in Agusan del Norte, shared the vision, formed a team and pioneered the chapter in ASCAT in 1998 that made a significant role of the pioneering work in the Caraga Region.

Ramon and Carmen Gasilao were the first staff team assigned to Davao City in 1982 to 1985. During this leadership, the first Regional Assembly (RA) in Southern Mindanao was held in February 1984 at Mount Carmel, Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. It marked the first ever Regional Unit of IVCF Philippines. During this season, the region piloted the idea of having a 'Staff Representative' whose main roles are pastoral care, liaison officer and donor-relation. The first Staff Representative was Reynaldo Pasiliao. Those who followed his footsteps were Jether Yares, Darby Aspacio, Alvin de Guzman,J ayson dela Cruz, Rommel Cabanilla, Ricky Patricio, Jeremie Probadora, Raffy Dela Cruz, Sander Doy & Efren Rubino. These ideas remained effective,working and sustainable!

Through the vision and passion of the Staff, alumni and GTs many years ago, God has been faithfully sustaining His ministry among students and graduates in Southern Mindanao. Glory to His Name!

Contributor/s:
Raymundo Poral (2012); Ephraim Orteza (interview, 2012); William Girao(talks, 2004); Darby S. Aspacio; Elsie Calalang (commentary, 2014); AlvinAgayan (commentary, 2014); Reomida Dalipe (2016)
[we need more contributors and editors on this]

Researched, edited and enhanced by:
Darby Aspacio (2016)