Our History
In June of 1984, Rice Broocks, Al Manamtam, and Steve & Deborah Murrell led a team of sixty-five American university students on a one month summer mission trip in Manila’s University Belt. After two weeks of evangelistic meetings at the Girl Scouts auditorium, the new church moved into the basement of the Tandem Theater on Recto Avenue. At that time, the congregation consisted of about 150 high school and university students.
By 1986, the U-Belt congregation spread to Makati, then to Tuguegarao, Dagupan, Baguio, Los Baños, and other Philippine cities and abroad. Victory has sent Filipino campus ministers and church planters to serve as cross-cultural missionaries in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Latvia, Malaysia, Russia, Guam, Cambodia, South Africa, Australia, India, and the United Arab Emirates. Besides these long-term missionaries, numerous short-term evangelism and medical teams have been sent to a dozen nations.
In March of 1994, Rice Broocks, Phil Bonasso, and Steve Murrell met in Manila, Philippines to explore ways to cooperate in church planting. This meeting resulted in the official birthing of Every Nation Ministries with Victory Christian Fellowship as one of the founding member churches.
That original group of 150 students in Manila’s U-Belt has grown to over 18,000 students, professionals, and families, who now worship in ten different venues around Metro Manila (as of August 2005). The growth and health of Victory has been attributed to the Ephesians 4:12 Strategy, which is both a discipleship-based church growth strategy and a church-based discipleship strategy. Through the E412 Strategy, Victory has equipped and empowered over 3,000 small group discipleship leaders who meet weekly in coffee shops, homes, and offices all over the city for Bible study, prayer, and fellowship.
