HCM Success

Besides leading hundreds of people to Christ over the past 8 years and teaching them God's Word, Holistic Christian Ministry has been assisting families in helping break the cycle or poverty that families have lived through the generations. HCM has educational ministries such as tutoring and college scholarships as well as socio-economic ministries such as micro-financing to fund small businesses such as selling fruits, snacks, vegetables and raising pigs.

Seven of the past local high school valedictorians are HCM youth members. Eight past youth members have left the area to go to college and become engineers, nurses, and teachers. Two former youth members are currently in seminary and one current youth member is the president of the 15 church-wide Buhi Christian Youth Organization

The biggest achievement of a former youth member is Nilo Borromeo who is graduating this March with a Master’s in Linguistics and will be a Wycliffe Director of Bible Translation for the Camarines Sur Province leading a team to translate the bible to the various local dialects.

HCM Church Building Status - February 2009

After several years as a home church, church attendance reached over 150 and there was a need to have church service in a larger facility. In 2005, Mark and Nancy Blanco purchased and donated land for the church and in 2006 Mark and Nancy Blanco funded the first phase of the building which is the future classroom and nursery area. This section is 80% complete with the East Wall still missing so the church has been having service in this open air environment since December of 2006.

However, this meeting area is less than 700 sq ft in size so they added a temporary thatched roof over dirt area on the East side to create seating room for the children.
This current space is still not sufficient to accommodate the over 250 people in weekly attendance and is limiting the church in their ability to minister to the children and accommodate new attendees. Furthermore, due to not having a nursery/child care facilities, many mothers are not attending service due to having to stay home to care for their babies and young children.

The church building has been in this state for the past couple of years due to a lack of funding. However, in 2009, the church has received some financial support to build the remaining beams for the future roof. The church is planning to build the roof for the main building first since there is no saying when funding will be available for the walls.

With a roof in place, HCM can have the main church area to hold an outdoor service and accommodate more attendees. It will also enable the church to start nursery and child care services which will allow mothers and the whole family to attend service. The church is needing an additional $4380 for the roof frames then $7350 for the roof top to make this next phase a reality.

Holistic Christian Ministry Background

Holistic Christian Ministry (HCM) is bible-based Christ-centered independent Christian church. It started off as a bible study 8 years ago in the residence of Mark and Nancy Blanco’s home in Santa Justina, Buhi, Philippines. It quickly became a home church with services performed by Pastor Mar Monge and Pastor Ed Lopez.

What makes HCM different from most churches is two fold: 1) 99% of the members are poor – the average family earns $100-150 a month 2) 80% of the members are children and the church has been growing through the children – through the children’s witness, they ask their friends and parents to go to church.

Today, the church has over 70 family units and 260 people in weekly attendance. It meets in a small lot and a partially built church building donated by Mark and Nancy Blanco.