Spreading God's Word
March 26, 1978, Tito Gene (Eugenio Sanchez Sr.) and Tita Pilar attended their first prayer meeting held by the Upper Room Prayer Group in Project 7, Quezon City.
The Sanchez’s attended the prayer meetings regularly, bringing along their children. In one of those meetings, a leader of the Upper Room, looking at the Sanchez’s youngest son Bo, then only 12 years old, prophesied that the boy would be speaking to thousands about God.After 18 months, the Sanchez’s decided to organize their own prayer group, named the Light of Jesus, and held their first prayer meeting at the garage of their home at 56 Chicago Street, Cubao, Quezon City, on September 9, 1980, with Bo leading the meeting.The following year, 30 regular attendees of the prayer meetings formed the Core Family of what was then called Light of Jesus Community.
The LOJ Family Grows Bigger
In the ‘80s, as the Core Family went out to establish prayer meetings in various parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces, members of the Light of Jesus or LOJ rapidly increased in number. The members, coming from various walks of life, were grouped into “families,” composed of 30 to 50 members, such as the Love Family, Strength Family, Joy Family, Peace Family, Faith Family, and the Glory Family.The families built more prayer meetings and so LOJ organized branches such as the Discipleship Communities for Christ (DCC); Homes for Christ, for couples; Youth Mission for Parishes and Communities (YMPACT); Esther, for single women professionals; Joshua, for single men professionals; and Tabitha, for single mature women. In the 1990s, as members went to the Visayas and Mindanao to establish prayer groups, more people joined the Light of Jesus. And so the community was organized into various regions, districts, and chapters. Each chapter was composed of caring groups, the nucleus of the entire organization, composed of five to 15 members.
Fulfilling The Vision Of Spreading God's Word
By the early 2000s, Bro. Bo established the Feast, a Sunday prayer gathering with Holy Mass, lively worship, and series of talks on practical Christian Living – first held at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City. The members of the LOJ regions and chapters were reorganized to build more Feasts which showed videos of talks of Bro. Bo in the main Feast.Come 2009, Bro. Bo, following leading from the Lord, assigned Feast Builders, well known preachers and authors of spiritual books, who established new Feasts. Today, there are now over 150 Feasts, led by these Feast Builders.Light of Jesus has also gone international, establishing prayer groups in key areas in Asia, the Middle East, the United States of America, United Kingdom, Oceania, Canada and the Bahamas which are also holding Feasts.
Gone South
In 2009, South Feast was launched comprising of the areas under Light of Jesus’ LAMP (Las Pinas, Alabang, Muntinlupa, Paranaque) District, including Laguna, Cavite and Batangas. All LOJ leaders and members in these areas volunteered to serve. Hermie Morelos initiated the organizational setup with Arun Gogna as the Feast Builder. “The happiest place on earth” became the tagline.
The soft opening in June of that year was done in the smaller Festival Mall cinema after a problem prevented it from having SM Southmall as the Feast venue.
South Feast session formally opened in July, 2009 at Cinema 10 Festival Mall, initially with one session. Then another session was added due to the increasing number of attendees.
However, attendance kept on soaring that even the 2 sessions were no longer enough to seat all the attendees. A bigger and more spacious venue needed to be found soon.
Providentially, the space at the 2nd level of Festival Mall became available when the previous tenant, a Christian church, vacated the area. Funds were needed to pay for the initial rent, renovation and for the purchase of fixtures and equipment.
A fund-raising campaign was jumpstarted by the Builder and leaders who committed to a certain amount, then more pledges and donations poured in. And the Feast Center came into being – “the happiest place on earth” and our home for almost 7 years.
South Feast was also transformed. It was renamed Feast Alabang after Cavite and Laguna set up their own Feasts with their own Feast Builders.
Feast Alabang became a district.From the initial 1 venue, it has expanded to 5 locations with 8 sessions.
Wednesday Feast Alabang (Festival Mall) opened in June, 2011.
Saturday Feast Alabang opened in October, 2012 but was eventually discontinued due to the closure of the Center
.
Feast SM Bicutan commenced in February, 2013.
Feast Acacia started in April, 2013 then later became Feast ATC in September 2013. It has been renamed Feast Bellevue PM after it moved to Bellevue Hotel in January, 2017.
Feast Southmall opened its doors to the attendees in August, 2016 mainly tended by the servants from Saturday Feast Alabang.
And what about Feast Festival Alabang? As the number of attendees continued to grow, the limited space at the Center became a concern. It moved to Bellevue Hotel in July, 2015 and became Feast Bellevue with 2 sessions and 2 masses.