A growing faith

Charismatic renewal group El Shaddai celebrates six years in Grande Prairie

Kyle Greenham
ArchGM News

For Giegie Perez, El Shaddai has been a source of community, faith, and most importantly – healing.

When Perez first moved to Grande Prairie in 2018, her family was dealing with some difficult issues. At the time, their young daughter Chloe was continuously upset, crying into the late hours of the night.

It was the prayers and support of the El Shaddai community that ultimately lifted them out of that trauma.

“We were praying the rosary, singing praise and worship, and then Chloe stopped crying for the first time in months,” Perez said, recalling her family’s first experience with El Shaddai. “It was a big help in our family. It gave us this sense of forgiveness, and all of the anger in our hearts that we were dealing with at the time, it was gone.

“Our lives changed in a major way when we joined El Shaddai.”

This year, the Catholic charismatic renewal group El Shaddai is celebrating six years in Grande Prairie. Their chapter was started in early 2015 by seven parishioners at St. Joseph’s Church, who had been a part of El Shaddai groups in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

El Shaddai began in 1984 by founder Mike Velarde, who had a profound religious conversion while overcoming a heart ailment. The experience inspired him to start his own radio program, which has now grown into one of the largest Catholic charismatic movements in the world. Worship in El Shaddai is centered on the celebration of Mass, and followed by a service filled with singing, dancing, studying Scripture and giving testimonials.

His Grace Archbishop Gerard Pettipas offered a happy sixth anniversary to El Shaddai’s Grande Prairie chapter in a video message. He blessed and congratulated the group, and encouraged them to embrace devotion to St. Joseph and pray that fathers within their community will be the Christian role models God calls them to be.

“We started an El Shaddai chapter here because we wanted to grow in faith and be closer to God,” said Irene Llanto, who has been a part of El Shaddai since 1996. “For us, it’s about creating that faith that’s in our hearts. So we sing, we raise our hands and praise God, we pray in thanksgiving for our blessings, and pray through the midst of our trials.”

Llanto says the group are very grateful that St. Joseph’s Church and Archbishop Pettipas have allowed El Shaddai to flourish within the parish. The Grande Prairie chapter now has more than 50 members, although around 30 attend regularly. Because of the pandemic, they currently host their meetings over Zoom every Sunday. Many members had never heard of El Shaddai until they discovered the group at St. Joseph’s.

“St. Joseph’s Church has become like home for me,” said Llanto. “I made lots of friends from joining the choir and doing other things. One of the goals of El Shaddai is to help the parish and parish priest, whether it’s in music, eucharistic ministry, or whatever else. So we stay very involved.”

Since they first joined in 2018, Perez and her family have taken leading roles in St. Joseph’s El Shaddai chapter. Her husband Elvin now MCs their Sunday events and Perez plays guitar in their choir.

It has also been a great aid in passing on faith to her children. Recently, Chloe and Perez prayed for a family friend who was struggling to get pregnant. When the friend finally did have her child, Chloe saw it as Christ answering their prayers.

“It has given us so many good experiences,” said Perez. “When we sing, when we hear the Gospel [through testimonials and studying the Scriptures] and understand it so much more, it helps our faith and has hugely impacted our family.”

What draws Llanto so strongly to El Shaddai is that it helps her experience the presence of God in a very real way.

“When I’m singing, I feel something rise up in my heart. I really feel the presence of the Lord,” she said. “When I’m leading the worship, I feel like an angel is holding me.”

An important prayer in El Shaddai is asking God to grow the faith and bring more people to the Church. Similar El Shaddai chapters have recently started in High Level and Peace River.

“Because this diocese is so big we are always calling on God, asking Him for more workers,” said Llanto. “That’s one prayer we are always asking God – to give us more courage and help us in our goal of bringing more people to the Church.”