Our Story
Harvest was founded from a challenge and a call. In 1984, Pastor Edgar Banaga received God's challenge to undertake a cross-cultural church planting effort. In 1989, God called Pastor Edgar to plant a church, and on a visit to his sisters in San Jose, CA, he started leading home Bible studies. In 1991, he organized Bible studies in homes of Filipino families. From these, Filipino Christian Church was born with Pastors Edgar & Rosana as senior and founding pastors. For the first time, 28 members joined together for a Sunday worship service on December 8, 1991.
On September 20, 1992, Filipino Christian Church of San Jose, CA, received its charter under the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC). It was the first Filipino Pentecostal Holiness Church established in the United States of America. There were 150 people present during the chartering service where Rev. James Leggett, then Executive Director of General Evangelism, officially organized the church.
In the early 2000s, God called Pastors Edgar & Rosana to reach out to the whole Bay Area, and Filipino Christian Church became Harvest International Christian Church. Harvest continued to grow, moving into different rental facilities until finding a unit to rent at our present location, officially moving in on March 2013. In October of 2014, a second service was added and the unit expanded to accommodate our growing congregation. During the lockdown of 2020, online streaming of Sunday services began and continues to this day, with in-person Sunday service held in the morning.
In 2021, Pastors Edgar and Rosana received God's call to become full-time missionaries in Asia. Under the IPHC's World Missions Ministries, they officially made this transition in 2023.
Pastors Aleli & Henry Sangalang, long-time friends, members, and ministry leaders of Harvest, became the new senior pastors of Harvest. Bishop Stan Reynolds of the Pacific Western Network Ministries of IPHC installed them as senior pastors on December 31, 2023. Pastors Edgar & Rosana went to become missionaries in the Indo-Pacific area of Asia in May 2024.
Here at Harvest, we continue to experience the love, grace, provision, and faithfulness of God. He alone secures our future and guides our path.
