CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- El Shaddai will hold its 17th year anniversary gathering at Villa Del Sol Subdivision here starting at 2 p.m. Thursday by marking the event with prayer and fellowship.

El Shaddai member and former Bulacan congressman Willie Buyson Villarama bared this, saying they expect some 6,000 people from the province and nearby areas to attend the celebration.

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"This is a day of thanksgiving and prayer for God's continued guidance for the movement and for stirring the hearts of the countless faithful in their renewed belief in the faith," Villarama said.

Mariano Mike Velarde, popularly known as Brother Mike, founded el Shaddai, a Catholic charismatic renewal movement.

Inspired by his recovery from a heart ailment in 1978, Mike Verlarde started a weekly Bible-quoting radio show on dwXI, a station he acquired in 1982 as part of a real estate deal. Velarde christened his show "El Shaddai." He then held once-a-month prayer rallies outside the vicinity of the radio station.

After the number of attendees kept growing, he made the rallies weekly until the crowd could no longer be accommodated by the area.

Today, Villarama said El Shaddai Movement has grown rapidly in the last decade and, as of 2005, had some eight million members worldwide.

"The anniversary event will feature a healing mass to be celebrated by Archbishop Paciano Aniceto and the subdivision grounds," Villarama said, adding that a short welcome address will also be given by Mayor Oscar Rodriguez.