Sister Ofel Mendizabal is shown here in the flowered white dress, along with 4 of her 5 adult children. She is the current head of the Emmaus Partition, one of three partitions of Philippine Asian Mission Inc. (PAMI). The Emmaus Partion includes Emmaus Bible Institute, a post-secondary four-year Bible school that trains young people to be pastors and Christian workers, which was established in 1984. Sister Ofel was one of the first four graduates of EBI in 1988 and has served as EBI teacher/administrator for many years, up until now. The Emmaus campus also houses a Child Development Center for over 150 Padaba (“well loved”) children sponsored by Compassion International. The EBI partition also includes Emmaus Christian Fellowhip Church (that serves both the campus and neighborhood) and a few other nearby daughter churches and outreaches. Ofel’s two daughters have been Padaba teachers, and are still active with outreaches and leadership of the ECF church young people and worship team. Nicole just graduated with a degree in Architecture and Shelley is working on a Psychology major. Eldest son Paul Jethro serves as the bookkeeper of both PAMI and CDC. Kevin is another son that also helps the ministry when he and his family occasionally visit from Manila. Ofel took over oversight of Emmaus after her husband Chito (the previous head) passed away from cancer in 2012. Ofel is now being sponsored by Prairie Hill E. Free Church of Eden Prairie, MN after previously sponsored Pastor Rafael Dominguez left PAMI earlier in 2026 to become the pastor of a church in Bulusan where he had grown up.
The following are links to pdf files of the two most recent quarterly reports of ECF, the Emmaus Partition, and ministry of Sister Ofel and family. They were composed by Ofel’s youngest daughter Shelley, and are very thorough and well-written. They include many pages and pictures of news of all sorts of exciting ministry. These files are big, so may take awhile to download.
Emmaus/Mendizabal Quarterly Report for July – September 2026