Gospel Life’s history goes back to the early 1990s. Philippine International Community Bible Church began near Rockville, Maryland, with six families from the Philippines who had settled in the Washington, D.C., area. PICBC was a church plant started by Philippine International Bible Church (PIBC) in nearby Olney. Pastor Tohbie Balasoto arrived with his family in 1994. Later, this church moved to the Bowie area.

During the late 2000s, Victory Baptist Filipino Mission combined with Belair Baptist Church, where they were meeting at the time. Around 2009, the church was renamed to Victory Missions International. Belair continued to host us throughout the rest of Pastor Tohbie’s ministry here. In April 2010, Pastor Ro Penaranda joined us as our Administrative Pastor, remaining in that role for a six-month transition period. For much of the church’s history, many of the church attenders attended several churches at a time but did not commit anywhere. Pastor Tohbie and Pastor Ro spent the summer teaching us through a series based on Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. When the series ended in August, those who wanted to be members signed a commitment to become the charter members of the church.

October 2010 saw our church experience several new beginnings. We changed our name to Gospel Life Church of Bowie, to reflect an increased desire to minister to the whole Bowie area, not only to Filipinos. We began meeting in Cresthill Baptist Church, on our own rather than combined. We installed Pastor Ro as our Senior Pastor. He baptized many of our charter members. Pastor Tohbie moved with most of his family to North Carolina to minister there. Pastor Ro spent a year and a half preaching expositionally through the Gospel of Mark and began discipling many of our current leaders. The Remnant young adults’ group began its Saturday night service, with Pastor Ro and several others preaching each Saturday.

In the summer of 2011, we had several successful retreats. Many young adults from our church and several other churches attended our Camp Resistance retreat in May. Pastor Byung Ham guest preached at several sessions of this retreat. Gospel Life’s Family Camp took place at Summit Lake Camp in June with around 70 attendees. We also had a youth retreat on the Eastern Shore. In the fall, Pastor Ro was ordained at a special service. Our church’s first anniversary as Gospel Life happened that October, with several more new members being baptized. That anniversary service was themed on growth. The Remnant group was learning about how to exegetically read the Bible and held an intensive retreat during the following winter.

One of the defining events of 2012 was, again, our church camp at Skycroft in June. Over 100 people attended it. This camp was focused on witnessing. It prepared us for a park outreach later that year. Pastor Byung Ham returned to teach at another young adults’ retreat, Camp Resolved, with Pastor Ro in August. Another youth retreat followed.

In October 2012, Pastor Ro stepped down to focus full-time on completing his seminary studies. Our church spent the next year and a half searching for a transitional pastor and a senior pastor. Alan Uyenco became our transitional pastor in May 2013.

At the end of March 2014, Gospel Life Church of Bowie disbanded. While it is sad that we could not continue as a church, we know that God used Gospel Life. We will remain active at other churches in our area.