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About Our Church
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Ithaca is a small college town with two colleges - Cornell University and Ithaca College. First Ithaca Chinese Christian Church (FICCC) was formally established in 1983. Since then Pastor David Wong, Pastor Nong-Ruay Ray Chen, and Pastor Tony Hsu have been providing the pastoral care and leadership to this church. Over all these years, while the size of the church grows only a little, we have seen God use this small church to change the lives of thousands of Mandarin-speaking, Cantonese-speaking, English-speaking students, scholars, their spouses and relatives who lived in Ithaca only for short-term. In this church, people grow in the Lord and are equipped to be God's useful instruments. A few former members of FICCC have finished seminary training - Nong-Ruay Chen (Nyack, 1997), Jia-Huey Yuan (Harvest, 2003), Hui-Ru Chang (Moody, 2005), Nathan Chau (Fuller, 2007), and Calvin Ho (Fuller, 2011). And many others are actively serving the Lord in churches all over U.S., Canada and in Asia. May all the glory and praise be unto Him.
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| Major Milestones in FICCC's History |
| Nov 1983 | Held first Sunday worship service at First Baptist Church; |
| Nov 1984 | Celebrated 1st Anniversary, inaugurated deacons and building committee; |
| Apr 1985 | Started using the facility of Hillside Alliance Church for worship service on Sunday; |
| Dec 1988 | Purchased the house at 1462 Slaterville Rd. and converted it to building for church use; |
| Sep 1990 | Dr. Nong-Ruay Ray Chen was called into full-time ministry and began his study at NYACK; |
| Sep 1993 | Nong-Ruay's family moved back to Ithaca to pastor the church full time; |
| Sep 1996 | Formed the Church Governing Board and elected Elders and Deacons; |
| Jan 1997 | Pastor Chen moved back to Taiwan to take care of his father who had cancer; |
| June 1997 | Joined the denomination of Evangelical Free to ensure doctrine purity in the future; |
| June 1997 | Purchased the current church building at 429 Mitchell Street; |
| July 1997 | Pastor Tony Hsu started serving as the pastor of the church; |
| Dec 1997 | Started promoting Bible Read-athon, Adult Sunday School, church and fellowship prayer meetings; |
| Sep 1998 | Started our own Youth Fellowship and Youth Sunday School; |
| Mar 1999 | Approved Missions Policy and formed Missions Committee; |
| Mar 1999 | Michael Wong (son of Pastor David Wong) used our church facility for his ordination; |
| Aug 1999 | Established our church's website www.immanuel.net/ficcc; |
| Dec 1999 | Purchased House of Joy (425 Mitchell Street); |
| Aug 2000 | Added English Ministry and held first English Worship service on August 20; |
| Nov 2000 | Held first church coworkers' retreat; |
| Feb 2001 | Partnered with China Evangelical Seminary to offer seminary extension class in Ithaca annually; |
| May 2002 | Held first church retreat; |
| June 2007 | Purchased House of Peace (230 Ridgedale - next to the church building's backyard); |
| Aug 2008 | Rev. Paul Epp started serving as Pastor of English Ministry |
July 2009 | Started sending short-term mission team to lead VBS in Brooklyn, NY every summer. |
Aug 2009 | Youth Group started joining Rochester Chinese Christian Church's annual Youth Retreat. |