Carmel Pentecostal Assembly of God is a Bible-based Pentecostal Church established by the Grace of God at Hamilton in September 2008. The Church was formed to provide Pentecostal fellowship for those of like precious faith so that the Lord's name should be glorified, and to propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ. As early as 2007, few newly immigrated Malayalee families with Pentecostal faith in the West suburbs of Hamilton used to meet regularly on Saturdays for prayer and fellowship. These meetings were held in the house of any of the family in the group on a rotational basis. As there was no other established Pentecostal church with services in Malayalam in Hamilton during that time, these prayer meetings helped to fulfill the spiritual needs of our community. As more families joined the prayer group in 2008, they prayed for God's grace and guidance to establish a Pentecostal church with service in Malayalam.
During that time Pastor Valsan George from Kerala agreed to guide and support the church and thus the first inaugural Worship Meeting was conducted on 14th September 2008 in the presence of Pastor ShajiKochukunj from Auckland and Pastors Paul Groot and Karen Groot from Rotorua . The inaugural worship meeting was attended by several believers from different parts of New Zealand. Sunday school was also started after a week in different brother's houses.
Church Growth
By the grace of God the church slowly grew in size overtime from a small beginning. In 2013 CPANZ became a fully registered church in Hamilton (under CPANZ Inc) with its own Purpose and Rules and Regulations which is entirely based on the true Word of God as depicted in the Bible. As more families and individuals joined as members, it became a source of blessing to many people. The church and the families continued to support the newly migrated Hindi & Malayalam Christian families and students.
The Church continued to meet for regular Sunday worship services, Fasting prayer meetings on Wednesdays, Interceding prayer meetings on Fridays and 3 days fasting prayers at the starting of every month.