Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune
On January 11, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "The Rev. Jose Soriano keeps everything he needs to preach the word of God in the back of his van. There's a bag of candles. A box of Bibles and hymnals. A cross, the communion. Even a small pad that he unrolls when his parishioners need to kneel. Every Sunday for the past nine years, he has unloaded the contents of his van into one elementary school gymnasium after another. He and the 90 members of the First Filipino Evangelical Methodist Church have roamed National City, setting up folding chairs and turning small stages into places from which to preach the gospel." Soriano and his wife Januaria have been searching for a home for their church for nine years; on Monday they were unanimously granted a variance to convert an old produce store into a church. The City Council will take a final vote on the variance later in the month. A few neighbors were concernned about the development, but commissioners felt that the new church would be a positive addition to the neighborhood, removing a run-down abandoned building.