Revival Ministry in the Philippines

Revival Ministry in the Philippines

CLI student, Mark Castillo, is training at Christian Leaders Institute in order to start a revival ministry in the Philippines as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where 80-90% of the people there are Muslim.

Read in Mark’s words about his passion for bringing a revival ministry in the Philippines below:

My name is Mark Ralston Castillo from the Philippines. I am 31 years of age and the eldest of the two siblings. I am currently working as a nurse in the United Arab Emirates. I began my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ when I was in my secondary school in our class and my age at that time was about 15 years old when one missionary from Campus Crusade for Christ shared to us how to have a relationship with Jesus and I accepted Him as my personal Savior and Lord. From then on my journey with God started.

Every day is a day with great hunger and thirst for the Lord. In my college years, I am a youth leader and a youth camp director once. I love teaching the youth and those people who are teachable in heart regardless of age, sex, and race. At the age of 29, I worked as an Overseas Filipino Worker here in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. I got married to my beautiful wife Christina at age 30. I have been a Christian for almost 16 years now but I still felt inadequate and still a baby Christian in my walk with God.
By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am going to use my ministry training to be a missionary to my fellow Filipinos especially the youth and a church planter to every place where God wants me to be. I am going to be used by God to start a revival to my fellow Filipinos through discipleship and training them to be disciples also for free.

I was born in the Philippines but I am now currently working as a nurse in the United Arab Emirates since 2015. The people here are 80-90% Muslims though this is an open country yet it is very difficult to evangelize people especially Muslims. If one is caught by the police converting Muslims to Christianity, it is a serious offense and one of the grounds for immediate Deportation to one’s home country. Bibles here are very limited and most Bibles here are online. We are open to have a worship service to specific places but we are not allowed to invite Muslims, only my fellow Filipinos. People here are busy at their job and no time for God because to them they live to earn money but I believe as a Christian I am commissioned for a specific purpose and God will be glorified wherever I go and people will know that Jesus is the Messiah and Lord of lords and not Allah.

My ministry dream is to start a revival ministry in the Philippines and to my fellow Filipinos here in abroad and to plant churches in my home country. To share to them that Jesus Christ is the Living God and to train disciples to become disciple makers for free. I see myself as a Youth Leader, Mentor and a Church Planter to where God wants me to be especially Philippines and UAE.

In my college years, I was a youth leader in our church and I saw hundreds of people especially the youth who are hungry to know God and are willing to be trained. The youth are willing to learn and always curious and that drives me to study and learn more about God and his work so that I can pass on to them everything I have learned and will learn in the future.

I encountered unique challenges here in my current place of work. Most people here in the UAE are Muslims and the language barrier is great because most people here speak Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu. I only speak English and bibles here are not distributed anywhere and evangelism in public is a serious offense in the UAE law.
My church in the Philippines is supporting me through prayer and that the mission of the Lord Jesus in me will be fulfilled. My wife Christina is a very supportive to me. We are praying every day, doing devotional and bible study and she supports me in my CLI training. She also joined CLI for the purpose of learning and growing more in Christ Jesus.

My scholarship in Christian Leaders Institute is my answered prayer and a great blessing in training me to know my calling and my ministry because there are no bible schools here in UAE. I need every prayer and support from all Christians because only by the grace of God that I can continue and be able to graduate in this institute. To God be the glory.

Read about other students that want to start a revival ministry like Mark on our Facebook Page.