Who am I?

About Me

I’m Mark Pereira from Singapore. A regular Bible reading dude born into Roman Catholic parents, well sort of.

My Dad was Eurasian, hailing from Malacca but migrated to Singapore while my mother was a Chinese Singaporean. Divorced happened, Mommy had custody over me, and I followed her to Mass every weekend until I was 17 years old. Funny thing is, she loved attending charismatic Christian churches and ‘schooled’ me in the anointing of God on famous preachers like, Roberts Liardon, Lester Sumrall, and Ulf Ekman. Daddy wasn’t a staunch Roman Catholic too but his mother, aka my granny was staunch, with her faith keeping the whole family together.

At 18, I joined a huge megachurch in Singapore, where I actually got to see one of Mummy’s heroes live, Ulf Ekman! They invited him to Singapore to preach quite many times. Over there, I learned to pray, to praise and worship, served in church ministry as an usher for as long I was there, enrolled in the church’s in-house Bible School, served as a support for the Cell Group Leader, went for missions and made lots of friends. Much of my life revolved around that megachurch from 2007 to 2021.

I loved church life very much, almost too much. Too much because I gave a lot of my finances to the work of the church’s ministry because I fully believed in what was preached over the pulpit during every offering: That God would bless me when I sacrifice my finances to Him.

And I reckoned that He did in many ways, but I was still very poor by 2021. On top of that, I faced many insurance agents selling me investment-linked policies that I could not afford long term that I had to forfeit without getting my money back.

My worst experience was a Cell Group Leader luring me into a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) plan which I borrowed a hefty three grand from my grandmother’s sister to enter but later realized how gimmicky it was. Needless to say, I quitted. Unfortunately, my grandaunt had an accident after she lent me the money. Her family found out, required the money back, which I paid up over a year and stopped contacting me since then.

My maternal grandmother was the poor side of the family. The term ‘broken family’ was an understatement for my family. Without going into too many details, I wanted God’s blessings so much that I would do anything to get it and if you told me that sacrificing all I have for Him (by giving to the tithes and offering messages) to be blessed, I would do it without thinking. Because I did not learn financial management from my family nor from church.

In 2016, I finally had the chance to break out of financial difficulty by becoming a Financial Planner (Insurance Agent). I did very well in my first year, hitting my annual sales target within a year but remember my zeal for sacrificing my finances? Nuff said, I gave alot not saving regularly for myself, an irony considering my vocation, but I gave to the tithes and offering messages and a lot to the building fund call then.

Due to my lack of wisdom, I switched to another insurance company for better prospects in 2018 before fulfilling my two-year contract to my current company. The consequence? I raked up a debt of paying back 50% of the commission I earned to the first insurance company I joined. I had about ten grand debts and, I did not do well in the new company. My grandfather, who I shared a room with was grumpy all the time, especially grumpy when I spent a lot of time at home.

I was depressed, my managers were not happy I wasn’t doing as well as they thought I would and because of my habit of giving to the vision of the megachurch, I was so poor again into my third year of being an insurance agent that I forfeited the two-year contract of this company to find a job. I raked up another debt to pay off 100% of all the commissions I earned in this new company.

You may be wondering why I quit being an Insurance Agent even though it might be the best way out of poverty if I stayed on? One, I was depressed because I was poor and because my family wasn’t so encouraging, two, a church leader advised me to work like commonfolk did, three, I couldn’t stand the fact that I had to view everyone of my friends as potential clients. A job hazard.

The megachurch had many voices. For example, a preacher would preach on faith to gain prosperity in the pulpit, but a local Cell Group Leader would preach advise conservatively. After many years of listening to various voices, racking up debts and struggling with character flaws, I had to leave for my benefit. So, I left in 2021.

Through the entire ordeal, one thing remained to this day. I love Jesus who is God’s Word (everything in the Bible) incarnate through fulfillment of prophecy, He is my King and God, which includes His God and Father as my God, His Holy Spirit as my paraclete, and I love people.

There are reasons why I left the megachurch I attended but the main reason was the blow to my finances.

Why VPreacher?

Hence, I wanted to share the truths that I observed while reading the Bible for myself for many years since the age of 16. Truths that differ from the culture of megachurches, truths that Roman Catholics ignore, truths that traditional church goers don’t see, truths that seal the foundation of a Judeo-Christian faith. Truths that are shaping the world today through the lens of fulfilling prophecy in the Middle-East today.

Truths that build our faith in this God of the Jews who happens to be the TRUE God who reveals Himself through His Son, Jesus the Messiah. Aka Yeshua the Messiah in Hebrew translation.

What has Pop Culture have to do with it?

I’m a pop culture guy. I love cartoons, movies, anime, manga, gaming, collecting comics, done it, collect toys, people, I do toy photography in my really free time. When it comes to faith, boy oh boy does secular pop culture reflect the faith of our generation, be polytheistic faith, agnostic faith, atheism, secularism or just a nonchalant laughing attitude towards humanity headed towards hell.

All of it really interests me. Reading the Bible helps me see pop culture in a different light too and I hope to share my love, views and faith related views regarding pop culture today.

Vigilante Preaching.