Interview: Former ISM Arizona Student Details Pastoral Corruption

This is the full interview of Natalie Moncayo, a former ISM Arizona student who voiced against pastoral corruption at Ignite Life Center in Gainesville. 

[Some of the quotes in the original article were sent over text and are not included in the interview transcript] 

Q: Do you think the Florida Multicultural district (FMD) of the Assemblies of God (AG) is working with Ignite to get them out of legal trouble and does AG general leadership share responsibility?

A: I know the Assemblies of God manages churches within different districts. The Assemblies of God headquarters is in Springfield Missouri, and I called them to see if there was any way to get Ignite shut down, or its credentials removed after the coverups started coming out. They told me they aren’t able to do anything even though it's horrible because it's stipulated by specific regions. 

Q: When FMD is getting sued alongside Ignite for the coverups, with that into consideration do you think AG national leadership should now have an obligation to get involved?

A: Yeah I really do. At this point it's like supporting a rapist. You don’t support a rapist on any count. The brainwashing and damage that Mark has caused is very sad. It's very sad how AG is scared of all the politics that surround these issues. 

Q: You think AG national leadership is more concerned with how they look to the public than protecting the kids?

A: That’s the big issue, how they would look politically. Even if they’re doing something morally wrong, they’d be more scared of what they look like. 

Q: Do you think a lot of people in Ignite have seen the articles? 

A: I think they have. I think they’ve figured it out but unfortunately because they’re brainwashed and psychologically abusive they are able to not care. I think they have ways to justify it in their head. Mark has a saying to not fall into reverse psychology but he is reversing psychology. He’ll say “Don’t drink the kool-aid.” Essentially, that is exactly what he does. He gets out some sort of wordings or teachings and people just fall for it. 

When I traveled to the Gainesville campus I noticed a lot of the students in Gainesville and even some of the leaders with me in Arizona were afraid of Mark as if he were a god. It was like him being [present] meant everything had to go perfect. I don’t know why. I would get mad at these students. No one owns us. I would remind them that but unfortunately there was something this man had over them. 

Q: Did you feel like you didn’t fall into fear?

A: I believe I didn’t and I’m glad. 

Q: A lot of people have entered Ignite under rough life circumstances, was that the case for you?

A: No, when I started I ended up there most of the students had God redeem them from something so Mark would manipulate them into thinking it was his doing, and that they owed their life to him. But what happened to me was I was there because I just wanted to be there for my spiritual growth and I didn’t find a lot of that there.

Thankfully, that Arizona campus was a bit secluded from normal Ignite so we only got a visit from Mark and a few of the leaders a few times a year.

Mark really has hand picked many couples which are now married and who knows if he’s micromanaging other aspects of their lives.… He loves controlling things. What Maria and Eric would always bring up was that they were both students at Ignite, fell in love, and got married at Ignite, so I’m assuming it was all orchestrated by Ignite. Nicole and Adolfo; Azael and Yanniedy were the same story. I don’t know if you know about [redacted] and [redacted] but that was also an arranged marriage. He’s a chef. 

Q: Yeah I know about that. 

A: Their marriage was also arranged by Mark and it was destroyed by Mark. 

Q: Were Azael and Yanniedy the pastors of your church in Arizona?

A: Not in my church thank God. They didn’t even have a church. They were just sent there by Mark, their church was Ignite.  I live in Tucson and my church is here but while attending Ignite I was living on a campus in Phoenix and attending “Way of Life Church”

He did have his own house, but we would see him on campus most days. We were staying at a campus called American Indian College. It was also sleep away.

He would preach at the Chapel at the University and sometimes at Way of Life Church. He would also preach at other churches, but the main church was way of life and we had a building on campus where Ignite would have our devotionals or paperwork, but that was all we did there and he would always leave at the end of the day

Q: I was under the impression he had his own campus or congregation there?

A: He did not, he would just be invited to preach at other churches. 

Q: So what I’m getting at is Mark tried to start ISM campuses in NY and AZ awhile back and it failed miserably but he still has friends in churches in those states and other states. 

A: Yeah but the Pastor at my church now is aware of what Mark has done so I’d hope he wouldn’t give him any open doors. I’m hoping Arizona in general won’t. He used to express while we were over that he wasn’t gonna get involved with AG there because he thought there was a wider door with the Anglo district. 

Q: What do you think they’re doing with ISM now? They do have a new website.

A: Yeah I’ve seen that and it's frustrating because it's honestly demonic and crazy at this point.  You’d think knowing a person who's gone to jail you wouldn’t put their photo on the website. 

Q: Do you think they did it intentionally?

A: I don’t know. I think it's a part of the reverse psychology.

Q: How do you think Ignite is able to continue operating legally and expanding to Brazil and starting new programs even after everything?

A: Men are evil; well that man is evil. You know the extent that evil can do. They can’t keep hiding it. People can be distorted and unfortunately that’s the way it will be until the law happens. That’s all that we were waiting on. 

Spiritually speaking, I don’t think these people are in a good place. I don’t know why they keep getting deeper into this mess. 

Q: Is the law doing their jobs? Like the Gainesville Police Department, are they doing enough right now?

A: No. A big part of that goes to the influence this Mark man has. I don’t know to what extent but it seems he does because he’s kept things hidden from so many places. Money can do a lot. I know he’s got Mariano in his fingers intertwined. I know he has a lot of money and money can cause a lot of corruption and can cover it all up. Not only has he got that on his side but when it comes to righteousness I know spiritually they’re in a ditch. 

Q: Do you think Mariano is guilty or more innocent? 

A: You know how celebrities are made to be very supportive of everything and nice. I think that’s how Mariano is and unfortunately because of that he’s guilty. I believe he is a big part of paying for the lawyers to help Mark fight this so unfortunately I do believe he is. 

Q: Do you think there’s more cases we haven’t seen yet?

A: Yes I do. Someone who was victimized would still come to the church after and Mark would praise him a lot. I would always wonder why but now that I know I see how gross that was. Mark knew. Nick knew. They brought it up once when my dad was working at the church campus. His mom brought it up and I don’t know what exactly they were saying but that’s how I initially knew and my sister corroborated what they were saying. 

Q: In one of the civil lawsuits it says Mark and Mariano would have a business relationship where he would make money by using his presence at Mariano’s church in New Rochelle, NY, to convince parents to send their kids to ISM. I was wondering if you think he did anything like that at Arizona churches? 

A: I honestly hope not. I know the Arizona campus was very new when I was here and it closed two years later. Thank God for covid because it sent us all home. I know that Mark wanted to promote Ignite at Arizona and I know he’d use Azael and some of the students to do that but we only went to promote at like three churches in Phoenix. There were also two churches in Tucson and a regional service. I hope nothing came out of it. 

Q: At first I thought the Arizona ISM campus was still running. I can say for sure that sometime after the Doug Clay article Azael changed his bio on his website to no longer mention he started an ISM campus in Phoenix in 2017. Another thing is Azael and Yaneidy aren’t on the Ignite homepage but (until they left) were generally spoken of as being on the same level as the other main staff pastors. Do you think he wanted people to believe ISM Arizona was still a thing or wanted to get it reestablished?

A: What I know is he admitted it didn’t work out with Arizona and last I heard there were no plans to reestablish. 

Q: Do you know anything about the Ignite Refugio program?

A:  It's something he promotes a lot to gain acceptance and people’s trust. He offered everyone in the church jobs in the time it was there. Many church members worked there. Ignite is always lying about how they’re using their money or getting money from who knows where. 

Q: Do you think any of the Pastors under Mark would ever have the courage to stand up to him publicly?

A: I don’t know because they’re human but Mark has been degrading their minds for years. They’re very fearful of him. This guy Joey, Noel’s dad, they were directed by Mark, supposedly God spoke to him. These people were living off the government in New York and somehow Mark called them to move to Gainesville and this poor man Joey was so brainwashed that he did that. He spent all that money getting down here from New York. Because of Mark, they bought a new house that they’re still paying off. Now with the Noel case they might lose the house. I don’t think Joey has a college degree so he wouldn’t be able to get a stable or high paying job. All this was directed by Mark.

Mark also made Azael sell his home in Phoenix and go buy one in Gainesville. He did, and I don’t think he’s paid it off yet. Azael removing the ‘ISM Arizona’ from his personal website’s bio is a sign that the guy still has common decency and feels guilty. Many students who trusted him have been hurt. It must hurt him, at least I hope. Azael had convinced his sister to send her sons to his house for the summer internship. He and his wife were supposed to be taking care of them.

I’m aware former Yankee Ramiro Mendoza sent one of his kids to the summer internship or one of the programs. 

Mark loves degrading people. He’s even mentioned that everyone at Ignite are his servants because he is the “powerful speaker.”

Q: Would Mark just be like “Hey I talked with God earlier and He said ‘A, B, and C, you should go do that.’”?

A: Yeah they were so brainwashed; diluted. They had no opinion. It was all directed by Mark. 

Q: Someone I spoke with said Azael would get made fun of for “not standing up to his wife.” What do you think the whistleblower meant?

A: Latin wives tend to be too much sometimes. His wife is from Venezuela so she is pretty loud, and blunt, which can come off as rude so she pretty much wore the pants in their relationship. I remember him mentioning many times while we were in Arizona, that there were things he disagreed on with Mark. I am not sure if his wife won him over. Or if it was something else.

Q: Was there anyone you saw him break down? Do you know how he breaks people down to answer to him like that?

A: He doesn’t do this often because he tries to hide it but the camera guy would get screamed at by Mark. He degrades students. I remember one time we visited Mark’s house and were sitting and some of the Florida students were there and he just started humiliating this poor guy who’d drive the vans. He called him a “silverback gorilla.” He was basically homeless, and the type of person who’d believe Mark rescued him so he’d think he would owe him. 

Q: Would he bring in a lot of homeless people?

A: I’m not sure but I think so.

Q: Was he a bully to anyone else like that?

A: He’d make fun of a lot of students, even in front of their faces. 

Q: There hasn’t been a protest for Ignite since Unbound. What needs to happen to Ignite in the Gainesville community?

A: Honesty burn the place down. That would be wonderful, or throw eggs at it, or toilet paper. It is disgusting how these people think they can get away with it. 

Scientifically, if there is a rapist, mentally they’ll keep raping. Just like how murderers keep murdering. 

Q: If you could say something to GPD Interim Chief of Police Nelson Moya what would it be?

A: It's about the safety of the community. This place needs to be condemned and shut down. 

Q: Do you think the pastors should be arrested and charged for evidence concealment?

A: I do. As sad as it may be, a rapist will rape again unless stopped and taken into custody. They hid the rape so they’re technically rapists in a way, because they’re letting it continue. I also know that some of them are victims as well, so I don’t even know what they’re brain might look like at this point. They have no mental capacity to know right from wrong or do their own thing.