Pastor Ariel felt so blessed to be brought up in a Christian home. His parents made it sure that he would not miss Sunday School. He came to know the Lord personally at age 14, and after that, he was water baptised.
During his college years, Pastor Ariel joined the Campus Ministry through the Philippine Student Alliance Lay Movement (PSALM), and actively involved himself in personal evangelism among college students. He also taught Sunday School for Junior Boys at Zamboanga City Alliance Evangelical Church.
A year after graduation from college, he went to work in the Middle East. Being an OFW, he also answered the call to shepherd one of the local underground churches under the umbrella of LORIMI for 6 years and later served God as its Head Pastor for another 10 years.
It was in April 2005 when Pastor Ariel and his family migrated to New Zealand. In the later part of the same year, he joined three other men in fulfilling the vision that God gave – to pioneer a local church in Auckland. It was on 12 February 2006, that the first worship service of the Church of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ was conducted at Dunkirk Community Hall in Panmure, Auckland.
