About Passionate for His Purpose
Passionate for His Purpose is a ministry run by me, Mark Burke and my wife, Tricia Burke, to teach and train you about truths that are near and dear to our Heavenly Father’s heart. It is all about learning of the desires and intents of the heart of God. Passion is within the hearts and minds of every person on this planet. This ministry is devoted to focusing on those things that our Father and Lord Jesus Christ are continually driven by around the Throne in heaven. The apostle Paul said it well in the book of Romans.
Romans 8:28 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
As Christians, we should be focused on His purpose not our own purpose. All things are not going to work out for our good if we don’t have a heart that is after God and driven by what is in His mind and heart. It is all about being called according to His purpose. One of our main objectives with this site is to instruct the body of Christ about His purpose. It is prayer that as you partake of the various offerings on these pages that your relationship with God will become one of intimacy and depth in Him. God wants us to know Him in deeper ways. It is our prayer that the Lord will bless you with all the content that is being offered through this venue.
Who is Mark Burke?
I am a passionate pursuer of the heart of God, teacher, preacher, and author. I am in my mid-forties and married to my adorable, sweet wife Tricia. We have two dogs Molly and Bitsy. We do not have any children due to the wife being unable to conceive. At an early age she was diagnosed with cancer and had to have a complete hysterectomy. Our two furry ones are our children.
I graduated from Bible college with a degree in Preaching and Evangelism/Bible. After graduation, God led my wife and I to the Dallas Metroplex region. I started my professional career as a social worker in a local agency in Mesquite, Texas for approximately three years. Not my dream job but it paid the bills. I thought we would go into full time evangelistic ministry, but it did not happen.
After moving to Texas my wife immediately began her career working in Christian school environment. At the time, I had not secured a position yet but was looking to use my ministerial degree to work in some Christian position. I thought I would be able to start working in the ministry as a traveling evangelist, but this was not manifesting at the time. I needed to find work as soon as possible. I soon found out about the Texas Workforce Commission and registered with this agency to help me begin my job search. I have some previous job experience working in oil fields and some experience working in retail while attending college. I ended up accepting a position in the welfare reform system as a social worker for a few years. After doing this for a few years, I continued working with the agency but moved into another position to assist people that needed training to go back to school. I worked for a few years as a Workforce Investment Act counselor.
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At this point in my career, I began to feel like I needed a change. After much discussion with God and my wife, I began to look for jobs in the education field. I had a love for learning and teaching, so I started applying for jobs with charter schools in the Dallas Metroplex. I was offered a job with a public charter school in Garland, Texas to be an English Language Arts teacher. I accepted the position and continued working in this capacity for five years. It was during my tenure at this school I began to learn new things about myself in technology. As a kid, I did not grow up with any computers or any types of technology but realized I was particularly good at using technology and really enjoyed it. I began to do a lot of reading and self-study in this area. I studied things on the internet and purchased various kinds of books so I could learn more. I would spend hours doing this. It was at this point that I thought about getting a state certification in technology so I could teach this in public schools.
With this newfound hunger and love for technology, I started to look for a position with a charter school where I could teach technology classes. I went to work for Rylie Family Faith Academies, which is now Aplus Charter Schools, as a technology teacher. I was going to be teaching Business Computer Information Systems and Desktop Publishing. Soon after I started in this new position, I enrolled in a program to become state certified in Technology Applications EC-12. To make a long story short, I completed the program and passed two state certification examinations and become a state certified teacher in Technology Applications which includes technology applications core, digital graphics and animation and desktop publishing, video technology and multimedia and webmastering. I taught grades 7th -12th for the next three years and decided to transition into a new role within the same school.
An opening became available in the technology department as a Computer Technician. I applied for and was offered this position. I continued working as a technician for the next three or four years starting at one of the high schools and then later being moved to one of our elementary campuses. I worked helping administrators, principals, teachers and staff, and students in all areas of technology. I worked with a small group of other technicians but really became the lead on the technology team. After working as a technician for these years, I was approached by our Superintendent about being the Director of Technology for our district. I accepted, not really knowing all that this position would really entail. It was a vast experience but found over the course of the first year that it was not really something that was a good fit for me. I finished my contract and eventually resigned from this position. I left on good terms speaking to my immediate supervisor and superintendent. The superintendent wrote me an excellent letter of recommendation which I very much appreciated. I worked at Aplus Charter Schools for 10 years, but now it was time to move on, not really knowing where my next job would be. My last day of employment was on September 25, 2017. Mind you, I did not have another job offer at this point, but I was being obedient to the call to step out of the familiar and known to go into the unfamiliar and unknown not knowing what was ahead of me.
How Passionate for His Purpose Began
After my resignation, I immediately began setting up and updating my information on all the job-related websites. Also, I began searching for education positions in other school districts and filling applications and submitting these in hopes of getting back into the workforce soon. I submitted my resume for jobs in schools and in the corporate sector, but I was not offered any jobs. It was during these weeks and months that I began to feel the need to investigate setting up an online business. I had been following a few well-known individuals on the internet that had highly successful businesses to see what they were doing. It was during this time of research and exploration I realized all the training and experiences had brought me to this point in life. I began to study what these individuals were doing and not doing to help me accelerate moving forward in establishing an online presence. My thought process was to look at all the mistakes they had made and learn from them. This does not mean I want to make my share of mistakes, but it does mean we can learn from the mishaps of others. Passionate for His Purpose initial beginnings were set in motion during one of the most challenging times in my life.
Why I Do What I Do
I have always had an intense desire in my mind and heart to be in full time ministry. I want to share the message of sonship with individuals all over the world. My passionate desire is to take the things God shares with me through teachings, messages, podcast, books, digital courses (coming soon), etc. and share all these offerings with the mandate of going into all the world to proclaim the good news of the gospel. This passion is an internal propulsion from God. Everything I do stems from a passionate relationship of knowing God and then releasing what He shares with me with those around me. This is my motivation.