Celebrating a New Brazil Partner: Igreja Batista Identidade

Posted on May 19, 2021 by J. Boe Ellis

TAMPA, Fl — They started meeting in 2019 in the student worship center on the second floor of the gym behind the First Baptist Church of Tampa. It was not a huge space, but it was the perfect space for Pastor Luis Mariusso to launch a new Brazilian church plant called Identity Baptist Church.

Then. COVID. As if planting a brand new church wasn’t hard enough.

Fast forward to Sunday, May 9, 2021, and you can understand why we were so excited to find most the members gathering back in person during our visit. It was “Missions Sunday.” And, thanks to Pastor Luis’s impromptu invitation, I was the guest preacher.

We had talked on the phone only two days earlier, and I absolutely love the way Pastor Luis doesn’t need a week or a month to make a decision. He needed about a minute. Pastor Luis loves Jesus. He loves the people of his homeland, Brazil. He loves missions. And, praise the Lord for our friendship, he loves me and my family.

So, I was all smiles walking up the stairs through the student cafe and into the Identity Church 11:00 a.m. service. My text was Philippians 1:1-6, a message I have entitled “The Joy of Gospel Partnerships.” It’s a story, really, about Paul’s love for his church family in Philippi, and the backstory (see the Book of Acts) of how their partnership came about “from the first day until now,” Paul writes in Philippians 1:5.

I was prepared and prayed up, with a hope and expectation that somehow the Lord might use me to encourage this young church family, and let them know about our Brazil partnership, and more specifically, our Brazil mission trip coming up July 4-13, 2021. I wanted to encourage this pastor, and his wife Marta, and their young church plant to keep it up! To persevere, as Paul says in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Amen.

But, wouldn’t you know–and isn’t the Lord always working in ways we are not even looking for–it was I who was the most encouraged.

At a time in our young ministry when every single supporter, and every vote of confidence (small or large) is cause for great celebration, Pastor Luis finished the message with a word of prayer over me; my son, Cameron; and my daughter, Carly. He prayed for our ministry now and in the future. He prayed for his church to be able to partner with us in Brazil.

As I was getting ready to leave that Mother’s Day, Pastor Luis and Marta were full of hugs, full of words of affirmation, and of course offers of food and drink. They also handed us a very generous, and very unexpected financial gift for our scholarship fund to help more students go with us to Brazil in July.

What a blessing. What joy we have in partnership in the Gospel.

Please pray for Pastor Luis, and Identity Baptist Church. Visit them on Facebook -> here.

Learn more about our Brazil Mission Trip coming up July 4-13, 2021. -> Click here