Connecting Tampa Hispanics to Brazilians in Boston and Rio

Posted on February 28, 2022 by J. Boe Ellis

TAMPA, Fl — What happens when a Cuban pastor in Tampa invites a gringo to preach, and present his work with Brazilians in Boston and in Rio de Janeiro? Ask Pastor Rafael Sanchez, of Iglesia Bautista Bethel.

“We are excited to put missions in front of our people,” he said. “Every chance we get, we want to help them get excited about reaching the nations right from our church in Tampa. And Pastor Boe is here to help us do that.”

Iglesia Bautista Bethel is already doing outreach in Tampa and serving serving alongside Christians for Worldwide Evangelism (CWE) locally, and in Central America. But, for Pastor Rafael, the idea of a partnership with GCPN is about strengthening the Great Commission heart of the church.

On this Sunday, February, 27  2022, we tried to do that, looking at a story from Mark 2:1-12, when four friends of a paralyzed man on a mat were compelled to get their friend to Jesus, so much so they opened a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was inside teaching, and they lowered their friend right at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus responds to their faith and looks at the paralyzed man and says “because of their faith (pointing at the four friends), your sins are forgiven.” Amen. Jesus responds to a physical need by acknowledging radical faith, and meeting first a far more important, spiritual need.

And, such is the task of missions, weaving the practical and the physical helps into our evangelism and disciple making, into our Gospel work and witness, and not the other way around.

It’s a message with a simple challenge for believers: are we compelled by faith to go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that our friends (and neighbors) can get to Jesus?

GCPN is very grateful to Pastor Rafael for allowing us to share that message. We pray much fruit will come from it, and we look forward to a continuing relationship with this great Spanish-speaking church in a very strategic city.