Rio Pastors Conference Wrap-up — February, 2026

By J. Boe Ellis, posted April 6, 2026

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — I was blessed to collaborate with Darin Saley, of Lakeland, FL, in late February, 2026 to take a Pastors and Leaders Conference to Recreio Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with a mission was to serve the pastors and leaders of the Celebration Church Planting Network there. It was a Friday night / Saturday-day kind of format that helped create a retreat-like setting for pastors and leaders and their wives to work on assessments that identify needs and focus on Biblical and practical steps for building healthy, growing relationships.

Most of all, the training, which was made possible through an amazing partnership with a church in Tampa and with Mike Kahn of the Tampa Bay Baptist Association, brought four different church plants from four different parts of Greater-Rio together in one place to encourage one another and fellowship with one another.

For Southern Baptist pastors in the U.S., that might sound like a familiar kind of thing, but for the pastors in the Celebration Network in Brazil, they don’t have a local association to organize and fund events like this. That is, the why of this specific training. Why not us?

The idea got it start when Saley and I sat at a wings joint in Lakeland in the summer of 2024. After years of pressing Saley to come with me and teach with me on one of these kinds of trips, he finally said yes! And that is when I got to work. And, the first call I  made was to a mutual friend, the pastor of a church in Tampa that I knew could make it happen.

I told that pastor what we had in mind would be a groundbreaking kind of event for our Network in Brazil. “No one has ever done anything like this for them,” I said. And, I was telling the truth. Why? Because, we hadn’t done anything like that for them, yet. And, as far as I know, apart from their parent-church in Boston, we are the only partners they have in the U.S. At least right now.

So, praise God, we did our first event in Barra da Tijuca in February of 2025. And, immediately after, we knew the Holy Spirit was blessing. And, immediately after, we thought, we have got to do this again next year. So, we brought back a super report from our partner churches, and asked those same supporters in Tampa to help us do it again. Only this time, we could move the conference to the beach! And, that turned out to be a game-changer, as it opened up opportunities for churches and leaders and couples to just take a walk. And, you know, sometimes that is just what we need, to take a walk together and with the Lord. And, we saw the fruit of that in the faces of so many there.

About half way through the conference, Saley received a WhatsApp message from one of the pastors attending the conference. It was a heartfelt thank you from a pastor whose wife has suffered from Parkinsons. That pastor sent a lengthy note about the impact that the conference had in refreshing his wife and giving them both a renewed spirit of hope for the future. It was a real tear-jerker, and confirmation in our own hearts that the Lord was in the effort. The Lord is in the investment.

The Great Commission on our lives and the lives of these pastors is to go and make disciples. It is the same for all of us. And, that goes for the stresses and the challenges of life too. Every one of us needs a fresh wind from the Spirit every now and then. And, we are blessed because of your support to be able to bring that to these 50+ pastors and leaders for about one-fifth of what it would cost to host the same kind of training in the U.S.

Thank you to all of our supporters and financial partners in the U.S. for helping us make a difference here in Rio. We are already looking forward to our summer VBS trip coming up this July 19-29, 2026. Learn more about our charity golf fundraiser here.