Marcus & Kellen Benicio

Marcus Benicio, Kellen, Marcus Antônio and David Miguel form the family that has been living in Portugal since February 2020, coming from Brazil.

Marcus converted to Jesus in a Baptist church at the age of 13, in Rio de Janeiro where he was baptized, being consecrated to the Baptist pastoral ministry in 2004. Even before that, he served as a missionary in the Middle East for five years linked to YWAM. He went to Israel at first, in order to study the Hebrew language and get to know the Israeli way of life. From then on he lived in three kibbutzim where he did ULPAN, and so he started his missionary and evangelistic ministry actively participating in the planting of Christian communities in the country and helping North American missionaries. Back in Brazil, he continued either leading new church planting processes in Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, or acting as the main pastor of churches already organized in Rio de Janeiro, but at every opportunity also contributing to the theological teaching and the formation of new local leaders.

Kellen was born into a Christian home, the daughter and granddaughter of Baptist deacons. Graduated in Biology, she has always actively followed the ministerial and missionary call, understanding it to be the call of the whole family. Accustomed to preaching and ministering both to women and to the church itself, and active in children's ministry and with teenagers, Kellen have always been an active companion participating in everything the Lord leads them to work in His Kingdom.

Despite the short time spent on Portuguese soil, they have been working in the Alentejo, Greater Lisbon region and in the last 15 months in the north of Portugal, seeking opportunities to cooperate with local national leaders in their challenges in the face of the urgency of evangelization of local and immigrant populations to Portugal.