Cody Road Church in Mobile, Alabama, welcomed Junior DeSouza as its new pastor on Nov. 7, 2026. The installation marked his first Sabbath with the congregation after serving the Brookhaven and Summit churches in Mississippi.
Josh Murillo, vice president for ministerial for the Gulf States Conference, formally introduced DeSouza and led the installation.
“I am so excited and grateful because today I got to install Pastor Junior DeSouza in his new church at Cody Road,” Murillo said. “I’m sure that the best days of this congregation are still to come.”
During the service, Murillo invited church elders to come forward and lay hands on DeSouza and his family. Together, they prayed for the family as they began their ministry at Cody Road.
In his first sermon, DeSouza encouraged members to seek the Holy Spirit’s presence and guidance. He emphasized that skills and resources alone mean nothing without the Holy Spirit, and he invited the congregation to begin this new chapter united in its mission.
That message resonated with Mary Collins, principal of Mobile Junior Academy.
“As I sat and listened to him, I said, ' Thank you for the vision. And the vision is that we have to be led by the Holy Spirit,” Collins said. “I know he will do great things for Mobile Junior Academy and merge the two together so that his ministry is to both the church and the school.”
As part of the welcome, Collins presented a gift that Mobile Junior Academy students had prepared.
Alexander Kelley, the church’s first elder, said he is eager to work alongside DeSouza.
“So we’re gonna put him to work, and he’s gonna put us to work. So we’re looking forward to it. Absolutely,” Kelley said.
“I love the new pastor. I can hardly wait to see what happens here,” said Kim Carr, one of the church’s members. “And I love his wife and little boy. They’re just precious. So we’re looking for great things to happen at Cody Road.”
For DeSouza, the congregation’s welcome was felt from the moment his family arrived.
“It feels great to be here this Sabbath, and at the very first moment we stepped into this door, we felt home. We felt the love that the people shared with us,” he said. “We look forward to getting to know them better, to spend time together, to visit them, and to serve the Lord together as a church, as family here at Cody Road.”
