JIu jitsu for jesus

During the summer of 1996, Eli attended a youth group at a church in San Diego called Glad Tidings. It was there that he heard the gospel - the good news - about Jesus Christ for the first time. After years of being in a street gang, struggling with addiction and getting in trouble with the law, Eli accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior on July 13, 1996 and his life has never been the same. In 1999, after a year of ministry training, Eli began serving as a children’s pastor. Two years later, he was hired to be a youth pastor in Long Beach, CA. In 2005, he and his wife, Roma, founded a church named Amazing Grace Assembly in Palmdale, CA, where they served as the lead pastors for over ten years.

During their time in Palmdale, Eli searched for ways to exercise and stay in shape. He was invited by a friend to an MMA gym, where he was introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He immediately fell in love with the art. As a kid, he was a big fan of wrestling and was always grappling with his friends. As he started his training in BJJ, he quickly learned that it was less about size, strength and speed, and more about technique, timing and leverage. He was fascinated by the fact that a smaller person could control, dominate and submit a much bigger and stronger person. He has been training for over 13 years and is currently the head coach at The Good Fight Academy.

In March 2019, Eli and Roma decided to bring these two passions together to use as a platform to serve both the church & Jiu Jitsu community - The Gospel Grappler Ministry. Their goal is to travel and share the love of Jesus through Jiu Jitsu demonstrations, workshops and seminars, and to share the gospel of Jesus with their grappling friends all over the world. This is how they are “fighting the good fight of faith” as described in 1 Timothy 6:12. Their prayer is that more and more people will be inspired to share their faith in Jesus through Jiu Jitsu.