On October 23, 2026, the tight-knit faith community of San Ignacio Town in Belize is grappling with seismic upheaval after prominent local pastor Kevin Tzib, founder of the well-established Dunamis Ministries, was remanded to Belize Central Prison to face six counts of sexual assault and one count of unnatural crime, all alleged to have targeted young men. For years, the church was a bustling weekly gathering space, with services drawing packed crowds across morning and evening sessions that drew multi-generational local families, many of whom had been founding members since the ministry first launched.
News Five correspondent Paul Lopez visited the church compound in the wake of the charges to document the community’s fallout, finding the normally active facility shuttered and quiet, its entry doors standing unused for the first time in most long-time members’ recent memory. Multiple local residents and congregation members, many of whom spoke anonymously to protect their privacy, shared conflicting waves of grief, disbelief, and lingering questions about unaddressed red flags in the ministry’s operations. One founding male congregation member, whose entire family has attended the church for years, admitted he still cannot reconcile the allegations against a man he considered a close spiritual brother, noting Tzib never behaved inappropriately toward him or other longstanding adult male members of the congregation. The member explained that his family, including his own children, are still processing the shock, and that he intends to continue attending services under Tzib’s newly ordained brother Erwin Tzib, who was installed as the ministry’s lead pastor on September 23, just over a month before Kevin Tzib’s remand.
A separate local San Ignacio resident who has observed the ministry for years noted that the congregation’s makeup had long struck him as unusual, with almost all new attendees being adolescent and young adult males, while the adult membership was almost entirely made up of the original small group of founding parishioners. The resident added that Tzib’s long-noticed atypical mannerisms made the allegations far less surprising to him than they were to many loyal congregation members. Multiple attempts to reach newly appointed lead pastor Erwin Tzib for official comment went unanswered at the time of reporting.
In an official public statement released by Dunamis Ministries leadership, the organization acknowledged the gravity of the pending criminal charges, pledged to uphold full accountability, procedural fairness, and adherence to the rule of law as the case moves through the court system, and assured parishioners that the church’s community outreach and spiritual programming will continue without interruption, emphasizing that the ministry’s core mission is not tied to any single individual.