Closed Communities & Open Doors

In Brazil the cities are teaming with folks that have moved to these large metropolis for jobs and hope in a great future. The small country towns are left behind in this new cutural trend and have become closed communities because no new folks have moved in for years.

Most of the folks in these small towns grew up here, their parents grew up here and grand parents are buried in the local cemetery. All new people that move into the community are considered outsiders for years after they arrived. This makes it hard to develop relationship to share the Gospel. This is one of the challenges Luiz & Fatama face as they look to establish a new church in São Fransisco in the state of Para.

This past month they open a new corner fruit and can goods store across from their house. What a success this has been. Not in selling items but as in building in roads into the community. As you can see from the picture above the local media is interviewing Luiz at his new store. Fatama told me that she has tried to talk to a number of her neighbors for the past year but this has been very difficult. Now they her neighbors come and buy two or three tomatoes and talk for an hour. This small stand has oppend doors in ways they had never dreamed.

Pray that the Lord continues to make this new fruit stand the center of activity permiting them to build new relationships and opening opportunities for the Gospel to be preached.

Wayne Patton