Building Trust through Business

Peter* lives in a naturally beautiful Central Asian city. The amazing landscape attracts foreign tourists in droves. At the same time, the city is located in a spiritual open field – with almost no Christians or churches.

Eager to benefit from the interest in tourism, the local government has made it easy for foreigners to obtain tourist residence visas. However, this provision is not sufficient for church planters like Peter to live there for the purpose of sharing the gospel and remain there long-term.

The local government and nationals love the tourists, but are extremely suspicious of foreign residents. One of the best ways to naturally build trust with nationals is to get involved in normal daily life. Simply, your life has to make sense to the community – and jumping into local commerce is one way of doing this. For this to happen legally, however, a work permit is needed. Due to massive unemployment and a general desire to save jobs for locals, this is extremely difficult to do.

For Peter, answering the question, “what do you do?” is very important. This is why obtaining a work permit that would allow him to engage in the local economy and remain in the country has been a priority for him. In order to share the gospel effectively, church planters must be trusted and it usually takes more than honesty, charm, and a winsome personality to earn trust in his area. He knew he needed to fit in a culturally-relevant vocational category, but to do this he needed a work permit.

It has been difficult for Peter to determine how to obtain such a permit. Recently, however, as he got to know others in his city, Peter met a local business man who wanted to hire him to help his business and serve the local community. Peter accepted, and soon after the necessary work permit was granted. It allows Peter to stay in the country and build relationships and trust with the locals. We’re praising God for this provision.

Peter’s story highlights the importance of work permits. Many visas are available to church planters overseas, but they have cumbersome requirements such as mandating that the holder exit the country every few months or limiting how much they can engage in local community. Work permits are a critical part of church planters like Peter remaining on the field. Recognizing this, Access Partners will continue to respond to this unique need by seeking to build businesses that can supply work permits to church planters among unreached people groups.

*Name changed for security reasons