Daily Thought - 4.7.21

Church in the Barrio

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
(1 John 3:8)

Something was happening in the barrio. Within just a few weeks, seventeen new believers were meeting for discipleship classes in the tiny home of Abram and Esperanza, new believers themselves. The house was packed beyond capacity and the floor was starting to give way under so many. We needed a church.

At the end of the street, just beyond a strip of bars and pool halls, sat a brothel and suspected drug den. The owner of the house was a Christian who was deeply troubled at how his property was being used and offered to sell it at a fraction of its cost, specifying that it be used as a site for a church.

The building was bulldozed, and a few weeks later, the first service was held in a simple structure on that land taken back from the devil. Work continued through the coming months as Hondurans and work teams from the States worked side by side to complete the roof and raise its walls.

That was almost thirty years ago. Others had tried, but this was the first evangelical church in Barrio Ingles that did not close its doors. Recently a Honduran friend wrote that it continues to grow and make an impact among the young and old of that community. It didn’t only survive. It thrived!

Take back what the devil has claimed for himself.


BY MARCY BURKE; The Wesleyan church Daily devo