The Challenge of Brazil’s Unreached Peoples
	By Ted Limpic
	OC International, Brazil (Sepal)
	Brazil, the largest country of Latin America, boasts the world’s eighth largest economy.  The evangelical church over the past twenty years has been growing at 3 times the rate of the population.  Today, Brazil’s evangelicals number some 19 million, or approximately 12% of the population.
	In spite of the tremendous growth of the evangelicals, Brazil is far from being reached.  Within it’s vast borders there are some 258 Indian tribes which represent today one of the biggest challenges facing the evangelical church.
	The Sad State of Brazil’s Indians
	Brazil’s Indian tribes are generally not large.  Although there are some who have populations above 20,000 (Tikuna, Kaingang, Kaiwa), most are somewhere between 100-1000.  The small size of most tribes reveals a tragedy that has too often gone unnoticed.  Many Brazilian’s tribes have been decimated by diseases contracted by their contact with the white man.  Despite efforts by the Brazilian government to provide health services in remote Indian areas, many tribes continue to see their numbers shrink as they succumb to pneumonias and influenzas passed on to them unwittingly by civilization. The Sad State of Brazil’s Indians
	Brazil’s Indian tribes are generally not large.  Although there are some who have populations above 20,000 (Tikuna, Kaingang, Kaiwa), most are somewhere between 100-1000.  The small size of most tribes reveals a tragedy that has too often gone unnoticed.  Many Brazilian’s tribes have been decimated by diseases contracted by their contact with the white man.  Despite efforts by the Brazilian government to provide health services in remote Indian areas, many tribes continue to see their numbers shrink as they succumb to pneumonias and influenzas passed on to them unwittingly by civilization.
	Added to this sad situation is the greed of farmers, miners and cattle growers who often invade Indian lands, by force at times, and wreak ecological havoc as they burn the rain forest and push the Indians further into the jungle.
	Relatively few of Brazil’s government leaders care about the Indian tribes.  The Indians’ small numbers, geographical isolation and lack of political know-how generally mean that they are often ignored when it comes to receiving government help for better education, health supplies or defining and defending the borders of their tribal land.
	It’s no wonder then that in some tribes many Indians take their own lives.  With no hope for the future and precious few who seem to care about their “present”, the suicide rates in some tribes are extremely high.