\u201cThe store is important because it offers healthy food,\u201d Zel\u010ds said after showing visitors around a centrally located store filled with plant-based meat, cheese, and ice cream products alongside bags of organic lentils, beans, and popcorn.<\/p>\n With those words, Zel\u010ds echoed a statement written by Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White and emphasized often these days by world church leaders: \u201cChrist\u2019s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, \u2018Follow Me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The passage from the book Ministry of Healing, p. 117, is the store\u2019s mission statement, and Zel\u010ds, a lanky 27-year-old with a friendly smile, repeated it several times during a 90-minute interview. He has committed it to memory, along with other passages from White\u2019s writings and the Bible. Zel\u010ds eagerly whipped out a mobile phone with a cracked screen to show a journalist how he uses a mobile app called Scripture Typer to memorize passages during his 30-minute tram commute to work in the mornings. Too weary to memorize on the ride home at night, he is listening to an audio book of White\u2019s The Desire of Ages.<\/p>\n Building People\u2019s Confidence<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe are preparing the soil. We are building people\u2019s confidence,\u201d Zel\u010ds said.<\/p>\n But the store has seen some encouraging results, he said. An elderly customer recently confided to Zel\u010ds that she was sad after losing several relatives. As they spoke, they learned that they both were born in the same town about 125 miles (200 kilometres) from Riga. As the conversation grew more friendly, Zel\u010ds provided information about the health benefits of a plant-based diet. He then told her that the store was owned by Christians.<\/p>\n \u201cShe became happy and said, \u2018I came here sad, but now I am leaving joyful,\u2019\u201d Zel\u010ds said.<\/p>\n Another customer has started sending her daughter to the Pathfinders club at an Adventist church.<\/p>\n Zel\u010ds said customers were noticing something different about the store. They express surprise that the store\u2019s staff members are always kind, even to rude customers. They wonder why the staff smile and help each other without a hint of rivalry or argument.<\/p>\n \u201cWitness is not so much what you say but what you are,\u201d Zel\u010ds said. \u201cPeople notice that we are so peaceful and happy and begin to wonder, \u2018Maybe they know something that we don\u2019t know.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Path to the Store<\/strong><\/p>\n Zel\u010ds, whose parents joined the Adventist Church when he was 8, began seeking God in his own life in his late teens after attending Christian youth camps, including Pathfinder camporees.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/images_news-2_Adventist-Latvia-vegan-5.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a>Zel\u010ds believes he has found the answer: a health food store called Dabas Stacija (Nature Station) that he manages and co-owns in Latvia\u2019s capital, Riga. He quit his job as an engineer in 2014 to work full time in \u201cbusiness evangelism,\u201d as he calls it.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cBut more important, the store allows me to connect with people, to talk with them and get to know them, just as Christ mingled with people as one who desired their good,\u201d he said. \u201cLater I can gain their confidence and invite them to Bible studies or something else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>The Dabas Stacija store, which opened in April 2015, is already profitable as it fills a niche in Riga with its wide selection of plant-based products and comparatively low-cost grains, nuts, and seeds, Zel\u010ds said. All profit is being reinvested in the store. Customers are mostly under 30, and about 80 percent are not Adventist.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Dabas Stacija store is among hundreds of Adventist urban \u201ccentres of influence,\u201d where church members use everyday encounters to share the gospel in the world\u2019s biggest cities as part of an Adventist world church initiative called Mission to the Cities. Among the other business establishments are a bookstore in Serbia\u2019s capital, Belgrade<\/a>, and a cafe in the Middle East<\/a>. Unlike those two businesses, however, the Riga food store has no direct investment from the church.<\/p>\n