CHE Training with Equip International

Where do you start?
Most people in the West were brought up knowing right from wrong, good from bad, and that God loves us. How do you relate to a person whose point of view is completely foreign to your own? Can you convince them that the filth, disease and poverty they see around them are not the only way to live? How do you introduce them to ideas of health, education, improved living conditions and, eventually, a relationship with the Author of Life, if they see no need for, or means of change?

Training nationals in agriculture, sanitation, clean water supply, literacy, and family-based businesses, as well as training them to train their neighbors is what Community Health Evangelism (CHE) is all about. The goal is to introduce people to the CHE concepts and to give them a vision and the "how to's" for implementing and managing a program in their community. Community Health Evangelism's concepts are based on the experience of Medical Ambassadors International's 300 teams working in over 1,200 villages. People from 260 CHE projects have been trained to have an integrated community health and evangelism program, and they, in turn, have trained over 20,000 Community Health Evangelists (CHE's).

copied from http://www.equipinternational.com/courses/che.htm

Cindie's Move

It's a done deal! Cindie is now officially homeless! What an amazing testimony. It's been Cindie's dream to get out on the mission field but of course being a home owner creates some serious challenges if you are not independently wealthy. To make a long story short we had been praying that someone would rent her place. We started making preparations to pack her up and get the house to a place that it could be rented and believe me there was a lot of work to be done! You never realize how much stuff you've accumulated until you move! With a week before her desired departure date, she got a call from a couple in her small group. They needed a place to rent while they looked for a home to buy. It was nothing short of miraculous. Within the week the house was all packed up - utilites transfered, deposits made and the house keys were handed over into the very safe hands of good friends. God is so good!

Community, Health, Education - CHE

I just wanted to introduce a wonderful couple to you, Kevin and Erica Pippert. We met at the missions conference in Arlington, IL. They are missionaries in South Africa who do CHE training. I thought it would be great to share a little bit about CHE because it's program that both Cindie and I are very excited about and very well might have changed the course of our lives.
Kevin and Erica work for an organization called LifeWind and train trainers in 10 countries throughout Southern Africa. CHE stands for Community, Health and Education. Here's a little blurb about it from LifeWind.org

CHE training does not follow traditional classroom or seminar methods. It utilizes Participatory Learning, a wonderful tool for teaching people who have had little traditional education. Trainers facilitate a process that helps people analyze problems, discover solutions, and define positive action steps. Participatory Learning draws on what people collectively know about the problems they face, and adds new information relevant to real problems. Participatory learning helps people discover they are capable of much more than they thought. It gives dignity by mobilizing the greatest resource of all for overcoming poverty — the God-given resourcefulness of people who live in difficult circumstances.

Cindie and I would like to get trained in this program so we can take it to the countries that we are working in. This is very exciting to us and I'm sure this won't be the last that you hear about it!

Chicago update

It's cold in Chicago - snow is still flying but our year seems to be getting more and more clear. Today Cindie and I were at a mission conference where we met some spectacular people doing ministry in South Africa and Haiti.

Tomorrow we'll get a chance to continue to meet people who share our passion to make a difference in the world.

Cindie is taking her next big step in this great adventure that we are on. God's brought some great people to rent her house and she's raised almost half of the support she needs to spend the next six months on the field working on partnership development. Please keep her in you prayers.