Community Health Evangelism

Angie Overholt, Missionary, Honduras
The Call, October-December 2016

For over two decades now, Larry and I have enjoyed working in Community Health Evangelism.

CHE is a model that takes a holistic approach toward community development. According to the CHE Network website, “CHE seamlessly integrates evangelism and discipleship with community health and development.” 

Evangelism and discipleship are the foundational principles that define CHE and set the model apart from secular health promotion models that have been used around the world by health extension workers. We believe that the CHE program in Choluteca, Honduras, has been successful because it is built on both biblical principles and sound community development theory.

The apostle Paul wrote, "Do not be conformed to this world, but continuously be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is—what is proper, pleasing, and perfect" (Romans 12:2 ISV). Real transformational learning is made possible when people accept Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. Accepting Christ leads to a dramatic change in worldview that will positively impact individuals as well as entire communities. 

As a result of applying CHE principles in Honduras, we have seen people’s lives transformed in ways that we could never have imagined. The multiplication principles apply to healthcare as well as spiritual evangelism and discipleship. New converts are always excited to tell others of the life-changing experiences that they are going through. Using the CHE model of education, the “good news” is communicated throughout the social system in the entire community. 

Community health evangelists perform many different services in the community. They collaborate with other organizations, including local churches, healthcare agencies, and local governing groups. One local governmental health center sent words of gratitude to us, saying that our lay health workers are filling an educational gap that existed in the community. The local health center staff had been overwhelmed and was grateful for the support.

Local pastors and community leaders have noted that our health evangelists treat every home that they enter in the same way; they do not attempt to get people to switch churches but encourage everyone to support the church that they attend. CHE teachers on the island that we visit noticed that the photos our regional coordinator was showing them of malnourished children looked very similar to their own children. On their own, they sought out extra help from the local health department and learned that many of the population’s children were undernourished.

Last year, we had the great joy and privilege of meeting Stan Rowland, the author and teacher who has had a great influence in making CHE popular. Stan confirmed that one of the primary concepts of CHE is participatory learning, which is the collective effort of facilitators and students learning together. The participatory model includes dialogue rather than a lecture or monologue by the teacher.

Above all, real transformation only comes through faithfully following Christ.

MORE: Learn more about the CHE Network and register for training. 

Prayer Calendar Nov 27- Dec 3,2016

Coming tomorrow on The Call blog:

For over two decades now, Larry and I have enjoyed working in Community Health Evangelism.

CHE is a model that takes a holistic approach toward community development. According to the CHE Network website, "CHE seamlessly integrates evangelism and discipleship with community health development."

Pray for Community Health Evangelism workers in Honduras as they seek to transform communities with Jesus’ help.

An excerpt from...

Prayer, Praises, and Dancing

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By John and Beth Muehleisen, Missionaries, Uganda
January-March 2015

Did you pray?

On August 12, 2014, World Gospel Mission’s Prayer Lifeline sent out this pertinent request for WGM Uganda:

Uganda: John and Beth Muehleisen, Tiana Duncan, and Jennipher Wasirimba (Community Health Empowerment coordinator) are holding a Training of Trainers on August 14–18. Pray for good health, safe travels, and good discussions.

On August 26, we sent this praise report: We’ve just returned from seven days in Petete, a village in eastern Uganda. We trained a group of 30 pastors and church leaders to train others in their church and village to do village evangelism and health education. This was our second week-long training with this group, and they brought some amazing stories of what happened since our first training a few months ago.

Planting Seeds in Their Communities
One of their assignments after their first week of training in May was for each team to do a seed project in their community. A seed project is a great way to practice concrete ways of demonstrating God’s love to everyone around—not just those in their family or church.

From the report-back session on the first day, it was evident to us that God used them to touch the lives of others in a very positive way.

Pastor Samuel described how they had approached the local village elder for permission to fix the community well, which had a broken cover.

The village elder’s response was better than they had hoped for. He offered to buy the cement they needed to fix the well cover and gave them his blessing.

The group not only made a new cover for the well, but they also cleaned the area around it and gathered the community together to teach lessons on good sanitation. Even though Pastor Samuel and his group did these things without expecting anything in return, the results were amazing!

The Next Sunday…
The following Sunday, Samuel was surprised at how many people came to church. The small church building could not hold all of the people who came, and they sat outside on mats to hear God’s Word from a pastor who cared enough about the community to take the time to fix their well cover and to make sure their water source was clean.

Pray that the people from Pastor Samuel’s village will also recognize their need to drink from the pure, clean Living Water so they can live forever.

Please join us in praying for the seven training teams currently involved in Community Health Evangelism training.

Thanks for being a part of a big, big thing.

And yes, you can start dancing with us now.

Your missionaries in East Africa,
John and Beth

Could you have even imagined these results as you prayed? God takes our offerings, no matter how small, and uses them for the glory of His kingdom.

GO: God is challenging Ugandan Christians and missionaries to train more people to proclaim His truth and life-saving love. The harvest is ready, but the need for workers is greater than ever. Discover how you can join the team and serve in Uganda by visiting www.wgm.org/uganda.

MORE: The gentlemen in the first picture were demonstrating the River Crossing story, a core story we tell in our CHE training. If you are not familiar with this story, here are a few videos made by David Phipps of Gingamsburg UMC: http://youtu.be/mhZqS9dLebc.

And They Were Amazed

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And They Were Amazed

By Beth Muehleisen, Uganda
July-September 2013

Have you ever planted a seed and watched eagerly, anticipating the day when little bits of green start thrusting up from the ground?

This is what we do through seed projects in Community Health Empowerment. A seed project is a small-scale ministry project carried out by a local church using local resources to bring great blessing to local community members with no strings attached, and it whets their appetite to see more of God’s love demonstrated in practical ways.

Scholastica and Fred made hand-washing stands and placed them at public latrines on Sigulu Island in Lake Victoria. Many of the diseases that people have in Africa are caused by contaminated food and water. We can reduce this problem greatly if people wash their hands after using the toilet.

The people in the community asked Scholastica and Fred, “Why are you doing this?” “What do you get out of it?”

They answered, “We don’t get anything. We’re doing it because of God’s love.” The people were amazed!

Every time a seed project is done by someone trained through CHE, the response in every community is the same—and they were amazed! Recently as I read through the book of Mark, I noticed that the people in the communities where Jesus visited had the same reaction to His ministry: “…and they were amazed!”

We have two requests for you. One, will you pray for those involved in the CHE ministry that God will use them to rebuild walls, repair broken gates, and be Light-bearers in their communities? The second request concerns you. How does God want to use you to do a seed project in your own community? God wants to use all of us to demonstrate His agape love no matter where we live, and when we do, everyone will be amazed.

How can your church address spiritual and physical needs in your community? WGM can help with training in this area. Consider a weekend Vision Conference for Wholistic Community Transformation. Contact us at wgm@wgm.org to schedule training.

Biblical Transformation

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Biblical Transformation

The benefits of using the CHE tool in South Sudan
By Joy Phillips, South Sudan
July-September 2013

World Gospel Mission has joined a global movement called Community Health Evangelism. Mango Ministries in South Sudan uses this tool that leads to transformed lives and communities. In 2013, we are training and mentoring nearly 75 leaders in four different areas of South Sudan.

We’ve seen exciting glimpses of transformed lives in both the spiritual and physical realms. In one CHE lesson, WGM missionary John Muehleisen explained the plan of salvation by drawing the Four Spiritual Laws illustration in the dirt, in lieu of a chalkboard. Here is a testimony from one of the participants:

“I had gone to different trainings. But this was very special. I benefited spiritually and physically. This is a lesson that I can’t ever forget. I used to believe that salvation is from my side. I was thinking that I can reach God. But when Pastor John explained to us, I realized that I was wrong. I realized that it was God who can reach to me and save me. I can’t forget this lesson all my life—never!”

Isn’t that exciting? Changing misconceptions about God is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to pray. Will you join us in praying that God will continue speaking truth into the lives of the CHE leaders and turn their worlds upside down? It’s a slow process, but we believe biblical transformation holds the key to radically changed lives, families, churches, and communities. When a life is wholly submitted to God and His truth and God’s creative power is unleashed, no one can predict what amazing things God will do!

Partner with Mango Ministries through prayer. Print Pray CHE, a free prayer guide, at www.wgm.org/mango.

Learn more about the CHE movement at www.chenetwork.org.

Community Health Evangelism Progress in Honduras

An excerpt from...

Community Health Evangelism Progress in Honduras

By Larry Overholt, Honduras
July-September 2013

Our goal as missionaries is to serve God as ambassadors in helping restore broken relationships, which are often manifested in various forms of spiritual, physical, social, and emotional needs.

When we arrived in the city of Choluteca, Honduras, in 2000, we encountered a sense of depression in the region. Hurricane Mitch had devastated the area two years earlier. Many young people were still not attending school. Adults were still underemployed. People suffered from increased illnesses such as asthma. Houses were still in ruins. Substance addictions were widespread.

We praise God that a vibrant church is beginning to take hold. Much of our ministry investment has been based on the Community Health Evangelism model. CHE “seamlessly integrates evangelism and discipleship with disease prevention and community-based development. The work is wholistic, seeking to meet the whole need of individuals and communities through complete obedience to everything that Jesus commanded” (Global CHE Network).

Progress is not always as fast as we would like. In July 2012, five years after starting the CHE ministry, the Shalom Church finally held its first evangelistic service in the local soccer field. The service was a great success with 12 new converts. It was also the last sermon that Reinaldo, one of our Shalom pastors, preached before dying and going to be with the Lord. Reinaldo’s legacy in “7 de Mayo” was the beginning of a new discipleship group that developed with those who were converted. One of the most recent converts is Elvira, a midwife whom Angie had been teaching. We anticipate having a WGM work team help rebuild her house later this year.

Recently one of the women from the newly formed discipleship group had been in the hospital and was sent home with no prospects of recovery. Her family was called to her bedside to say goodbye. Some of our CHE team members were called in to pray for her. Since then, she has not only recovered, but she now plans to get married to her long-term partner and wants to be baptized so that she can better serve in the church.

We now have six CHE leaders from the Shalom Church working in the village throughout the week.

We are looking for ways to get involved with the men in the village. One of the greatest opportunities to reach the men is through agricultural projects. The Ohio State University is sending a team of engineering students to install a pilot aquaponics project in the community. Aquaponics combines the cultivation of plants (hydroponics) with the growing of fish (aquaculture). We hope that this will be the beginning of additional projects that will develop into small businesses as well as help develop social capital in the community. At the same time, we are excited to have the opportunity to share transforming community development ideas with university students from a secular university in the United States. We are grateful to be a part of the planting and watering process while God gives the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:7)

An aquaponics kit enables a family to raise fish and vegetables in a small backyard plot. That means substantially improved nutrition, extra income, and meaningful family time as parents and children work together. Christ performed miracles with fish on more than one occasion—and you can work a miracle with fish right now! Time to form your own CHE team! Gather your friends, neighbors, and family and share this article with them. Set a goal to raise $180, the cost of an aquaponics kit. Check donation should be made payable to World Gospel Mission with account #25492-CALL written in the memo line. Send your donation to: World Gospel Mission, P.O. Box 948 Marion, Indiana 46952-0948. All donors will receive a receipt from WGM with thank you for their support.