Community Health Evangelism

Community Health Evangelism is a ministry that seamlessly integrates evangelism, discipleship, and church planting with community health and development. The ministry is wholistic, seeking to obey everything that Jesus commanded and addressing the whole need of individuals and communities.

The purpose of Community Health Evangelism (CHE) work is not just breaking poverty or planting churches, though both of those things are accomplished through our Community Health Evangelism (CHE) programs. The real goal of our work is a transformation in lives and communities that is as deep as the human heart, and as broad as the whole range of the human experience in the world God made.

We want Jesus to be recognized as Lord over all creation, and our development activities to reflect the depth and breadth of the kingdom of God. We are asking God to work in us and through us to transform beliefs and change behavior so that his peace, justice, compassion, and righteousness are reflected in the life of the communities we serve.

Update

We successfully completed a week of TOT II last week.  This was the second week in a four week series of trainings to train “trainers.”  Our first week of training with this Kampala group had been in April 2011.

A trainer is one of a team of 2-4 who is responsible for getting a CHE program started in a village or area.  The process includes sensitization, helping to develop an oversight committee, and then training the “CHE.”  The CHE is the volunteer at the grassroots level who will actually share preventative health information, the good news about Jesus, as well as development ideas with his or her neighbors.  Each CHE will target 10-15 homes.

Next week we are headed to Arua, Uganda to start the process again with the first training(TOT I) in a series with a new group.  Teresa and the children will remain in Kampala, so we would appreciate prayers during this time of short separation.

Seed Projects

Today was the first day of the second week of our Training of Trainers(TOT II) course in Kampala.  We facilitated the first week of training five months ago.  During the first week we added a lesson about Seed Projects, and as a homework assignment everyone was supposed to go home and perform a seed project.  A seed project is a small act of love which is carried out by members of a local church and which shows God’s love to the community.  One group fixed a pothole.  Another group formed a volleyball team with the youth in the community.  Another group had noticed that a widow’s house in the community was in a state of disrepair and was about to fall over.  The members of the church got together and repaired the house for the widow.  The widow was not a member of the church.  While this act of love was being performed, members of various religious organizations were concerned that this church was doing this act in order to “bribe” the widow into attending their church.  This of course was not the case and no pressure was placed on the widow to attend.  However, after some time the widow was so grateful, she decided that she would like to fellowship with Christians who would do this act of kindness.  She has now attended the church several times, and both her physical needs and her spiritual needs are being cared for by the church.  Praise be to God!  This is an example of how a church can make an impact in its community.  Several who were gathered in our TOT II today stated that their seed project had made the community notice their efforts even though they had not made an effort to advertise the project, and the credibility of their churchs in the community had improved.  I was encouraged and it seems that God does use seed projects!

Arrival in Uganda

This was supposed to be posted on September 5, but technical issues prevented the post until this evening.

Dawn broke as we few towards our destination in our British Airways 767.  We had boarded the plane after an eleven hour layover in London Heathrow airport and had tried to rest after an evening meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.  Ki had initially slept for an hour or so but then awoke and bounced around in his seat occasionally looking at his monitor to watch “Horton Hears a Who” or the Cartoon Network.  His lack of rest through out the night seemed like a foreboding hint of the task ahead of getting him over jet lag. 

As we exited the plane and walked down the steps we were greeted by a cool sweet air.  After an entire summer of upper ninety and one hundred degree temperatures in our American corner of the world, it was a refreshing relief.  Even though Uganda sits on the equator and can be hot, it has apparently been raining.  The elevation of the runway is about 3700 feet and is situated right on Lake Victoria.  If the brakes fail on a plane, I imagine it would end up in the lake.

After a fairly uneventful transition through immigration we waited to collect the 10 pieces of luggage that we had checked to accompany us.  It sounds like a lot, but we each only had one suitcase of clothes.  The rest consisted of 2 car seats, one pack and play, one stroller, some supplies including Kraft Macaroni and Cheese to last us for two months, and some old clothes to donate.  Fortunately we were able to collect nine pieces and the only exception was the fold up “jogging” stroller, and this was promised to us on the next flight from London.

Our field director, Jonathan Mayo was waiting for us and after loading up our stuff, we travelled to Kampala where we plan to make our headquarters for the next two months.  The smells of Africa were pleasant as we exited the airport.  Tropical plants were everywhere as usual.  The beautiful pineapples for sale along the road began to make my mouth water and reminded me how wonderful our stay in Uganda was going to be.  As we approached the various World Gospel Mission properties in Kampala we saw some of the plants that we had planted in years past reminding us of how much easier gardening is in the tropics.  Gardening during long hot summers in our rocky red clay in Alabama is not nearly as satisfying, especially when a significant portion of our plants don’t survive past the first month.

 It sounds like we are going to have a busy schedule, and we head to Jinja tomorrow for a CHE retreat with the group that we first trained starting 2 years ago.  This is to be followed by more training in Kampala and then Arua.  However, we look forward to getting to work as we resettle into our familiar surroundings.

Continent of Contrasts

As we prepare for our upcoming trip back to the continent of my birth, I can not help but remember both the victories and the defeats of my previous experiences.  Little comes close to the excitement surrounding the adoption of our son, Ki two years ago.  The joy of becoming a father for the first time has been unbelievably satisfying. Contrasted to that have been my experiences with suffering and death.  My mind has been plagued with questions for years.  Why do the innocent, especially the children, suffer and die from preventable diseases?  Why do humans, especially the children, have to suffer and die from malnutrition.  Why do people have to live without the chance to advance themselves or create a better life for their families?

After years of contemplation, and both long term and short term trips, I believe that I have the opportunity to provide solutions.  Three and a half years ago I had the opportunity to learn about Community Health Evangelism.  Immediately I believed that this tool would go a long way to providing long term solutions for some of these problems.  After all, if we don't work on long term solutions, what good have we done?   And of course if we are concerned about long term solutions, what could be more important than being God's servants to bring the news than an eternal existence with God is not only possible, but is going to be more wonderful than our wildest dreams?  Yes, we need to focus not only on physical problems, but spiritual ones as well.

This year God has been faithful to us and given us the opportunity to spend 6 months a year in Africa.  St. Francis Hospital and my hospitalist partners have been unbelievably gracious to let me have a contract which allows me to be gone 6 months out of the year, while still letting me work the other 6 months to provide for my family.  How wonderful is that?  We have also been blessed by the interest and support of our new church, Chattahoochee Valley Church of Christ.

September 2 is our departure date for Uganda and the beginning of the next chapter in our lives.  So, please partner and pray with us that we will be the servants that God wants us to be.