Park Road Church Blog

Stating the Case for Investment in CHE

 

A study paper for use by CHE International Network’s collaborating organizations and network coordinators in making a case to Donors, By Terry Dalrymple

 

 

What Does an Investment in CHE Achieve?

 

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.

 

CHE 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 success of a CHE program can be measured by the following transformational indicators. These are the outcomes that we consistently see in mature CHE programs around the world:

 

1. Shared vision: The community sees a better future and has hope that it can be achieved.

2. Leadership: Godly Christian leaders are positioned and equipped to lead the community toward the accomplishment of its vision.

3. Ownership: People are taking responsibility for their own health and well being.

4. Cooperation: People are united and working together for the common good.

5. Volunteers: Significant numbers of people are taking initiative and acting sacrificially to meet the legitimate needs of others.

6. Dignity: People have recovered their identity as made in the image of God and their vocation as stewards of creation. Instead of being controlled or victimized by their environment, they are stewards of it.

7. Learning, Skill, and Resources: People are equipped to identify needs and resources, put together a plan, and mobilize volunteers to accomplish their vision. People are continually reflecting on what is happening in order to learn how to be more effective.

8. Christian Community and Witness: Believers are meeting together for fellowship, prayer, Bible study and worship, and are sharing Christ with their neighbors in word and deed.

9. Shalom: Peace, justice, compassion, and righteousness are witnessed in the community and God is glorified.

 

Once the above outcomes are achieved, the flower blossoms. Churches are established and strengthened, health improves, infant mortality decreases, agriculture becomes more productive, jobs are created, and water systems, roads, schools and clinics are built. All of this is achieved at the initiative of the people, and it is impossible to predict what specific improvements will result.

 

An investment with CHE is not an investment in a project such as a well or a school – it is an investment in a process of human development that will become a fountain of change in the community for generations to come. It is an investment in a mission to proclaim Christ in word and deed, and to trust Him to transform beliefs and behaviors so that the values of His kingdom are reflected in every area of life and His name is exalted.

 

How are CHE Programs Implemented?

 

Implementation of CHE Programs: Each collaborating organization funds and staffs its own programs in strategic places around the world. These programs not only demonstrate that CHE achieves the desired outcomes and can be adapted to almost any context, but also are laboratories for research and development. CHE is implemented in a series of Steps:

 

Step 1: Casting a Vision for Wholistic Ministry in a Country or an Area

 

CHE Coordinators do vision seminars with leaders from churches, missions, faith based organizations, and governments. Alliances are formed, plans made, workers recruited and funding secured.

 

Step 2: Equipping the CHE Team

 

CHE Coordinators train a team of three or four national Christians, equipping them to implement Community Health Evangelism programs in multiple communities. CHE Coordinators visit the teams they train periodically and continue to mentor and coach the teams through the course of the development process.

 

Step 3: Community Awareness and Organization

 

The CHE team works with leaders in the community to raise awareness of need and opportunity, and to unite the community with a common vision for a better quality of life. The community elects representatives to serve on a development committee.

 

Step 4: Training and Mobilizing Volunteers

 

The CHE team trains the development committee and equips these elected representatives to manage the development process in their village. Volunteers are recruited from the community and trained by the CHE team to visit homes sharing God’s Word while meeting felt needs. These volunteers may teach about immunization and then escort the families to a clinic to get their children immunized, or teach about good nutrition and help the families dig kitchen gardens, or teach about the importance of clean water and help families with ways sanitize their drinking water. An infrastructure of relationships is established through which information can flow. Changes are introduced one topic at a time.

 

Step 5: Capacity Building and Church Planting

 

The CHE team continues to mentor and coach the committee, assisting them in a continual process of identifying problems, researching solutions, finding resources, making plans, recruiting volunteers, and evaluating results. Self help groups are formed for livelihood, economic, and agricultural development. People who come to Christ are discipled in new life groups and churches are established with a vision and plan for wholistic ministry. Church and community work together for wholistic development and the church is recognized as a transforming agent in its community.

 

Step 6: Multiplication

 

The CHE team moves to another community to repeat the process in nearby communities. The CHE team multiplies itself by equipping selected committee members and volunteers as trainers. These volunteers join with a member of the original CHE team in reaching out to a neighboring community.

 

How Does the CHE International Network Help Collaborating Organizations Achieve their Purposes?

 

Research and Curriculum Development: Through its network of hundreds of organizations, The CHE International Network identifies best practices and develops materials for use by teams from collaborating organizations around the world. CHE’s vast curriculum is being used in more than 75 countries.

 

Training and Leadership Development: Collaborating organizations and network coordinators conduct about 100 seminars each year equipping partners and staff to implement Community Health Evangelism ministries in targeted communities. The network also conducts an intensive eight week CHE internships in the Philippines and Nicaragua for equipping CHE coordinators to give oversight to the work of the movement.

 

Alliances and Network Building: The CHE Interntional Network aims to equip as many mission organizations, churches, and non-government organizations as possible for effective wholistic ministry among the poor and unreached and to bring them together to find encouragement, share resources, and plan strategically for the greatest possible impact. This is achieved through alliances, working group meetings, conferences, and the CHE International Network website. There are currently representatives from more than 150 organizations coming together in meetings and councils across the globe.

 

 

What are the risks involved in an investment with CHE, and what can we do to mitigate those risks?

 

There is inherently more risk involved in funding human development achieved by volunteers than in building a well with paid workers. There is also much greater reward!

 

The CHE International Network understands the risks that are involved and has developed strategies for mitigating those risks and ensuring success. The key is having the flexibility to go where God is moving. Workers must be trained to cast vision broadly, wait for fruit to ripen, and harvest what is ripe. Workers don’t push the rope, but respond where there is pull. This requires three things:

 

1. Casting vision broadly. Workers are always be connecting with new people, facilitating dialogue, and articulating the principles of successful wholistic community based development.

2. Selecting partners and sites carefully: Workers know what is necessary for success and choose their involvements accordingly.

3. Training and Capacity Building: Once partners or communities have been chosen, workers are equipped to train, coach, and equip others.

 

An investment with CHE is an investment in people who know how to cast vision, champion alliances, identify needs and resources, facilitate learning, and empower people and communities through training and capacity building. The more of these people we can mobilize, and the longer we can keep them in the field, the greater the impact.

 

CHE International Network’s collaborating organizations need donors who understand the need to be flexible, and are willing to move with us to those places where God is at work. We need donors who will put confidence in our workers and our process and are willing to measure success by the transformational indicators outlined at the top of this document.

 

Can you provide me with concrete examples of how CHE works?

From a Trip Report by Terry Dalrymple, Community Based CHE, Philippines, 1997

 

The Training team in the province of Ozamiz includes Dr. Leo Tago (Dentist and LD), Dr. Mary Tago (Family practice), Ann Yap and Analyn Begafria (both nurses). They all live in the same house, just a few minutes from the project site. They now have 44 CHEs and 19 committee members working in the barangay. All of these volunteers have made professions of faith. The people have accepted CHE and are enthusiastic about it.

 

Dr. Mary Tago told me that this was their third attempt at a CHE project. The first two attempts failed. She said that the reason they failed in at least one purok was that the people saw the program as a tool for religious propaganda, and as a result, they rejected it. This time, they replaced the word “Evangelism” with “Education”, and called their program the Community Health Education and Development Project. They did not invite anyone to church for three years. They now have three groups of believers gathering as growth groups that need to be formed into a church.

 

The team has seen marked improvement in the quality of life of 2,500 squatters in the little fishing village of San Antonio on the outskirts of their city. When the CHE team entered the community, people spent much of their time drinking, quarreling, and gambling at mahjong tables and cock fights. One community member testified, “Before Dr. Leo and Dr. Mary came to San Antonio, it was like we all had megaphones in our homes – there was so much shouting and fighting”. Today, the people of the community are working together to care for each others needs and to accomplish common goals. Twenty-three goals have been established by the development committee, including the following:

 

• 100% of families will have gardens, latrines, and will use garbage cans;

• all gambling will cease;

• each individual in the community will become God-fearing

 

The leaders in San Antonio are using contests to mobilize their people. They have had a Well Baby Contest, a Cooking Contest (in search of the most nutritious and inexpensive meals), a De-Worming Contest, and several others. They offered a prize to the de-worming clinic that could produce the greatest number of worms. One woman was delivered of more than 100 worms – meticulously counted!

 

The health of the community has already improved markedly. Worms, scabies are impetigo have all but disappeared. Malnutrition has decreased. 37% of the homes in the puroks where CHE is working have latrines; 76% have gardens.

 

As I was leaving, a young CHE named Merlyn approached me. She started out by saying that she wanted to say something during the meeting, but was too shy. She then made the most incredible statement. She said, “The government has tried all kinds of programs in our barangay,” (and she listed a few), “but nothing worked until Dr. Leo and Dr. Mary came. I thank the Lord for them.” Government agencies that had given up on the community have returned. The ministry of this training team has transformed the spirit and attitudes of the people, and truly empowered them to help themselves.

From a Trip Report by Terry Dalrymple, Philippines, Community Based CHE, 1997

 

Forty one percent of all Filipinos live below the poverty line. Almost 25% do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than 30% do not have adequate sanitary facilities. Eighty-three percent of Filipinos claim to be Roman Catholic, though their beliefs are often more animistic than Christian. Filipinos are far more receptive to the truths of the Gospel than most in Asia. In just five years (1997-2001), nine thousand eight hundred and forty Filipinos made professions of faith as a result of CHE ministries. Whole communities have been transformed both physically and spiritually.

 

The poor in the Philippines, trapped in a cycle of poverty and disease, have the same concerns as most in the developing world. They need long term solutions to these problems – not just food for a day or medicine for the moment. They need to be instructed in healthy living and taught the importance of clean water, sanitation, hygiene, and adequate nutrition. They need people who will live in their communities, and equip them with the knowledge and skill to make use of available resources to improve the quality of their lives. They also need people to live among them and proclaim the forgiveness of sins, and to model and instruct them in the ways of the Lord. Our program is to recruit, train, and support national Christians who will do this work.

 

The team in Surigao, led by Dr. Amelia Nambatac (Mely), has been doing CHE ministry since 1990, and has successfully implemented programs in six different communities. In 2001, a thorough and objective external evaluation of their work validated their effectiveness: Sixty-Seven percent of those surveyed prayed to receive Christ during home visits made by CHEs; Participating households in the community were healthier across a whole set of indicators and were spiritually active and growing; Communities served by this team were clean and green, demonstrated community-wide collaboration, and showed increased self-confidence. (“An Evaluation Report on Medical Ambassadors’ Program in Antique and Surigao, May 14, 2001”, Milton B. Amayun, MD, MPH and Alan Talens, MD, MPH, pages 1,2).

 

This team has witnessed what can happen in a community when the truth of God’s word rules in the hearts of people. Between 1989 and 1995 they concentrated their efforts on Barangay Sukailang on the outskirts of Surigao City. Many have come to Christ, and a beautiful church has been built by the people on property donated by the Barangay Council in the heart of the community. A member of the team was called to serve as their pastor. The Barangay of Sukailang has become a model community in the province – people come from all around to see the development that has taken place. One visiting development worker from India exclaimed: “Now, for the first time, I have seen truly sustainable development.” As a result of this teams work, the community has built a water system, a day care center, a cooperative store, a road and a bridge connecting the Barangay to the main highway. Every home now has latrines and gardens. The community is clean and green. The progress is so impressive that professionals from the city are now buying lots and building homes there. What was once a rural slum is now being transformed into a middle class neighborhood. In appreciation for all that this team has done for Sukailang, the Barangay Captain awarded each team member a plot of land on which they can build a house.

 

From a report by Terry Dalrymple, Community Based CHE programs in Cambodia, 2003

 

The people of war torn Cambodia seek to rebuild their lives from great devastation brought about by the Khmer Rouge, a communist rebel force that ruled the country from 1975 to 1979. Cities were depopulated and three million people were forced into the countryside as slave labor. The educated fled the country or were massacred. People were brutally killed just because they could read or wore glasses. Currency was abolished; religion was eradicated; education was suspended; medicine was forbidden.

 

Terry Dalrymple began training missionaries and nationals to implement CHE programs in Cambodia in 1998. The work began in 2001 in five villages. Four of these villages are in the province of Kampong Speu; the other village in the province of Khien Svay. Here are some highlights from their report:

 

• One in 3 heads of households in the four villages of Kampong Speu have opened their hearts to the Lord and been baptized. One in ten heads of households in Khien Svay have done the same

• There are 1/2 as many cases of typhoid, intestinal parasites, and fever as there were at the beginning of the program.

• There are only 1/4 as many cases of diarrhea in children less than five years old as there were at the beginning of the program. (This is very significant since diarrheas are the principal cause of infant mortality in Cambodia.

• Medical expenses for individual families have been reduced by 10 to 50%.

• Participating families have agricultural and animal productions that are 2 times more diversified than non participating families.

 

These results are encouraging, and the rapid multiplication of CHE ministries throughout the country adds to the excitement. Since launching their first programs in 2001, this strategic partner has expanded into 48 villages in 8 districts and 7 provinces. Their ministry is touching 10,095 families and over 50,000 people. They have mobilized more than 500 volunteers from the villages they are serving, and have a staff of 48 full time CHE trainers.

 

There is still much work to be done, but little by little the killing fields of Cambodia are being transformed into living communities of believers who are free from their prisons of sin and death to live, love and serve each other in obedience to the commands of Christ.

 

From a Trip Report by Terry Dalrymple, Family Based CHE, India, 2003

 

Poverty, filth, infectious disease, heat, hunger, isolation and despair; people lying on the streets like stray animals. Low caste laborers and immigrant workers: homeless fathers, mothers, boys, girls, and families. They sleep, bathe, cook, eat, brush their teeth, shave and read the newspaper on the street. Welcome to Calcutta, our portal to the land of India— more than a billion people, 78% Hindu and 12% Muslim.

 

Traveling north by train we arrive in the city of Siliguiri—not far from the foothills of the Himalayas where our teams serve villages sprinkled all over the mountain slopes and valleys. Here we meet with one of our CHE workers, Pastor David Rye: “I spent 10 years in fruitless preaching, and then I learned about CHE. I learned how Jesus approached people—I learned to meet them at the point of their need. Since that time the Lord has added to our number day by day.” What has God added?

 

1200 new believers baptized

5 churches planted

2 more churches on the way

 

The story of the village where David lives must be told. When Pastor David arrived, the people lived truly pitiable lives in temporary structures. Twice their village had been ravaged by communist insurgents and their homes burned to the ground. They passed time gambling and drinking.

 

Pastor David introduced a simple technology for growing squash vines as a cash crop on trellises made from bamboo. Today, bamboo trellises appear like spider webs all over the slopes of Bethany. People live in houses made of permanent materials, and the bamboo that was formerly their homes is now used for growing squash.

 

At the time of my visit to this community in the spring of 2003, all but one family in the village had been baptized and come into the church. In December of 2003, I received word that the last family had been won. The villagers renamed their community “Bethany”, the home of Mary and Martha where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

 

 

From a Trip Report by Terry Dalrymple, Church Based CHE, Nicaragua, 2004

 

The Community Helped Build the Church!

 

Pastor Thomas came to the village of Los Brasiles in Nicaragua to pastor a small church in 1986. He struggled for many years through many difficulties, and attended many seminars looking for answers to his struggles. “We worked for 18 years with the old mentality doing only evangelism without any social action,” says Pastor Thomas, “and the church did not grow. I suffered hunger as a pastor because of it.”

 

In June of 2001 he was invited to attend what he thought would be just another seminar. “Sometime during the week,” Thomas testifies, “I realized that this was not just another seminar, but the opportunity for a new beginning”. In obedience to the Lord Jesus, and sensing that he was being directed by the Holy Spirit, Pastor Thomas introduced CHE to his church members in January 2002. He also approached the community:

 

“The Lord put it on my heart to apologize publicly to the community. I said to them, ‘As a church we have judged and condemned you, but now we have a different vision, and you are part of it.’

 

Within a year the church grew from 30 to 125 members. Today there are 255 believers, almost 1/3 of the total population. Gloria, one of the volunteer trainers in the community shared how the church members gained a wholistic vision:

 

“Prior to CHE, the church held services, fasted and prayed, but always inside the four walls of the church. One afternoon the 30 church members walked the streets at 6:00 to get a vision for the needs in the community. Then we organized into 3 groups of 10 people each. We called our groups “rescue groups,” and started meeting every Friday to plan work for the next Saturday.”

 

The community responded positively to the changes taking place in the church and began to see the church differently. The response of the community motivated the church to serve the Lord with enthusiasm. The church in Los Brasiles became an agent of God-intended change, and the community began to transform. The team reports the following happenings in their community in just two years of CHE ministry:

 

• People are coming to Christ and joining the fellowship of the church. Cell groups (rescue groups) are multiplying.

• The church and community have developed an integrated vision.

• People in the community started getting their lives together. People living together got married. Families have been reconciled.

• Four truck loads of garbage were hauled out of the community as a result of the first ever “community clean up”.

• Offerings in the church have improved. (One day, after preaching on giving, C$7,400 was collected - more than was collected in the whole five years previous).

• The community participated in building their first school. The church found funding; parents from the community contributed the labor. Parents set and pay school fees.

• The community assisted in building a new church building. (A few unbelievers who participated came to the Lord at the time of the building dedication).

• Almost 600 children are participating in Bible clubs.

 

From a Trip Report by Terry Dalrymple, Community Based CHE, Central Asia, 2004

 

Unless You Have Been Sent By God, You Cannot Solve This Problem!

 

The residents of a small village in Central Asia struggled for survival. Two hundred hectares of fruit trees had been completely barren for six years due to Gypsy moths. Men were going to Russia to find work. Women were being left behind to raise the children alone. Sometimes the men left and never came back. One woman expressed her remorse: “If just six trees would bare fruit, my husband would not have to go to Russia.”

 

Our team approached the village with a vision to share the good news of the kingdom in word and deed. An elder in the village admonished the team leader: “Unless you have been sent by God, you cannot solve this problem”. The people believed that the plague of the gypsy moth was sent by God to punish them for their sin.

 

The team gathered the farmers and facilitated a dialogue about the problem. The farmers described what they knew about the behavior of the moth, and together came up with a plan to fight them. They collected all the egg sacks they could find and destroyed their eggs. They tied cotton cloth around the trunk of the tree to trap the caterpillars as they climbed the trunk to eat the leaves. In the mornings they went to the traps and smashed the caterpillars in the cotton cloth. They also got help from the agronomist on the team who helped them secure the proper pesticide.

 

This year, the village harvested $60,000 in apricots. The trees are still recovering, and a better harvest is expected in the years to come. On last report more than 300 men have returned from Russia. The villagers want to build a monument to the team at the entrance to their village, but the team refuses and instead points them to give glory to God.

 

I sat with the principal of the school in this community and prayed with him in Jesus name that God would continue to bless them and to reveal himself to them. The principal said these parting words:

 

“There are many stones in our country, but our hearts are not stone…

There are many rivers in our country, and our hearts are rivers”

 

The community wants to build a monument along the road at the entrance to their village, but the team refuses reminding them that it was God who solved their problem. The people of this community have soft hearts toward these Christians who came to work in their village and met them at their point of need. A dialogue has begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From a Trip Report by Terry Dalrymple, Community Based CHE, Uganda, 2004

 

I just came from Uganda where CHE ministries are expanding so rapidly in the last two years that it is difficult to track the movement. Our Area Coordinators for the country report the following:

 

• 103 Volunteer Trainers working in 45 parishes of the Church of Uganda

• 93 Committees

• 564 Committee Members

• 626 active CHEs

• More than 400 CHEs in training

 

In 2003:

 

• 1,426 professions of faith

• 1,499 people participating in weekly Bible Study Groups

• 3789 Healthy Home Awards

 

The real story cannot be told with lifeless statistics. It is a story of God’s transforming work in lives and communities – a story of hope and healing, of salvation and restoration.

 

We arrived in a small village in Kawala parish, in the Mbale Diocese of Eastern Uganda. People of all ages lined the streets, singing and dancing their welcome. We got out of the Nissan four-wheel-drive pick up truck and moved in procession into the church building where we were escorted to our seats in front of the gathering crowd. The CHE Committee members took their assigned place facing us at our left. 30 CHEs from different churches in the community took their seats left of center. The religious and political leaders sat to our right. Directly in front of us was a group of 53 children - seated in their designated place of honor surrounded by the community.

 

Each one of these 53 children – all of them AIDs orphans - would have their own story to tell. Some had to drop out of school to take care of their dying parents. Many struggled to find ways to support the family, assuming the role of both care giver and bread winner. All were traumatized by grief and loss, compounded for many by the experience of watching their parents die a slow and horrific death. Many felt the stigma and shame associated with AIDs.

 

The situation in the village is desperate – funerals every week. And it is likely to get worse. For now these orphans are being absorbed into extended families, but the extent of the AIDs problem is pushing the extended family system to the breaking point. With half of all households living in extreme poverty and wage earners being lost to the AIDs pandermic, the strain of caring for extra children can be a burden almost too heavy to bear. Some of the children sitting in front of us were being cared for by aging grandparents, others by older siblings or aunts and uncles. In Rakai district in Uganda, 4% of households are headed by children between the ages of 12 and 16.

 

As CHEs in this village began visiting in homes, they saw the plight of these orphaned children whose parents had died of AIDS. In response to what they saw, they decided to take action. One Tuesday night the CHEs called all the AIDs orphans in the village to come to a meeting. At this meeting they presented each child with “scholastic materials” (pens and books) needed in order for them to go to school. The CHEs gave generously out of their own poverty to provide for the needs of these children. They gave willingly, entirely on their own without any prompting from anyone.

 

They did more. They planned to continue meeting these children every Tuesday evening to feed them a meal, teach them God’s Word, sing, and pray. The CHEs report that the children are overcoming feelings of hopelessness and despair. Some of these children come from Muslim homes, and a good number of them have come to Christ.

 

I marveled at the scene in front of me. Most orphans drop out of school, suffer malnutrition, receive little if any medical care, and have emotional problems due to unresolved grief. Orphans are more likely to be forced to work long hours, to suffer from beatings and to experience sexual abuse. These 53 children in some other village would likely have been neglected, abused, or abandoned. Here they were loved, embraced by the community, and given a place of honor.

 

USAID reports that the number of AIDs orphans worldwide is expected to rise to almost 35 million by the end of this decade. We can’t build enough orphanages to care for all these children. Communities like this one are leading the way, modeling what must be done to care for the growing numbers.

 

The CHEs who served these children with such compassion came from different backgrounds – Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, and Church of Uganda. There were even two Muslims among them. I watched as together with one voice they lifted up the name of Jesus and sang praise to His name. Many who were not believers before being recruited as CHEs have come to Christ, and are now sharing their faith with others from their respective churches. The CHE trainer in this village reports:

 

“Denominations are coming together, God is being glorified, and people are being saved!”

 

As we prepared to get back into our four wheel drive Nissan pick up truck and head back to the city, I found myself surrounded by a sea of children singing “If you’re happy and you know it, say amen”. I stood in the eye of their celebration spinning as they held me and danced in circles around me. The smiles on their faces brought tears to my eyes. They well up again now as I think about it.

 

God has brought life, light, and hope into this community. I am eyewitness to this work of His grace. This is the story that is being repeated again and again in lives and communities throughout Uganda.

 

From a Trip Report by Terry Dalrymple, Community Based CHE, Guatemala, June 2006

 

Felipe was a peasant farmer from the mountains of Guatemala. He came to Christ as a CHE and now pastors Fuente de Vida Church in Los Marroquines with 45 members. Felipe also serves as a trainer with MAI. In 2002, Felipe with his partner Cirilo initated work in the village of La Verde in the District of Retalhuleu. There was no evangelical church in the community, and only a handful of believers.

 

At the beginning, Felipe and Cirilo’s greatest opposition was a village leader named Raul. At a general meeting of the community where a vote was taken to form a committee and begin the development process in the community, Raul stood and washed his hands publicly of the whole plan. Raul was a devout Catholic who resented the coming of Evangelicals to his community.

 

The community was struggling with water born disease, but didn’t know it. Felipe and Cirilo began to teach on the importance of clean water; CHEs taught on water in the homes. Upon learning about the cause of these diseases, water became their first priority for the people of La Verde. The community found a water source and saved to buy the land where the water was. Having purchased the land, they went to city hall to request help, but got nothing but promises. Felipe and Cirilo brought the problem to Dr. Hugo Gomez, Area Coordinator for MAI.

 

Through the ministry of Face to Face International, Hugo made contact with a short term mission team came from Lexington Baptist Church under the leadership of Face to Face looking for a village to partner with in a long term relationship. They scouted out villages in Mexico and Guatemala City. When they came to La Verde and learned about CHE, they decided to join the village in their work.

 

The team from Lexington asked the villagers what they needed. The villagers pointed to their water project. Hugo connected Lexington with the water team from Mission Hills Church in Denver, Colorado. A technical advisor from Mission Hills visited the village and advised them concerning the type of system to use and provided training for the CHEs and the Committee.

 

The water source was downhill from the village. The CHEs and the committee because of their training believed that the system could work, but the rest of the village doubted that it would be possible to bring the water uphill. They had only seen gravity fed systems.

 

Lexington Church asked the committee to submit a budget proposal for their project. The committee drafted a proposal, and the church agreed to supply the pumps, pressure tanks, and control panels. The locals would do the trenching and pipeline to the homes. They would also be responsible for the water pipes and electrical wiring. The villagers pooled their funds, and went again to city hall. This time the mayor, seeing their initiative sent a backhoe to help with the trenching which was already half way dug by hand.

 

When the team from Lexington arrived, they were impressed by the initiative of the people and joined them in digging the trenches. The men in the village worked 24 hours a day around the clock digging the cistern that was to be four meters long, 5 meters wide, and 4 meters deep. Raul helped dig. The women prepared food and brought it to the men in the middle of the night to provide energy to keep them going.

 

Together with the church from Lexington, the residents of La Verde succeeded in piping clean potable water into every one of the 150 homes in the village. They dedicated the whole system to the Lord, and at the dedication service four people gave their hearts to Christ.

 

As part of the plan, each home would contribute an equal share each month to pay for electricity and repairs of the pump. Every 8^th day of the month, the community gathers for a general meeting and each family pays their share – about 13 Quetzales ($1.75) plus the cost of any repairs.

 

As CHEs began sharing the Gospel during home visits, people came to Christ and a small growth group was formed. Soon a small group of believers met each Sunday for worship in one of the homes. One of the CHEs, Angel Mendez, was chosen to be the pastor. The group approach the leaders of the village and asked for land on which they could build a church building. Raul was part of the land committee and influenced a decision to give the young group of believers the worst lot in the village.

 

Another problem for the community was their children’s education. When Felipe and Cirilo came to the village, the children were meeting in an old unventilated warehouse that had been used in previous years by wealthy landowners to store DDT and other chemicals they used in their cotton fields. Felipe and Cirilo knew that residue from these chemicals was still present, so as a initial step they encouraged the community to break holes in the walls to serve as windows for ventilation and to clean and paint the building. They were still concerned, however, that the children were being exposed to harmful chemicals. The committee approached city hall and began the process of petitioning the government for a new school building. They succeeded in their efforts, and with help from a short term mission team added a basketball court and a playground. “Now our children are being properly schooled,” says Santos the chairman of the committee.

 

By now Raul had seen the good things the CHEs and Committee were doing and started to attend CHE training. Hard rains came, and the lot the land committee had set aside for the church flooded. The group of believers returned to the land committee and asked for a different lot. This time Raul influenced the committee to give the church a prime corner lot – the best lot available. The new believers built a temporary shelter on the land – four poles and a tin roof – and began to meet there for worship.

 

Hugo Gomez, MAI’s Area Coordinator in Guatemala, was visiting in the village one day. He asked Raul bluntly why he did not attend the church. Raul replied that he was born a Catholic and he would die a Catholic. “I will never attend this church,” he said, “but one day my grandchildren will”.

 

A real sense of unity and camaraderie had developed among the villagers in La Verde as they worked together to relieve each other’s suffering and provide each other’s needs and wants. They offered themselves to each other without discrimination. Religious, cultural, ethnic and political barriers came down. An annual festival was established to celebrate their unity. Communities around the village were amazed by what they saw and heard.

 

The small group of believers began to plan for their church building. Each family contributed at least 6,000 Quetzales, which was the equivalent of about four months pay. For subsistence farmers and low income workers, this was a huge commitment. They also committed their time and labor. That, however, may not be the most significant part of the story. When the time came to build the church building, everyone pitched in - even those who were not members of the church gave time and money. It is reported that at the dedication of the church building, all 148 families were present. Raul was also present at the dedication. He later told Hugo, “Some day I will be the pastor of this church”.