Today I am heading out to Vancouver for training in Community Health Evangelism (CHE) which is part of my preparation for community development work in Congo. Thanks to my Aunt Pamela for finding an article about CHE at work in DRC. I have shared it below to give you an idea of what CHE is all about. (article in it's entirety is at: http://lifewind.org/july_news.html)
How do economic hard times affect people in a place like the DRC?
These are hard times economically, and we all know something about what that looks like in the United States. High rates of unemployment, home foreclosures, failed businesses, and a colossal national debt are some of the realities that affect us, and we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s poorest nations—only tiny Burundi is ranked poorer, and not by much. The average income of someone living in the United States is 260 times that of someone who lives in the DRC.
So how do economic hard times affect people in a place like the DRC?
Let me explain with a story that illustrates both what is happening, and the big difference your gifts have made.
Ngandajika is a small town in south central DRC. Workers there were never treated fairly, but when the world’s economy was booming their work at least gave them something. They had food, and enough cash to pay the tuition the government schools required for their children to receive an education.
But businesses shut down, and there were no buyers for crops when global economic problems hit the area. The people went from having a little to having no income at all, and the effect rippled through their families and community.
Children and teenagers who used to be in school were on the streets all day long, with nothing to do. As a result, gangs formed and crime and prostitution skyrocketed. Life in Ngandajika started into a wicked spiral of destruction. Happily, however, the forces of evil were opposed.
Ngandajika is a community where a Community Health Evangelism (CHE) program had started before hard times hit. As a result of CHE, the community had a group of leaders who were trained to look at how to solve problems themselves.
The community leaders of Ngandajika, trained by CHE, quickly realized that having no school for their children was a critical problem. Their first move was to ask the government and school officials to lower the cost of tuition. Though this was denied, they did not give up.
They still needed a school for their children, so they decided to build and run one themselves. They had three types of resources that were locally available.
First, they had a little money (very little). The leadership group was able to collect $350 in voluntary contributions. But this was huge, coming from people who on average have to live on the equivalent of 57cents per day.
Second, their leaders had proved trustworthy. Without trust no action would have been possible.
Third, they had creativity and the willingness to work. They planned a three-room school, and built it out of materials they produced themselves—making bricks, and cutting wood and thatching material. Then they found qualified teachers and were ready to go.
In no time, they recruited 300 students from the poorest families in town, which the school could handle in two shifts of 50 students for each of the three classrooms.
Their hope exceeded the materials they had available, but it was more than justified. Children and youth returned to school, to learn instead of make trouble. The incidence of crime and prostitution dropped dramatically, and the government took notice.
Though unwilling (or unable) to provide funding for public education, government officials were happy to give honors for what the community had done on its own. But they wanted to know about the CHE program that seemed to be the key. “What is CHE, anyway?”
The community leaders said, “CHE is a plan for individual and community development through equipping that is both physical and spiritual.”
The government representatives asked, “What do you mean by spiritual?” The people of Ngandajika said,
“We have met Jesus personally. Jesus has shown us what God is like and what he expects of us. Jesus has shown us what it means to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This changes our attitude to each other – it makes us ready to volunteer, to respect and help each other. But that is not all. When we pray, miracles happen. God’s power is what really keeps our school running.”
What I want you to know, as supporters of LifeWind/Medical Ambassadors, is that the first CHE programs started in the DRC twenty years ago. Those programs have planted hundreds of churches, some of which are now pastored by adults who first heard about Jesus through CHE programs of which they were a part as children.
The last time LifeWind/Medical Ambassadors placed foreign missionaries in the DRC was in 1997. Since then, Congolese leaders, with LifeWind/Medical Ambassadors support, have expanded the CHE program from 56 initial villages to over 500. What a return on investment!
How did this happen? The Congolese CHE leaders would not say they have done this on their own. What they have seen in communities like Ngandajika goes beyond good community development techniques. They know that results like this can only be explained by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, who enables individuals and communities to succeed amazingly, even when failure seems certain.
