Central Asia (MNN)–An Interserve partner says the concept of Community Health Evangelism is efficient for ministry in countries closed to the traditional missionary.
Because of the nature of the work she’s doing in Central Asia, we’ll just call her ‘Susan’. “What I do is teach community health workers in their village. Often, the women that we’re working with are not allowed to leave their village area to come to a central area for teaching, so we go into the village, teaching women, improving their healthcare and empowering them.”
The program works by training nationals in agriculture, sanitation, clean water supply, literacy, and family-based businesses, as well as training them to train their neighbors.
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.
‘Susan’ says believers are effective in this ministry, so long as the people can see the level of commitment. “The unique contributions that Christians can give, people who really love Jesus and are committed to following Him, is being there and being willing to stay and being willing to share their lives with people.”
CHE training includes both physical and spiritual topics. When visiting a home, Community Health Evangelists (CHEs) deal with the total need of families. Training teams expect spiritual results and look for them.
But finding the right workers is a big obstacle for their work. “I guess that would be the biggest challenge is people willing to come and to stay, not come in for a short period of time and leave quickly.”
