This past week, I attended my first formal “Vision Seminar” on Community Health Evangelism, commonly known as CHE. Our workers had been utilizing the unique strategy for some time. On several of our fields, CHE had transformed the entire approach. But I had never trained in it myself… until now.

 

I thought it was for health workers. Somehow, I had understood that it had to do mainly with medical practices. Who knew there were 2500 lessons on nearly every topic ever known to plague mankind. Actually, the goal of CHE is to establish a development ministry whose purpose is to bring together Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and the Great Commandment (Matthew 25:37-40). This is accomplished by training community members as Community Health Evangelists (CHEs) who regularly visit 10 – 15 neighboring households, sharing the gospel and promoting principles of disease prevention and healthy living. The program is designed to be transferable, multipliable, and ongoing after the training team leaves the area.

 

There’s no doubt — within the next handful of years, CHE will have transformed the way we do missions (if it hasn’t already). What interests me as much as anything is — the way the revolution is taking place. How can a grassroots philosophy make such a huge impact on our globe? How can a set of practices, primarily articulated by a handful of practitioners, become so ubiquitous that church after church would insist that every mission partner train in it?

 

It’s too early for me to answer those questions. I only know that my admiration has gone through the roof for Stan, Terry, Val, David, and the other pioneers who have patiently mentored and facilitated these trainings. I’m inspired by the way they’ve adopted such an “open source” approach to something that might have been able to make them rich. But perhaps, one of the secrets to its popularity is the essence of the fact that they gave it away to the world so freely — and continue to do so.

 

Read more about CHE by downloading this introductory 50-page manual.

 

http://www.u4theu.com/files/u4theu/docs/CHE_Overview.pdf

 

Isn’t it crazy that the author isn’t even named? Literally nobody is taking the credit… and nobody is getting a payoff… primarily because of the unselfishness of those who envisioned and experienced these tools. Hats off Stan. Well done Terry. Way to go Val. We appreciate you!!!

 

Doug

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