CHE Training - Day 1

My plan was to do one post at the end of the week...but very quickly I realized that there is so much in one day that I will need to post every day! I will make it brief, but I do want to share with you all that I am learning. CHE means Community Health Evangelism and is really the heart and soul of what Missions of Hope does for the people of the Mathare slums. As I describe the pictures, I will also introduce you to CHE.
Edna - on the left is the Director of CHE, so she basically runs the program. Eddy - on the right is her assistant and is the Chairperson for the training.
Edna at the first of many lists (later you will see some that have been taped to the wall)...after a very fun "ice breaker", listing our expectations and the rules & regulations for the week, we chose 'officers'...Time Keeper - Mary, Energizer - Robert, Chaplain - Isabella, Chairperson - Edward (Eddy)...below you see Robert in his Energizer role - that is, to keep us all awake, alive...
alert and enthusiastic! Actually we began the day with praises to our Lord and Robert is leading us here in this photo.

After a brief skit introducing the idea of which is more important - meeting physical needs or sharing the gospel we discussed that issue and began to see that both are important and are merged together in the CHE program.

Then we had a brief Bible Study based on Luke 4:16-21. If you read this scripture you will see the Biblical basis for the CHE program...

Tea Time! I am learning to love tea with milk and sugar...

Above is my friend Josephine, the Head Social Worker for Missions of Hope, drawing a river with large stones in it...these two fellas below are contemplating how to cross the river since neither knows how to swim and both are afraid of water...
Along comes a friend, Raphael, who offers to carry them across...
...But when he gets halfway across with the first guy, he gets tired so he puts him down...
...then goes back for the second guy, offering to walk him across, too tired to carry him...
...when they reach halfway the second man gains confidence and only needs to be shown how - he no longer needs the support of having his hand held...
...as he is late for a meeting, Raphael leaves the two to 'sort out' how to get guy #1 all the way to the opposite bank...now that guy #2 knows how to cross, he travels to the center of the river...
...to guide and instruct guy#1 to safety...now all three know how to cross the river!
What followed was a lively discussion about all the concepts we learned while watching the River Crossing skit. The Readers Digest version is - it is not only ineffective but often harmful to "carry" people or do it for them...guy#1 was worse off in the middle of the river than if Raphael had just left him on the far bank. It is better to lead and teach...then encourage those who learn to lead and teach others.

The token Mzungu (white person) in the training...

Almost everything written on the 'board' gets taped to the wall...my friend Paul took this picture!
This is Vitalis teaching about Good Health. He told us a story about a man who falls off his horse, is taken to the hospital by some 'good samaritans', and then told that his horse fell due to evil spirits that were cast by the man's neighbors. So, even after the man's broken leg had healed he had bitterness in his heart and began to do hateful things to his neighbors to retaliate.
We discussed all the aspects of 'good health' from a holistic point of view - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. We discussed harmony with God, harmony with self, harmony with others and harmony with environment as key components of the CHE program.

Then Raphael came in to talk to us about Evangelism. Here he is demonstrating how to use the Evangecube, which is used quite effectively here at Missions of Hope. We went into diads (group of 2) with each 'couple' discussing the reason for evangelism found in each of the following scripture passages: Matt 28:19-20, Ezekiel 3:18, Romans 10:13-15, Luke 10:27, Ps 126:6, Proverbs 11:30, Isaiah 55:11. I encourage you to read these in order - it is sort of a progressive description of why, how and benefits of sharing the gospel.

Eddy taught our final session on the three elements of CHE and the three main purposes of CHE. It began with a short skit with yours truly and another student, Becky. I asked if there was a program to help with the physical and spiritual needs of my community...and of course the answer was CHE! Eddy sent these baskets around the room to set us up for an object lesson about how ineffective unfinished and poorly made baskets compare to an incomplete or poorly run program.
That set us up for him to share with us the three elements of CHE - all of which are vital to the program: The Training Team, The Committee and the Community Health Evangelists (CHEs) - you will read more about all three tomorrow when I post about Day 2! He also shared the three main goals of CHE: Prevention of Diseases, Promotion of Good Health, and Living an Abundant Christian Life.
Edna opened and closed the day! Here she is teaching from a Case Study, that was handed out for us to read, on a successful CHE program launched in a village in Uganda.As you can imagine this was an exciting and exhausting day! There was much information given out to be processed on this first day...which I believe was a great introduction/foundation for us to build on for the rest of the week.

This is a great program which is already being used to transform communities. This training is actually to train trainers...you will read more about the role of a trainer in my Day 2 blog.