CHE Update!
This month our passionate and committed CHE team have traveled distances of up to 80km by bicycle and motorbike, passing through knee deep swamps, lion infested forests, and through 3m tall grass filled with sharp seed ‘spears’ that penetrate the skin; they have been drenched to the bone in thunderstorms, been bitten by countless mosquitos, and have fallen off their bicycles many times on the muddy paths. But these guys have not stopped smiling and praising God as they further his kingdom here in Tonj!
This month the CHE team have continued teaching their spiritual and health lessons out the villages, and have also helped run medical outreach clinics which are held under trees or in bush churches. Two days ago members of the CHE team saw 232 patients with Dr. Jono in the village of Bobi, and the community were so excited they didn’t stop dancing for the whole seven hours the team were there! During lunch CHE members from Bobi explained how they have been sharing the CHE teaching with a neighboring village, and as a result 39 people from that village accepted Christ and want to be baptized. They are planning on starting a new church to help care for these new Christians. Please continue to cover the CHE team, villages and program in prayer. Pray for transformation of entire communities.
Investing in Lives!
All of our Community Health Workers (CHWs) are young men and women who have finished high school and need work. They come to us without any medical experience and we train them from scratch. We’ve sent several of our CHWs for medical training in Kenya and also in South Sudan. Gabriel competed three years of Clinical medicine, is our first graduate and is now working full-time in our clinic as a Clinical Officer.
With the high number of patients during the week it has been hard to get quality time to train ‘on the job’ so our volunteer, Amy Neilsson, agreed to help us with this need. We asked our CHWs to attend a training workshop covering the key topics and skills that are relevant and crucial to their work in the clinic. It acted as a refresher course as well as introducing some new knowledge. The response was so encouraging and they willingly gave up their day off on Saturday to participate. It was great seeing everyone so interested and keen to learn and asking lots of questions. Not just educational but also heaps of fun, with a few games and ending on a feast of goat!! Since then they have been asking if we can make it a monthly event!
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” – 2 Peter 1:3
Farming God’s Way!
In our CHE program in the past we have taught ‘Farming God’s Way’ (FGW). This month Sabet was privileged to attend a workshop in Kenya and took a young man from Tonj, called Mattiang, with him to learn.
FGW is about understanding biblical views that change our world view, so when we do farming we are doing more than growing food, we are conserving God’s nature, we are being good stewards and effective with limited resources, we are practicing generous giving, we are able to come out of poverty, we are Farming God’s Way! We learnt there is honor and dignity in farming. Pray for Sabet and Mattiang as they bring what they learnt to others and begin training those in the CHE villages. It will not be easy as change never is and we will be breaking old cultural farming habits and lies that have produced poor yields and replacing them with new and proven methods, producing an abundance and filled with truth and God’s favor! Our prayer is through this amazing program we can help people to help themselves and alleviate poverty one village at a time!!