It Takes Three Makes

PDF Version: Anderson_Report_17_11_25.pdf

Hopefully our 2017 weekly updates and quarterly reports, like this one, encourage you. The Lord is at work in Cote d’Ivoire, and we rejoice! Do not think, though, that the victories are won without serious struggles and setbacks. As we age, we realize that one very helpful example we can offer as missionaries is how we react during suffering or trying circumstances. When people break promises or malign righteous living; when resources wane, health fails, or corruption reigns, what are we to do? What do we do? Interestingly, we find that almost any problem can be helped by taking one of three approaches. With the Lord’s help, we can “make do,” “make better,” or “make new.”

Make Do (Tinker)

Africans are well-known as bricoleurs (bree-coe-lurz)—a French word that means they can tinker or “make do” with the limited resources around them. You only have to see the public transport vehicles with goats tied on top, children making toys from street trash, or women fanning husks away from dried peanuts to admire their ingenuity.

Using what the Lord has placed in our hands and community is a key concept in Community Health Evangelism (CHE). We use local resources to find solutions to a myriad of problems. For that reason we do such things as eat moringa and manioc leaves for nutrition, drink papaya leaf tea to help prevent diseases, learn to make things like car wash soap, and encourage churches to use Sunday School materials that they can afford to reproduce.

Recently one of our Ivorian co-workers started a Bible Club in his yard. Each Saturday afternoon at 1:30, around 45 eager children meet under an avocado tree and sit on locally made benches to hear stories from the Bible. They start asking the teacher at 9:00 in the morning, “Uncle, is it time yet?” This class will probably never have a room with tables and chairs, and certainly never see videos, puppet teams, or take home crafts. Yet because he keeps it simple and meets in an open place, parents of other religions let their children participate. This process can be easily repeated in other settings.

(7-x-7 provides more of the story).

Make Better (Treat)

Other times making do is not enough. It is not okay to accept: malnutrition in children, diarrhea ravaging villages, corn yields well below world averages, or women hurting their backs as they carry heavy loads of firewood, charcoal, or water on their heads for years.

Every problem listed above needs an intervention, an improvement to make the situation better. When CHE is taught house to house, it injects hope into the community. It might mean people grow moringa to address malnutrition, or they may decrease diarrhea and make women’s lives easier by heating water and cooking with solar heat. Men can see crop production multiplied by practicing biblical principles and agricultural techniques taught in Farming God’s Way.

The majority of our ministry focuses on training Ivorians to abandon their fatalistic worldview and embrace Christ-honoring change as we model CHE. Our goal in the next ten years is to see the several hundred people already trained multiply to become several thousand ambassadors who touch hundreds of villages in every government district nationwide.
(More at The Son's Light)

Make New (Transform)

Some ways of thinking and behavior have no redeeming value. We do not need to make do or make better sins like human trafficking, female genital mutilation, or paying bribes for services. Those things need to be transformed by repentance and faith in Christ. He is the One who, after all, “makes all things new! (Rev. 21:5)

One of the challenges in pagan cultures, as is often now the case in the secular culture of the USA, is that people often do not see sin as sin. That is one reason why the Discovery Bible Studies are so important. We all need to evaluate our beliefs and actions by the truth of Scripture. Thankfully, as we sincerely and regularly study the Word of God, the Holy Spirit shines the light in our hearts and begins to transform our way of thinking. Then He empowers us to actually live differently. We become living Bibles for those around us. As Titus 2:11-12 puts it, the grace of God that brings salvation to all people also teaches us to live righteously and godly in this present world. This is hope and help that unbelievers do not have. It is why we desire and labor to see hundreds of these Bible studies spring up all over Cote d’Ivoire and be linked together to do good works through CHE. These issues and yet others were addressed and applied during the Western Cote d’Ivoire training mentioned in the 7 x 7 update.

Make A Way

To keep up the alliteration, we would have to find a verb for tenacity, but here is the point. For over 17 years, the Lord has made a way for us to serve Him in Cote d’Ivoire. Usually He has used your prayers and gifts to accomplish that task, and we are so grateful. There have been times of abundance and times to tighten our belts, but always the work has continued. This is a season of ministry where we budget carefully and try to spread larger expenses over several months. We have a few projects and repairs on hold. We also make do with two computers that need to be replaced (one’s screen is going bad and has a row of keys that no longer type; the other overheats from time to time if a cooling pad is not available). Praise the Lord, though, CHE trainings have not been delayed due to our lack of funds. Since January, the American dollar has fallen in worth from over 600 to around 550 francs per dollar (a greater than 10% drop in purchasing power). All these details are reminders to us that each donation received truly matters and that the Lord arranges things we cannot control to get done what He desires be done. There is no amount too small to offer. Infrequent or annual gifts help cover budget shortfalls and unexpected surprises. Some of you have been financial partners for almost two decades! We are humbled and blessed by that faithfulness.

PRAY ALWAYS

• Pray that we as a couple will continue being faithful examples of lives transformed by Jesus. Ask for wisdom and stamina as the pace of our ministry continues to speed along.
• Continue to lift up new believers who are persecuted for their faith. Ask for steady income for two unmarried women whose families do not assist them.
• Pray for all the trainers in the national Ivorian CHE network (AISEC). We have a rapidly filling schedule for 2018 and the believers trained to share the Gospel with CHE in the past few years need steady follow-up and encouragement. We do not want anyone to fall through the cracks simply for our failure to be able to follow with them. The current president of AISEC anticipates a dozen trainings next year; Verlin and I anticipate more than twenty.
• Pray for complete funding so that we can continue to work unhindered and meet expanding responsibilities in the national and regional networks of CHE and the CHSC.

Your partners in the Gospel,
Verlin and Debbie

Please see our Anderson Report 17_11_25 to confirm 3rd quarter donations you may have made and the 2017 or 2018 budgets if you are so inclined. We regularly provide the most recent information that we are able to compile via the links that follow the next paragraph.

Christian Health Service Corps (CHSC) is a mission of dedicated medical professionals who participate in the CHE Global Network. Together, in a loose affiliation of individuals, churches, denominational and nondenominational agencies, we share God's Light and Truth through Community Health Evangelism (CHE). Verlin and Debbie accept donor partners to contribute as led to maintain support as we resume residential ministry to expand CHE ministries in Cote d'Ivoire under the auspices of CHSC & Ivorian partners. Tax deductible contributions by check are to be made payable to the CHSC with Andersons #0118 written on the memo line. Mail to CHSC - PO Box 132 - Fruitvale, TX 75127. Give online via the CHSC @ www.che4a.org (3% fee) or TDF (0% fee).

Last written: What a Mouth full!  PDF
Last Video:Farming God's Way Anderson_WEEKLY_170610
2017 Q2 Report: HUPLA (web) -  171007.pdf
2017 Budget: CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-Budget.pdf
2018 Budget:CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-Budget.pdf

GIVE ONLINE to support these ministries: www.che4a.org

Something to ask? Write: updates@verlindeb.org  AWA represents Andersons Witnessing in Africa

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