All FIXED up!

PDF Version: Anderson_Report_18_01_27.pdf

Fixed Eyes

In 2018, we desire to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2) and get further along on the path He has set for us. He alone is salvation and victory. In circumstances where the wisdom and resources we see appear puny in the face of the task before us, may we respond as King Jehoshaphat did when he was confronted by what seemed to be an undefeatable foe. Lord, we have no idea what to do, but our eyes are fixed on you. (An Anderson paraphrase of II Chron. 20:12). May the same be true for you!

Fixed Bodies

In regard to the budding agricultural exposition that introduces Community Health Evangelism (CHE) ministries in the village of “Gimi” (not the real name), we have shared about the toll taken on several bodies. The beaten, elderly man has mostly recovered. A tribal king has judged his case. He was surprised and touched by the meals prepared and prayers offered by Christians while he was recovering in Bondoukou.

The young man bitten by a snake is able to work again. Our brother M., who wants to reach his birth village for Christ and offers the land for use, is recuperating from a motorcycle accident and broken arm with no complications. Verlin’s seriously infected leg limited his activity for greater than two weeks, but it finally resolved with three oral antibiotics and lots of prayer. We are grateful that the infected injury stopped spreading when it did and that retreat to a hospital was not necessary!

Fixed Hopes

Ministry obstacles of spiritual warfare, financial constraints, political and physical environments, and health setbacks are regular, even daunting realities here. The Ivorians we worked with in 2017 were beset with hardships, losses, sicknesses, and other challenges. Yet in Christ, their Hope and ours, they did prevail!

Despite some full stops, all persevered to see progress in every aspect of ministry. Souls were saved from false faiths during Disciple Making Movement (DMM) Discovery studies. Ivorians continue to be trained in order to lead such Bible studies. Several influential evangelical groups decided to use CHE as a major means of evangelistic outreach, some using it with integrated DMM approaches. The university CHE program expanded to new villages, and they are step-planning to meet their goal of being active in over 100 locations. Churches, para-church organizations, and NGOs stepped up to be trained and to participate in the Million Village Challenge (MVC) also using CHE. Doors opened that might permit CHE ministries among children. The CHE agricultural efforts created interest, enthusiasm, and hope in several arenas, secular and Christian. Thank you. Thank you for praying and giving to make this progress possible!

Fixed Dates

This year we want our quarterly updates to begin focusing on upcoming ministry opportunities rather than simply reporting on what has happened in the past. The problem with that goal is cultural: many dates change here when others lead, and change can happen last minute! While participating at an event is important, the subsequent implementation of what was learned may not be easy! CHE trainings scheduled for months can be delayed for weeks just days before they are set to begin. These are but two of our most frequent frustrations as Americans, but walking through such is necessary if Ivorians are to learn to manage the ‘ins and outs’ of planning to advance in free union! So, with a grain of salt, we list below what are the scheduled activities as of today. They will still need prayer. Even if the dates change, the events will happen.

• Feb 1-21: a) follow-up to further mentor Ivorians trained to lead Discovery Bible studies, and b) follow-up with several villages seeking CHE training in our Gontougo region.
• Feb 26-Mar 2: Abidjan CHE Training (Lagunes).
• Mar 5-9: Second CHE training in Téapleu (18 Mountains region).
• Mar 16-30: Continuing Medical and Dental Education (CMDE) Conference in Marathon, Greece where participating missionaries of our CHSC will meet, refresh, exchange, and plan.
• April 9-13: CHE training in Bounkani region.

Fixed Database

Keeping the physical and email addresses of ministry partners updated requires constant effort. That is a struggle anywhere, though it is complicated by life and ministry in Africa. Verlin’s mother, Elsie Anderson, does a fabulous job of managing the changing database and adding new ministry partners. Still, last year, we learned information which led us to realize that perhaps several hundred people who signed up to get our weekly email updates were not receiving them. Debbie, Elsie, and a friend from West Virginia will spend hours trying to contact those left behind by new Internet email protocols. We need those people praying and connected in ministry with all of us!

If you prefer to receive our quarterly updates by email, instead of by snail mail, along with our weekly updates, let us know. Connect with us using either updates@verlindeb.org or Elsie’s e-address in this newsletter’s header. If getting both snail mail and email copies suits you, that is good too.

In an effort to spend efficiently and streamline our contacts, Elsie is also learning to use the USPS Business Customer Gateway Intelligent Mail Small Business Tool. This will enable us to identify wrong addresses or those that are no longer valid among the 830 or so letters that we send each quarter. Perhaps the tool would help your church or business, too! A hearty “thank you” to Verlin’s home church, Central Oaks Community Church, for their help in processing our ministry newsletter and thank you notes.

Fixed Budget

In the last quarter of 2017, giving to our mission account was strong. Numerous people gave generously to help us end the year well. These annual donors, joined with our faithful quarterly and monthly partners, keep us in witness here! Our hearts are full of gratitude for all of you. Yes, we need more to fund some uninitiated efforts, about $800 more per month, but we do have a better sense of how to plan our priorities this year. FYI, there is more budgetary detail newly available at a link in the last phrase of the financial page explanation of the PDF, or here.

PRAY ALWAYS

• Pray that week-long CHE trainings planned for late February and early March take place. Another is scheduled in April. Two of the weeks target separate denominational groups. A third brings several together. All who are responsible for the planning have full time employment obligations besides this ministry.
• Pray for great progress in the agricultural fields during the next few weeks. Join us in asking the Lord to soften the hearts of the people in “Gimi” to receive the Gospel. There is a deep- seated hatred of the Good News, and those who carry it, that has revealed itself again in recent weeks. When successful, the field’s production will bring healing to populations by what is sold and will fund additional CHE initiated endeavors.
• Ask that the Lord’s guidance becomes clear for believers recently trained to lead Discovery Bible studies. Pray that they will be effective in reaching their families, neighbors, and co-workers for Christ while being strengthened in their own faith.
• Thank you for lifting up our children and granddaughter on a regular basis. We do not mention them often, but they are always in our hearts and minds. Pray that they will be fruitful and content in both life and ministry.

Your partners in the Gospel,
Verlin and Debbie

Please see our Anderson Report 18_01_27 to confirm 4th quarter 2017 donations you may have made and the 2017 or 2018 budgets if you are so inclined. There is a summary report of income, expenses, during the first quarter of the 2018 Fiscal Year budget here. We regularly provide the most recent information that we are able to compile via the links that follow the next paragraph.

The 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: TWL  PDF
Last Video:Farming God's Way Anderson_WEEKLY_170610
2017 Q3 Report: It Takes 3 Makes (web) -  1711025.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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TWL

PDF Version: TWL

The Discovery Study training in a local church is going well. The first week, we watched a video that revealed the way to lead the groups and explained how the outreach’s integration can begin or expand Community Health Evangelism (CHE) ministries. Last week, three of us experienced in leading Discovery Bible studies demonstrated how to guide a group. This Sunday, we will either lead the practice sessions again, or let others lead while those familiar with the process participate alongside. Believers sensing a call to engage will then be grouped by time of day and area of town where they can be further mentored. It is our prayer and hope that as they experience God through the Bible will transform family, friends, and neighbors.

The testimony of some elderly members last week was revealing, including that of twin sisters who are around 100 years old! In their small group of people who did not read or write and who only spoke local languages, they were amazed to see how the Spirit opened up their understanding to apply His truth in their individual lives. After celebrating God’s work in each life by brief prayer and testimony, a passage about blind Bartimaeus was read twice. Individuals then responded to the following questions to personally apply the text.

• What does this passage teach us about God?
• What does it teach us about man, that is, about each of us?
• Is there a sin for me to confess, or a promise to claim?
• Is there an example to follow or not follow?
• How can I apply this message of God’s Word in my life this week?
• With whom can I share the message or show God’s love to this week?

Several participants discovered that they do not have to await the pastor’s message on Sunday to hear the Lord speak to them through His Word. That is life-changing! Thank you for helping us to share the Way, the Truth, and the Life here. (John 14:6)

Prayer and Praise:

• Pray for the believers who will train to lead Bible studies in their own settings. Pray with us that study groups will multiply all over Bondoukou, especially so that the unchurched will have opportunity to hear the Word in places apart from a church building.
• Pray for a widow converted last year during a Disciple Making Movement (DMM) Bible Study. She asked Debbie to pray with her today because she had a disturbing dream in which she had felt a spirit of death enveloping her. Ask the Lord to reassure her of His power over death and His protection from any curse of her past or people who may wish her harm.
• Verlin has a hobbling infection of his leg that developed from a cut he got during field work that he scratched. Pray for continued and complete healing as he takes three oral antibiotics. 

Your partners in the Gospel,
Verlin and Debbie

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 weekly: Field Days  PDF
Last Video:Farming God's Way Anderson_WEEKLY_170610
2017 Q3 Report: It Takes Three Makes -  171125.pdf Corrected 25 Jan 2018

2018 Budget Info:
CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-2018-Budget.pdf

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

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Verlin's Facebook Page

Field Days

PDF Version: Field Days

Over the past year, we have often asked you to pray for the village of Gimi (not the real name). That is where we launch a local Community Health Evangelism (CHE) agricultural project, winning or training some others along the way. This is a spiritually resistant village being penetrated for the sake of the Gospel. It brings transformation in the way people think and live eternally. Because the enemy does not want the Gospel to penetrate and liberate Gimi, there have been obstacles.

• The first man who welcomed Verlin and M. [a believer who offered his land for use to demonstrate Farming God’s Way (FGW) production of corn, a grove of moringa trees, and a F.A.I.T.H. garden (relevant manuals at each prior link)] was beaten by the youth of the village;
• M. was in a serious motorcycle accident in November which will prevent him from doing physical work for several more months;
• the young man from the village hired to clear land was bitten by a snake in early December,
• and so it goes as we overcome thanks to our Lord!

This week M. was stunned when a few leaders of the village lied about him and the project in a meeting of regional chiefs. Also, the same leaders gave a Chinese man authority to plant soy on a portion of M.’s land for a year without M.’s participation or approval though all recognize him as the legitimate owner of the land. M., Verlin, and two other witnesses met with a government mediator today to address the situation. The mediator was excited about the moringa and corn projects, saying these entrepreneurial approaches that facilitate new and improved farming techniques are exactly what most Ivorians want and need today. He will investigate the situation next week. We expect a speedy resolution to the current obstacle, but it appears that the animosity of a few villagers is a deep issue that will need much work in prayer. Similar chicanery will rear its ugly head again in the future until their eyes are opened spiritually.

Prayer and Praise:

• Praise: Generous giving to our mission account in December will allow us to continue here in resident ministry for a time! Thank you so much, financial partners and friends, for giving faithfully each month and abundantly at the end of the year. We’ll have a better sense of how to manage our time here this year as we prepare the quarterly report in weeks to come.
• Praise: Debbie’s residence papers were processed without delay. We verify Verlin’s Monday.
• Pray for the many issues related to Gimi. Ask that M. increases in wisdom and finds consensus with village leaders while protecting his rights as the landowner. Pray for opportunities to continue spiritual conversations and successively break strongholds there.
Continue to pray for the second week of a pilot DMM Discovery Study training at a local church in Bondoukou. Last week’s session went well.

Your partners in the Gospel,
Verlin and Debbie

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 weekly: Holy Bleach  PDF
Last Video:Farming God's Way Anderson_WEEKLY_170610
2017 Q3 Report: It Takes Three Makes -  171125.pdf Corrected 25 Jan 2018

2018 Budget Info:
CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-2018-Budget.pdf

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

Debbie's Facebook Page



Verlin's Facebook Page

Holy Bleach

PDF Version: Holy Bleach

New Year’s greetings are a big deal in Ivorian culture. Friends typically drop-in during the first few weeks of January to wish you a prosperous new year. Just as popular is sending a message of ‘Best Wishes’ by cell phone. We were invited to dine with the family of Jerome on Monday (pictured). They buy mutton every year in December to roast for Christmas and New Year celebrations. As we ate a delicious meal, their children delivered plates of food to neighbors and friends. This is their tribal tradition of sharing at the end of the year. While we cannot “beam you over” to enjoy a festive meal together, we can share the prayer we have for all in the New Year, with a note of context below.

One challenge here is finding cleaning products that actually remove stains from clothes, especially whites. Local detergents that we have tried are harsh, bother our skin, or wear away fabric. Products like Spray & Wash, Goop, and Oxiclean are rarely, if ever, available. Bleach is not colorfast; hydrogen peroxide is too expensive to use in large quantities; borax is hard to find; vinegar only works sometimes. Clothes that seem to be okay here can look so dingy when we return to the States that we are reluctant to wear them (if we do!).

Praise God, there is hope for our spiritual “spots and wrinkles,” even if we fail with earthly clothes! In 2018, may each of us faithfully follow the One who purifies us as His bride and presents us as “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing…” (Eph. 5:27). Know that He is “able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24). These promises of purity and victory are our prayer for all who accompany us in this life. In the above picture, our brother Jerome prepares a presentation that is only coming to fruition because of the efforts of seven organs of the body of Christ (more on that in the future). The point is that the Lord prepares His Church using all of us as needed and available. May this new year of 2018 reveal the role each of us is to play cooperatively as Jesus makes and keeps us clean to take part in His redemption of the earth.

Prayer and Praise:

• Pray for the Discovery Bible training session (a DMM centerpiece) that we will hold at a church in Bondoukou this Sunday, January 7, and that follows in the next two weeks.
• Debbie’s mother is suffering from constant, severe pain in both hips that greatly hinders her mobility. Please pray with us that the cause can be clearly identified as she consults a specialist this month in Nashville and seeks to solve a progressively worse 30+ year problem.
• The chief of the village where a CHE agricultural ministry has begun is expected for a visit at our house next week. Pray that the meeting will further smooth the way for progress in the village and for witnessing opportunities as Verlin and M. share the vision. 
  

Your partners in the Gospel,
Verlin and Debbie

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 weekly: Joyful Visits  PDF
Last Video:Farming God's Way Anderson_WEEKLY_170610
2017 Q3 Report: It Takes Three Makes -  171125.pdf Corrected 25 Jan 2018

2018 Budget Info:
CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-2018-Budget.pdf

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

Debbie's Facebook Page



Verlin's Facebook Page