What a troubled world we face daily! From floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, and nuclear threats, to racial division, political vitriol, family struggles, and unhealthy habits, we can easily let the stress destabilize us. Perhaps reminders like those found in Psalm 90, the psalm of Moses, help you as they do us. Remember the baby afloat in a basket among the river reeds? The murderer banished to the desert? The shepherd commissioned at the burning bush? The leader chased by Egyptian armies and condemned to wander 40 years in the desert with rebellious people? The glowing-faced man given the Ten Commandments? The sinner who could see but not enter the Promised Land? Having lived a nomadic life of trial and danger, Moses still penned words that astonish and comfort us today: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations…satisfy us with Your mercy…let the beauty (favor) of the Lord our God be upon us…establish the work of our hands. Moses, the life-long wanderer, knew his sure Dwelling Place. The upheaval in him and around him could not shake his purpose. May it be so for us all! We clearly see the Lord establishing the work of our hands these past months.
Debbie thanks you for your concern and prayers during her knee replacement. The surgery and early recovery time went well. There have been some slow, painful adjustments since she returned to Cote d’Ivoire in September, but those were expected. She works to increase her mobility in the next few months. Verlin had his own need for healing during the same period. A respiratory condition weakened him for over a month, despite some antibiotic and nutritional treatments that usually clear such problems. He also took on some deep puncture wounds while separating our male dogs during one of their fights. Thankfully both problems seem nearly healed. None of the above caused much of a slowdown.
August 30 through September 21 was spent preparing for the September 10-14 week-long 
presentation of Community Health Engagement (CHE) training at University of Félix Houphouët Boigny (UFHB) in Abidjan. Dr. Martine Fritsch’s experiences of integrating CHE with public health development in Madagascar were received with enthusiasm by university leadership. Her success challenged them. Dayo Obaweya, CHE coordinator for West Africa, shared with those assembled during closing remarks that their application of CHE could become a model used all over Africa.
The weekend after the training, Verlin and Dayo were both blessed and a blessing while accompanying the
university CHE team to a village where they had begun CHE efforts. Seeing their successes and challenges in person led one of our experienced CHE trainers to agree to live mostly in the village for the next three to six months. His presence, while working in conjunction with the university team, will hopefully accelerate their progress and provide a working model for the university to reproduce in other villages.
Despite a very positive outcome at the university this year, it did not start auspiciously. A deep grief punctuated the beginning and had to be lived and overcome throughout the week. On Sunday, September 9, one day before the training began, a dear friend and fellow trainer, Medard Gombleu, was signaling to get a taxi after church. He was struck from behind by an out-of-control vehicle driven by a ‘druggie’. He died minutes later. We received the news as we prepared Monday to leave for the site of the university trainings. Our sense of personal and ministry loss is great. We lost a second well trained brother and a passionate champion of CHE in Cote d’Ivoire. However, our loss is minuscule compared to that of his wife and 5 children who range in age from 3 to 13. His church, and a Christian NGO with whom he excellently served the Lord, mourn in multiple ways too. We anticipate that God will faithfully raise-up other leaders through these circumstances, as He has done before.
On October 14, 21, and 28, we will hold three consecutive weeks of Discovery Bible Study (DBS) training at a local church here in Bondoukou. This will be the fifth church we have equipped this year in DBS. This means of multiplying disciples wins friends and neighbors to the Lord and stems from the publicly shared Disciple Making Movement (DMM) strategies. We will likely begin a sixth training concomitantly using group facilitators from those trained previously.
During the week of December 4-6, Jean Marc Fritsch (husband of Dr. Martine) will join us in Bondoukou to provide more in-depth training and to indirectly connect the believers we have introduced to DBS with those doing the same elsewhere throughout the nation. His zeal and years of experience will be a great asset. We look forward to what the Lord will do. Thankfully, the collective of local evangelical church pastors organizes this training since leaders from other towns now ask to participate. Our original thought was to host this for Bondoukou churches alone to model a city-wide ministry of believers. The Lord seems to be expanding that vision. We will strive to focus our follow-up upon local works as much as is possible. We already delegate the follow-up of those coming from other towns to those inviting them. This will develop other leaders.
This year we have spent hundreds of hours meeting with the leaders of evangelical denominations and NGOs and promoting the Million Village Challenge (MVC) conference that the national Ivorian CHE network will host in mid-November. We have worked and prayed to see 100 to 200 leaders from more than twenty additional Christian organizations gather and confront the challenge of reaching the unreached, unengaged people groups (UUPGs) of Cote d’Ivoire. This has great potential to expand evangelism and wholistic ministry in remote areas of the country. Ask that the tireless efforts of AISEC, our Ivorian CHE network, honor the Lord for the sake of His Kingdom.
During the MVC conference, select attendees will visit a village where the people are engaged in CHE. The chosen village is remote, but will demonstrate 
how a very poor area can be impacted while creating an impact that multiples. The local pastor has developed a team that now ministers in 17 villages. One of their CHE objectives is to deal with illiteracy in the region, but they also target sanitation and expect to improve potable water, food security, and health conditions in the future. At the pictured meeting during the summer, one of the leaders thanked Verlin for the CHE training they received in 2016 and 2017 that jump-started their changes. A former drunk who now lives an exemplary life, he is one of many lives transformed!
Dear friends, we need expanded help and specific prayers for monthly financial support during this final quarter of the year. Under normal circumstances, the dip of our operating account balance would make us consider returning to the States to visit supporters and raise funds, or to begin calls from here. Since we have been committed to the November MVC conference and December DBS training for over a year, we will not change our direction mid-stream, at least not until these important training events are achieved. We do not wish to interrupt ministry to seek funds there, but it may be necessary later to provide for another year and four months here before returning to the States for an extended period.
Please remember that we are now responsible for 100% of our support. We can receive no joint funds from a single denominational mission that can cover these situations for us and still keep the ministry touching all here. Many of you, our giving and praying base of supporters, remain incredibly faithful and generous. (Together we have a rolling annual 84% donor retention rate!) Still, the dollar’s value trended down this year as expenses rose. Also, our 2013 change in mission objectives to focus upon CHE exclusively meant we needed to get through a full term before better gauging our ministry expenses and personal budget needs. We know the Lord “has this.” We ask specifically that the Lord clarify if we need to cut this term short to raise funds and to instigate yet more transfers to local leadership sooner than anticipated. We thank the many receiving this who have increased your support. We ask that those who receive but who do not share financially in ministry with us reconsider giving. See the newsletter header for donation instructions (or the che4a.org link below the text if you are reading our blog online).
Establish the work of our hands...in prayer
- As we pray that peace prevails during November U.S. elections, we request prayer for Ivorian elections that are this weekend, Saturday, October 13. As in the States, it is a legislative (not presidential) election, but people always get a bit nervous because of prior ballot booth violence.
- The judge will make his decision on October 17 concerning the land controversy where our agricultural partner launched a CHE demonstration project with us in 2017. Pray that the legitimate owner’s rights will be upheld in court and that we can move on to prepare the moringa grove and Farming God’s Way corn exhibitions.
- Pray for a great Million Village Challenge conference on November 14-16. Ask the Lord for safe and easy travel for visitors from the USA and other African nations. Ask that Spirit-led meetings lead to profound personal engagements to reach the lost in Cote d’Ivoire.
- Add the December 4-6 Discovery Bible Study training to your prayer list. Ask that many hearts be encouraged in faith to lead and disciple others to host discovery studies with their family, friends, and neighbors and eventually see God transform entire communities.
- Ask for special strength, patience, and wisdom for us as a couple during these exceedingly busy days of ministry.
- Pray financial provision grows without much investment of time for us to continue in uninterrupted ministry. Ask for wisdom to discern if is best that we return to the States for fund raising in 2019 rather than 2020.
- Pray for Corbin as he seeks an engineering job in Tennessee. His paid internship continued through the summer, but ended with others at the end of September.
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