Get It Done!

CHSC LINK: Get It Done

PDF Version: AWA_Update_200104.PDF

Just Do It!

Plan your work and work your plan sounds good, but do things really go to plan for you? As an ad campaign used to intone, sometimes it is best to "Just do it", or get it done. Cross-cultural marriage and missionary work destroyed Verlin’s Franklin Ascend and DayPlanner lifestyle that had wobbly worked to get us through our middle years of life. Our family gains shalom these days of parish nursing skill development as we set calendars, make compromises, and strengthen collaboration.

Set the Calendar

Shed before and after

Putting the big events and objectives first on the calendar as we transition helps most. If you're not familiar with the Big Rocks concept popularized by Steven Covey, check it out 17 seconds into the link. We used early December and January to start planning our available 24 Sundays in the U.S. We are well on the way. Call (615) 477-1129 if you're waiting on us; break through our haze. We are 1/3 where we had hoped to be in scheduling by now, but it is more fruitful eternally than trying to schedule from Africa and lose ministry work time there. We need downtime anyway to recalibrate to U.S. life with Americans. This Thanksgiving through Christmas season, we identified some of the “big rocks” for our calendar. We also cleared a priority family one for Verlin around New Year's Day: clean and light the shed! :)

The second calendar help we’ve learned transforms our ToDo lists from producing tedium and frustration to more effectively accomplish good works. Progressively implementing the 'Getting Things Done' lifestyle promoted by David Allen has likely resolved more familial and marital stress in our lives than any advice provided by the Gottman Institute per Verlin, and that says A LOT! The institute gives generally sound and researched advice, but it is relational rather than foundational. The calendar resources help more relations walk the world with us in greater peace these days.

Strike Compromises

That said, to get things done, sometimes you just have to use a vilified word: compromise. Do what you can in the time allowed. No one does everything. We all know it. Being at peace with it is another matter. Verlin finished the shed enough to be content around 4 AM yesterday! As we schedule, we make time to train as well as retool our understandings. The CHSC has more than tripled personnel sent to serve as medical missionaries since we joined in late 2013 and we need to adjust. We shifted prior plans to be at church association meetings to handle requests for connections in CHE or CHE Trainings, and vice-versa. When working with others, the motto of defensive football squads is our GoTo: bend, don't break. God's Word never changes, so we are not talking about that Biggest Rock through Whom all exists. We just now schedule services around personal supporter visits and trainings we offer this trip. That makes scheduling the 24 a little more challenging. We are compromising. We bend our historic priority as missionaries to plan church services first to scheduling them around other activities. Don't let us break accidentally if you need to hear from us. Call and let's be sure we meet. There are 24 Sundays available; 14 remain open.

Strengthen Collaboration

In two Skype reconnections to Africa this week, one co-laborer shared that 112 children participated in the community organized Christmas Party for children in a village. Imagine the Samaritan's Purse model reorganized for a local act and you perceive accurately what happened. Such is rare in the Ivorian context. Many families now know the love of God having heard it clearer because Ivorians give and go of themselves to share news of salvation with their fellow citizens. A second connection let us know that God remains with him. A new pastor assigned to his region promotes CHE with integrated Discovery Bible Studies as the means to advance the Gospel in the largest mainline denomination in Cote d'Ivoire. Some prior pastors had felt intimidated rather than encouraged to use the witness, as some here. This one has let God grow his vision. Verlin's conversations with both men clarified our schedule for meetings here. It appears we will see one in May when we coordinate with yet others to use our University training experience and spawn other models for use in the U.S. and elsewhere abroad. The conversations also equipped these called Ivorians to collaborate with another witness to Christ there. They will be able to train the physically challenged or handicapped to more effectively witness there with someone we met before departing African soil late last November.

Prayer & Praise

• Pray we successfully see most of the individual and church supporters in the 24 Sundays we have left for sharing in the U.S. before returning to Cote d'Ivoire for continued ministry expansion.
• Deb and I each have two eyes, ears, nostrils, hands, feet, arms to observe and learn, but one head and mouth to synthesize and share. Pray we prioritize the hearing and learning while fitly sharing to encourage and equip other saints.
• Thank you for your prayers to fund this ministry. We make progress. We have 24 weeks to make the numbers concrete enough to confidently reside in Cote d'Ivoire another 3.5 to 4.5 year term.

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).

Prior: Listen to Him 191221.PDF

Last prior Video: Contagions
                         - 191012 PDF
2019 Q3 Report: Timing
          -  AWA Update 191207 PDF

2020 Budget Info:
CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-2020- Budget.pdf

Something to ask? Write updates@verlindeb.org

AWA represents
Andersons Witness in Africa.
It is also a brand of bottled water in C�te d'Ivoire where we serve.

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