Train, not Try

PDF Version:
AWA Weekly 260425 PDF

Taste and See (Psalm 34:8)

Back to the Bible is a proven organization whose 87-year-old mission has been to “help Christians move closer to Jesus today than they were yesterday by engaging God’s Word and developing daily spiritual fitness.” Debbie’s father, Eddie, even used some of their materials to train former Welch College students in ministry. The organization recently posted an article entitled, “Training, not Trying: How Spiritual Strength is Really Formed.” In the text, the author encourages the reader not to “try harder,” but to train faithfully, as the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy in I Timothy 4:7: “Train yourself for godliness.” Below is a portion of the article to ponder.

Trying depends on willpower in the moment. Training shapes who we become over time…You already understand this distinction in other areas of life. No one prepares for a marathon by deciding to run harder on race day. Training happens through ordinary, repeated practices that slowly build strength. Over time, the body learns what to do because it has been trained to do it… Spiritual growth works the same way.

Come and See (Psalm 66:5)

Benin training

This concept of training, not trying, resonates because of a great update we received in CHE news this past week. A Benin believer was trained in Côte d’Ivoire a few years ago to use Bible Storying with the Disciple Making Movement (DMM) method to share God’s Word. In March 2024, during the African Internship Training, he reported involving more than 10,000 people through multiple teams he’d trained to use the studies to share God’s Word faithfully, strategically, and regularly. Since then, they continued refining their approach. They now train people for 15 months in a CHE-based DMM format to start Bible-storing studies. These believers, in turn, train others in the same way. We praise God for their commitment and faithfulness, and for improving on what we assisted Etienne in learning from the Lord in 2016/17! Verlin expects to discuss adopting the 15-month approach over the 6-week to 3-month plan that our associates use in Bondoukou, Cote d’Ivoire, since the longer time in discipling relationships seems to be yielding greater multiplicative results.

Since our arrival in Michigan on Thursday, we have enjoyed fellowship with friends and family. Verlin has set up a replacement computer with a larger screen to assist his mother, who suffers from macular degeneration. She continues to send our mailed newsletters and otherwise communicate with ministry partners. This change makes her loving ministry activity easier. Verlin has connected with several ministry partners by phone or in person, and during a prayer breakfast; Debbie has briefly shared about ministry with two ladies’ groups within three days here.

Prayer & Praise

• 🙏 Thank the Lord for over 60 Ivorian pastoral students trained to use CHE-DMM recently.
   
• 🙏 Ask our Father to guide the Benin CHE team as they continue to faithfully train believers in Bible storying so that their successes can be replicated in other West African nations
   
• 🙏 We are grateful for a great start to our week in Michigan. Debbie has shared briefly with ladies twice, and Verlin speaks tomorrow. We anticipate traveling on Friday or Saturday to visit ministry partners in East Tennessee next Sunday before returning to Cookeville around May 4th.
   
Your partners in the Gospel,
Verlin & Debbie



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 provide support as we maintain 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 - specifying Verlin and Debbie Anderson in the optional Memo.
 
Prior: In the Dark
        - 260418 PDF
Prior Videos: El Roi
        - Reflect & Rejoice
 
2024 Q1 Q2 Report: First Resort
  -  2024 Q1 Q2 Report 250906 PDF
2022 Budget COMPLETED:
CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-2022-Budget.pdf
 
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