Community Health Evangelism (CHE) is a multifaceted approach to ministry that addresses the needs of the whole person (physically, spiritually, emotionally and socially) through training and mentorship in disease prevention, community development, evangelism and discipleship.
When I ask women church leaders in Africa about important issues, the need for women to be able to support their families always comes up first. Closely tied to this concern is the need for education, as it is the surest way for people to be able to get ahead.
Education can take on many forms at different ages and stages.
During the past year, over 1 million people have had to flee their homes in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo because of militia and/or army activities. As political unrest has spilled over into ethnic violence, many villages have been burned, and health centers and schools have been destroyed in the process. Since 1892, the Kasai region has been the main area in Congo where Presbyterian mission work has been carried out with what is now the Presbyterian Church of Congo (CPC).
At the end of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, 16 Presbyterian pastors had been killed, many had been wounded and some had fled the country. The churches that remained were empty.
The president of the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda called his colleague Elisee Musemakweli to return from Belgium, where he was finishing his PhD. Together, with the help of German and Dutch partners, they restarted a two-year theological training course, with emphasis on peacebuilding and reconciliation.
Reconciliation is a sacred space where weary bodies are refreshed and troubled souls are soothed, where the roar of oppression is silenced and the calm of compassion resounds. The pathway to reconciliation is long and grueling with setbacks, detours and delays. Along the journey lie ambushes of criticism and alienation, yet those on the journey press on like flocks of birds surging through cold winds for warmer homes. Reconciliation is a distant place — far from the battlefields of South Sudan — yet not beyond reach.
I was in a morning Bible study when I received the phone call. It was from the father of one of my youth group teens who had called to let me know that his son “B.A.” had been shot. Hearing this news, I felt overcome by disbelief and sadness as I began asking a flurry of questions. Dad calmly replied, “Reverend, he is alive, he isOK; the gunshots were not fatal.” I was thankful and relieved that B.A. was still alive, but then another wave of sadness overtook me as I remembered that two weeks earlier, I had suspended B.A. from youth group activities because he, as a “prank,” had brought a BB gun there and threatened others with it. This happened the week following the massacre at Sandy Hook, Connecticut, so as one can imagine, I did not find his “prank” amusing.
Presbyterian mission co-workers Jeff and Christi Boyd developed a floor and board game several years ago to help U.S. Presbyterians appreciate the joint efforts of students, parents, communities and churches to improve education in Africa. The game also prompts players to ponder the plight of African children.
In God’s mission, we show our faith by our obedient service. In other words, as Francis of Assisi is believed to have said, “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.” This is the task and mission of disciples of Jesus — to let our lives speak for themselves of the gospel, and if necessary to use words to enhance and amplify our faith.
It’s called the Golden Triangle, a region about an hour and a half east of Houston. Most people had never heard of it until Hurricane Harvey. The communities in the triangle made national news when flooding cut off many residents from immediate help. Like many impacted by Harvey, some homes saw minimal damage, while others had several feet of water.
Meeting for coffee is a Presbyterian tradition. Whether it’s in a fellowship hall, a Sunday school room or an espresso shop, coffee and community are often connected. First Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is hoping that a new coffee shop will help connect college students from the University of Alabama with Christ. Named UPerk, the venture is an outreach of the UKirk program, a ministry that seeks to empower members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) engaged in campus ministry.
