History Expanded

In 1978, after spending almost three years at Arrowhead Springs, helping to launch the Agape Ministry (Christian Peace Corp), Stan Rowland wrote a document at the request of Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) on how to integrate curative care, health education/community development, and spiritual growth. This document became the premise for the Community Health Evangelism (CHE) strategy.

The first CHE program was inaugurated as a clinic/CHE project in Keriocho, Uganda, in 1980. When civil war erupted in 1982, the team moved to Buhugu, Uganda. Three additional projects were developed in Uganda, and two in Kenya, including the Letein Hospital CHE program. These early projects were all agriculture- and community-based.

Local volunteers from ten villages involved in the Buhugu project improved and protected 40 springs and built a 13 km gravity-fed water system that provided clean water for more than 10,000 people. The incidence of measles in the area was reduced by 40% and deaths due to diarrhea have been reduced by 30%. In addition, several individual projects, operating according to CHE concepts, were also successfully carried out by groups within the community. These projects included bee-keeping, seedling plant nurseries, ponds for raising fish as a food source, and improvements in many home garden plots.

In January 1981, along with the Church of Uganda (Anglican Church), a clinic using North American Agape staff was started. From 1981 to 1985, four additional Ugandan locations and two Kenyan projects were established. Four of the five locations are still functioning today under the sponsorship of the Church of Uganda. In fact, the Church of Uganda is using the CHE strategy in 13 dioceses, covering about half of Uganda. The size of Uganda is about the same as the state of Montana in the USA. CHE is currently being taught and practiced by almost 1,000 lay people, guided by their parish priests, in over 1,500 villages across the country.

In 1990 Stan and his wife Rose Mary joined Medical Ambassadors International (MAI), now headquartered in Salida, California. CHE in Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo) was started by doing a Training of Trainers (TOT) conference that raised up a team to start a CHE project in one village at the center of the country. From that first team in, CHE is currently being used by Presbyterian and Mennonite churches in an area comparable in size to one state in America, and has spread to over 550 villages.

When the program had grown to include113 villages, an independent survey was conducted. On average the survey confirmed 10,000 to 15,000 decisions for Christ each year, with over 9,000 individuals in discipleship groups. As a result, over 46 new churches were begun. Many physical changes also took place, including a 50% reduction in malnutrition and infant mortality rates cut in half. Approximately 15,000 new latrines were built and over 27,000 children are vaccinated each year in these areas.

In 1990, the CHE concept was started in the Philippines by doing a TOT that raised a team that started CHE in one village. That ministry has spread to over 15 teams on five separate islands. When a formal study was conducted in early 1990, such vast changes were reported that one community closed its jail and a lawyer moved away because he could no longer practice his profession in that area. The report said:

1. 46% felt there was more cooperation in the community than before the introduction of the CHE program.
2. 37% of those participating in CHE said they did it to make their community healthier.
3. 51% reported more involvement in church and Bible studies.
4. Upper respiratory diseases were reduced by 48% and stomach problems by 35%.
5. 80% of the villages were now aware of how to prevent common diseases.
6. An average of people exposed to the gospel in the multiple villages was 45%, with one village as high as 58%.

CHE was also started in several areas in India through the use of a TOT. One of the most interesting was in the Darjeeling area (where Darjeeling tea comes from) in 1993. This was a strongly Buddhist and Hindu area with very few Christian churches. Because of the CHE strategy, there are now over 110 churches in this area. These began as house churches, but most are now under the auspices of a denomination that CHE helped them establish. One of the villages where this took place saw 1,200 decisions for Christ.  In another village, every member of the community became Christians and they changed the name of the village to “Bethany.” Growing squash became a strong economic engine for the village.

In Central Asia, in one of the villages where orchard growers were taught how to get their apricot trees producing again after six years of no production, a community leader said, “There are many stones in our country, but our hearts are not stone. There are many rivers in our country, and our hearts are rivers overflowing because of you coming. We know Allah sent you to help us.”

An underlying CHE principle is multiplication, or replication, by those trained. One key element of CHE that has been occurring since 1986 is the training of people from many different organizations in how to do and teach CHE.

In the mid-1990s, a collaboration of different Assemblies of God mission agencies was trained to carry out CHE projects in Cambodia. They also experienced extraordinary results that were confirmed by an independent evaluation. After five years of doing CHE in 48 villages located in seven provinces in Cambodia, another study was done in which CHE villages were compared to villages not using CHE. These results included:

1. The CHE villages averaged 60% lower rates of malnutrition in children under age five than non-CHE villages.
2. The death rate for children under five years old was reduced from 7.9% to 1.1%.
3. CHE is bringing solidarity between villages and farming is beginning to develop in areas previously not cultivated.
4. Of the heads of households in CHE villages, 72% have heard the Gospel for the first time, with 81% attending Bible studies. And 36% of individuals from these villages have been baptized.

At the turn of the new century, MAI changed its leadership structure to an Inverted Pyramind tyle to promote a more servant-leadership approach. Field Director titles morphed into Coordinators. Less control from headquarters meant more control in the field. Widespread use of Regional and Area Councils brought people together to learn from one another.

Since 2005, in order to facilitate the growth of CHE, independent regional councils were developed in different parts of the world to train and coach new programs and to come together to learn from each other. Today, the councils are functioning, and a worldwide CHE movement has begun – a movement taking on a life of its own, held together by shared core principles.

Where We Work | What We Believe | Core Values | FAQs |Donate

Contact us for more info