Physical and Spiritual CHE – 4 Greatest Hits

Teaching kids more than just health in a children's CHE
program where we demonstrated teamwork and noticing
other people's needs.

If we continue with the metaphor of CHE as a water tank, we are now to the third leg, which would cause the CHE efforts to collapse if it was missing in everyday practice. Development not Relief and Prevention is Better than Cure are the important first two legs, but “Integration of Spiritual and Physical” is just as central to how CHE is carried out.

What it is: We saw an example in Kenya of a Christian pastor and two elders starting a savings group that they opened to the community, which has added a lot of economic resources to their large-ish village. This is a great testimony to the fact that God cares for our physical needs as well as spiritual direction. Lending and borrowing money is an activity that is wrapped up in moral and spiritual issues and consequences. The economic lessons for starting CHE savings groups are mixed with teaching and modeling moral principles, faithfulness, wisdom in decisions, and giving to those in need. Jesus has a lot to say about money, and all of these savings lessons should open or close with space for discussing one of those principles. Another great example we saw in Kenya was a children’s after school health club that a young CHE worker started in a slum. Over the course of a year it led to the parents of the children seeing this worker as a spiritual leader for the community and someone that they wanted to lead them in a church. Even though he was clearly teaching health lessons, he was making spiritual connections and opening up space for the children to encounter the stories of Jesus and share them with their families. That is the beautiful but delicate integration of physical and spiritual in the CHE method.

What it’s not: Often times a Christian worker gravitates toward either sharing physical help or sharing the importance of knowing Jesus Christ, according to their gifts and experiences. This leg of the "CHE water tower" demands that we not gravitate toward one, but try to keep both together as naturally as possible. So, while we’re often tempted to try to quickly slap one on to the other, sticking a totally spiritual and Christianized interpretation on the end of a health lesson is not real integration. Basically, this is a call to be more intentional about how we live and teach our faith that God is involved in every aspect of life.

Take away: Integrating physical and spiritual help is a big emphasis of CHE, which starts from recognizing that you can’t really separate physical health or physical problems from spiritual problems because people are an integrated whole. (My seminary professors often insisted that the ancient Hebrews understood that humans are an integrated unity of mind, soul, and body much better than we modern people.) This necessitates acting out your faith while you teach and model physical practices. It also involves initiating conversations about the spiritual ideas that guide our life and affect our health and relationships. Doing this is not always easy but it can be done best when there is some teaching of Jesus or a story from the Bible that relates directly to a physical problem you are addressing or the situations that go along with that physical problem.

--El Padre