Visits with Workers

The evangelist and his family
in front of their home.

Last week I had a special chance to visit one of the evangelists that we work with in CHE. I was with a visitor who specifically wanted to see him, so it was the right time for me to break my previous practice of not going out to the places where these CHE workers live. When our pastors first started with the CHE trainings, I didn’t want to show up in their villages and give the impression that this was some project with lots of money and white people handing things out. But at this point it seems like most have explained the training to people and their neighbors understand it’s not like that. So here are the things I thought were most interesting about the visit:

• This is the same evangelist who sold his motorcycle to build his mud-brick dwelling after he couldn't get support from city churches beyond buying the property.  And his wife was very ill from stomach ulcers but now she is healed.  
• Several times, and even today, the evangelist had some people ask him about why he is doing cleaning up at his house all the time and planting fast growing moringa. They then asked if that is all the training is about. So then he has had an easy chance to share some spiritual ideas from our training.
• He also said that the benefits of CHE training haven’t been a huge visible "wealth," but that if you compare his outreach work and his family’s life before the training and now after the continued training and mentoring he's had, everything is clearly going better.
• In his yard he has planted moringa, cassava, and hibiscus (flowers for juice). But someone pulled up the cassava when he was gone. Probably kids who thought it was ready to eat.
• A problem still is that his household is only protected by a millet stalk fence on the edge of some other people’s mud-brick wall.

  

  A view of the yard with the house to the left.

• The evangelist said that not a day goes by that he doesn’t receive insults from certain people as he walks around town. Either about how he should leave, or they don’t want his religion here. But no problems with his neighbors. He can go to their houses and borrow things or talk with no problem. And there are people who come to drink tea with him a lot. Sometimes stay until late at night.
• He said that CHE training as helped him with the idea of keeping business money separate so he can measure the success. One pocket for business money and one pocket for household money. Make a decision of how much to transfer into household money when you know you have enough profit.
• His main income is to put a plastic covering on cell-phones (like clear sheet of tape). 20 cents for a small cell phone, 30 cents for a big one. 5 cents extra for decorations under the plastic or extra colors.
• One idea for a bigger business is to sell phones. He could sell phones that cost $10, so he would need to start with $60 to get 6 phones. He thinks that is a manageable number so that he can see the profit and deal with selling in a fairly short amount of time. When he turns a profit and then buy more phones to sell.
• His wife, is going to the big city about 30 mins away 5 days a week to learn sewing with a Christian youth organization. At the end, if she shows she has learned enough through her work, then she will get a certificate and a sewing machine.
• It's interesting that the national church later bought a second property in the village because this one is so close to the primary school (at the edge of the school). They thought it might become a problem if the government has to expand and needs to confiscate this property.
• The evangelist's 2-year-old son was playing in the yard with two neighbor kids that were fascinated by us, until the school let out at noon and then we had a crowd of 30 kids circling the yard.

-- El Padre