May 1, 2019 3 min to read

Field Notes

Category : Uncategorized

Uplifting news from MAI’s workers around the world.

Creative Access Country
GC, Regional Coordinator

It was written…
Last November I was riding in a taxi from the train station to my host’s home. I asked the driver to pick a place where we could stop and have breakfast. He chose an inexpensive, open-air place where we had flat bread and vegetable curry. He was amazed he was eating with a foreigner and exclaimed, “It was written that this should happen today.” After breakfast he asked me to wait while he finished smoking. “I’m addicted to two things,” he said, “smoking and my wife.” He told me his story as he drove. He was the only surviving sibling of ten children. All but he had died in infancy. Now he is married with two teenagers of his own. I tried to explain how God can deliver him from addictions. I gave him a little extra money when we stopped and suggested he buy a New Testament in his language. He gave me a sincere handshake, eyes not wavering from mine, tearing up. That deep of a response is rare! I knew the Spirit had been at work. I had to agree: It was written that today this should happen!

Sushma’s Story
Sushma, her husband and two children are fortunate. Sushma’s husband earns sufficient money for their living expenses; they are neither rich nor poor. So, when CHE home visitors came and taught Sushma how to safeguard their drinking water and keep her surroundings pollution-free and clean, she paid little attention. The CHE workers were disappointed but remained persistent in their teachings. They taught her the importance of kitchen gardens and clean water, yet Sushma was negligent in following their suggestions. But then she noticed something. Her family frequently was sick, and they spent a lot of money on treatments. When she observed the families in the village who practiced CHE teachings, they appeared healthier and cleaner. This changed Sushma’s attitude. She now stands as an example to her community. Her home and dirt-floored patio are kept clean, she has a kitchen garden, she reconstructed a sanitary toilet, and her children are well kept. She has become a respected CHE volunteer and displays great interest in all new trainings.

Country: Albania
DJ, Regional Coordinator

He gave me life when I was “dead.”
MAI’s team in Albania meets regularly with women in one of the communities where they are serving. One morning our CHE worker asked them, “Why do you believe in Jesus? What change has He made in your lives?” A couple of their most poignant answers were: “He gave me life when I was ‘dead.’ I feel the difference that He has made in my life and that’s why I fully trust Him.” Another answer was: “Who else can we turn to? There isn’t hope or life anywhere else. He has given us light, life and hope. I have read literature from other faiths, and there isn’t life anywhere else.”

Southeast Asia
Bill & Sharon Bieber, Regional Coordinators

Everlasting life as long-term development in heaven
Ma Marla is a CHE committee member and the committee chair on agriculture on the City Council in her village. Her village went through great transformation when CHE was introduced. She tells how before CHE there was no cleanliness or sanitation; people were idle, playing cards and gossiping, many were malnourished and took their sick children to health centers and hospitals for little illnesses. Since CHE has been introduced, people now clean their surroundings and have sanitary water-sealed toilets. They have planted herb and vegetable gardens. They use first aid and herbs and prayer for sickness, which they learned in the mother’s CHE health classes; they go less often to the clinics. They practice the three “R’s”: recycle, reuse, and reduce to help with waste management. Spiritually, they practice God’s command to love their neighbors as themselves. Above all, they know where they will go when they die. Ma Marla says, “We have everlasting life as long-term development in heaven!”


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