Great News!

Once again I am in awe at the incredible God that we have! My renters moved out 3 days ago and today I have a new renter, lease and first months rent in hand. God is indeed good! I look to the future and all that God has in store for my life and I am excited about what lies ahead. Thanks to everyone who said a prayer for me to find a renter for my house! They were answered! Cindie

IGN Network Meeting

by Tim Salmonson... The CHE networking meeting was absolutely wonderful. People from 15 organizations and even different countries were represented. These were people with years of experience in both national and international wholistic development.

Topics included the value of collaboration, empowering practitioners and project assessment tools and training for who relate to story telling far more than written language and lecturing.

Some of the things I learned about included Asset based programs as opposed to Needs based programs; making better use of the resources available as opposed to, "filling a need" with resources that are not available. Also we work towards interdependence not independence. Independence is a Western world value.

It was such a great privilege for me to interact with this amazing group of people and tremendously encouraging to know that as we work together with the shared values of CHE we will one day see an interdependent world caring for people at all levels.

If you would like to learn more about CHE you can go to www.cheintl.org.

Dilemma

Friends of mine have been waiting for years to hear the news that their parents and sister have received visa's to come to the US from Iran. Several months ago their prayers were answered and their family was granted permission to leave Iran and come to the states. We are so excited for them and I cannot image how incredible it is to have suddenly have your family near you after being separated from them for over 7 years. That is the GREAT news. The dilemma is that these friends have been renting my townhouse and have now decided to move to California to be closer to their family. So... I am looking for a new renter for my house. Here are a few link to places I posted. Let me know if you are interested, or know someone interested in renting my townhouse.


Link to site findmyroof and Craig'sList

Blessings, Cindie

AOM

Post from Tim Salmonson: Now that we've returned from being away for almost two months, we want to be sure that people understand what we were doing. Well, working with Pastors, Evangelist and leaders of NGO's (Non Government Organizations)- we were helping them tell their stories, developing strategies to better serve people and connecting with people using Community Health Education practices to educate and empower people to better their communities.

Arthur was just one of these people. Cindie has shared extensively about him and his ministry in previous blog entries. I want to share pictures of our time with him.

Living Life Boldly

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a room in northern India with Pastors and Leaders of NGO’s living and working in some of the most volatile places in the world. Each shared about how they were helping the people of their community learn life skills that are forever changing the lives of the people and leading them to a better future. In some of the communities they have seen much success where children are being educated, families have food to eat, roofs over their head, and jobs to go to. They are learning skills for preventing disease and they are seeing the effects as the death rates decrease and wellness increases. They are learning moral values and neighbor is coming alongside neighbor to help one another when in need. Other leaders just starting out looked for encouragement and advice knowing the long road that lie ahead. The work these men and women are doing in their communities is impressive, then add where they are and it becomes even more remarkable. These leaders and their communities face unspeakable persecution and their very lives are in constant threat of harm. We saw a glimpse of how devastating lives being lost and threatened are when we watched the news of the attacks in Mumbai India this week. I hold the men and women I met in India in High regard. They are living life boldly and making a difference in the lives of those around them.

Who or what do you live for? How do you affect the people in your community? What obstacles are in your way?