Reports from the Field: DNA Year-End Report 2006

We heard that four strangers attended one of our trainings. They were assumed to be police but the group decided to continue the training regardless. The second lesson of the training teaches about a Biblical understanding of people—that we are created, loved and have a destiny, and consequently we need to treat others as God’s special creations that He loves and has a plan for. The four men were so moved by the lesson that they asked to become Christians. After the training, they returned to their village where they shared with their families who all became Christians. They are now sharing with their community and have asked the church to send a teacher to them.

In another area the government has spent years trying to convince people to use latrines with no success. The community still had no latrines. The church started to promote latrines as a result of what they had learned about how people are made in God’s image and are very valuable to God. This new perspective on the dignity and value of human life translated into a desire to begin using the latrines. Not only for themselves, but they decided to help others build latrines. Now in their area everyone uses a latrine. They have already noticed that their health has stated to improve and are starting to make plans for their next project. Even the government thanked the church for achieving what they were unable to do.

Another story told us how the church decided to reach out to a poor widow in their community by bringing her a gift of rice. Someone in the village saw and went to the local authorities and told them that the Christians were trying to convert people by giving them rice. The authorities told the man that he was wrong, they had been watching the Christians and they were good people just helping others. They told the man to go home and stop being a trouble maker. While this may seem like a small thing it was extraordinary to this church as this was an area where they have faced years of harsh persecution.

The fourth story is actually about our magazine. (We also publish a quarterly magazine). One of our trainers was visiting various churches in his area and introducing the program to help them. He left magazines at each of the churches to help them understand the program better. One month later he returned to one of the churches and was surprised to find that they had already started doing projects to help the community. They said that they had read the magazine and understood it so they wanted to get started because they couldn’t wait for him to come back and teach. The project that they had done was repairing a road. They were planning to do just 200m but all the people in the community had thought that they were clearing the road because they were going to have a wedding. The church explained that they were doing it to demonstrate God’s love to their community. The people were so moved that four accepted Christ.