A BRIDGE TO THE TABLE

OUR MISSION

To equip Christ followers with practical discipleship and educational tools that help communities thrive.

We Do This By:

TRAINING

At A Bridge To The Table, we believe that an asset based strategy that is Christ-centered is the best approach to addressing an individual's and a community's needs. We train local and international Christian leaders, teachers and lay volunteers in community development strategies that are transformational, reproducible and sustainable. Find out more about our trainings here.

Partnering

God designed us to be in community and we believe this concept is true in our vocation as well. Partnering with other missionaries, churches and organizations with common goals, we are able to do more together. We learn best practices from each other in order to serve those in our ministry contexts better. Sometimes we are the givers and train or share resources with our partners. Sometimes we are the receivers of knowledge and collaboration. Learn more about who we partner with here.

OUR VISION STATEMENT

To provide Community Health Evangelism (CHE) Training and Neighborhood Transformation (NT), which is:
- Christ-centered, practical and reproducible
- Relational, fun and engaging through participation
- Adaptable to be more applicable to different nations and cultures
- Helps to overcome hierarchical barriers, allowing all a heard voice in the conversation in community transformation

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We Equip Church & Community Leaders, Students, Health Volunteers, and Regular People With Christ-Centered Practical Discipleship and Development Tools through CHE.

International Training of Trainers Expands Our Impact Around The World

We facilitate the CHE Training Of Trainers (TOT 1 and TOT 2) Seminars for pastors, missionaries, educators and health care professionals serving around the world in a variety of settings including urban and situations closed to openly sharing the gospel.

To date, we have trained workers serving in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

2022 TOT 1 and TOT 2 Training Events

"We need this so badly to build relationships in the villages we are trying to help." -J., teacher from Myanmar

"Because of the core values, the people own and invest into the project, taking care of it, because it's theirs." -Myanmar Coordinator and alumni of Barefoot Doctors, referring to a well project where he used CHE strategies

What Is CHE?

CHE Is Christ-Centered

Community Health Evangelism (CHE) is a Christ-centered educational program that is being used by hundreds of Christian churches and organizations across the globe. CHE equips communities to identify issues and mobilize resources to achieve positive, sustainable change. Lives and communities are transformed as people come to Christ and work together to address local needs.

CHE Is Intergral Mission

CHE seamlessly integrates evangelism and discipleship with community health and development. Through CHE ministries, individuals become followers of Jesus and communities are lifted out of cycles of poverty and disease.
Our strategy includes church planting, disease prevention, and poverty alleviation, but our purpose is much deeper. Our purpose is a transformation in lives and communities that is as deep as the human heart, and as broad as the whole range of the human experience in the world God made. Through our work, Jesus is recognized as Lord over all creation, and our development activities bring glory to God by reflecting the depth and breadth of His Kingdom plan.

CHE Is Adapted To Local Contexts

Different CHE models have emerged as a result of adapting the strategy to local contexts on every continent, and in every major religious and political environment. These include community based, church initiated, church based, family based, school based, clinic based, and government-initiated approaches. Local churches around the world can use any one of these models to engage with their communities.

CHE In North America

Among the poor in urban North America, CHE is being done under the banner of Neighborhood Transformation. CHE has been adapted for urban slums as well as rural villages.

Health volunteers, Bible school students and others that we have trained are often serving among the rural poor with little access to proper healthcare in Northern Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. They have learned skills in helping communities to recognize resources that they already have available to use for solving their self-identified problems. Helping families strengthen areas such as nutrition or finances in the Asset-Based Community Development modules are important tools these leaders can use to help their communities thrive.

At the Barefoot Doctors School, we train these dedicated village health volunteers in preventative health care topics they have identified as major health concerns in their often remote and conflict-torn areas of Myanmar, which is considered, unfortunately, to have the worst health care system in the world according to the World Health Organization. The school graduates 20 students after 3 consecutive years of a 6 week training, we are honored to be a part of this 6 weeks every season.

One of the core values of CHE is Building Relationships. Students learn the importance of doing home visits well with good listening skills. They work through the steps in carrying out home visits and they learn to recognize the stages of behavior change. This important skill can help families to set realistic goals. It's also an important skill to help avoid ministry burnout, recognizing that change takes time and to allow the Holy Spirit to work, another core value of the strategy we use.

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