The Biblical world-view of “health” is one that addresses a person’s whole being.  Wholistic “health” encompasses all aspects of your health and includes spiritual, physical, mental, social and economic well being.  Of these, the spiritual well being is foundational to the wholistic health of people.

This Biblical world-view has defined the concept of Wholistic Community Transformation.  So, what is Wholistic Community Transformation?

The Vision: To seek the transformation of believers as they apply Biblical thinking to all areas of their life and that Jesus Christ’s transforming grace and truth be manifested in the lives of believers, enabling the church to influence every area of life by advancing God’s truth, justice, mercy, and the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The Strategy: Equip local churches to work directly with their communities and assist them in organizing the leadership in the community and helping them set the vision for their community.

The Objective: Have the community advance toward their God given potential.  This should manifest itself by creating a growing group of Christians who love God and one another, reflecting the image of Christ by the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and reaching out to serve others as the Body of Christ.

The implementation of this strategy is focused in three areas:  The Church, the community leadership and the families.  The following are some specific ways to facilitate change in these three areas by allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to influence the spiritual, physical, mental, social and economic health of a person’s life.

Spiritual Health: This area is the most important element of the strategy.  Local churches can achieve wholistic change in the lives of the poor.  True and lasting change is best achieved through spiritual transformation.  While we work to love people unconditionally, we are intentional about showing that the love and support comes from God.  The church should be active is creating Bible school or para-school programs after normal school hours for the children that would teach God’s world view.  This would include a bible-based curriculum, have a discipleship program, and discuss home health care and relationships.

The church needs to be the spiritual light into the community, constantly reaching out into the community reflecting the love of Jesus Christ and meeting the needs of the community.  Home churches should be established in the more remote areas.   From the church, the evangelistic outreach can be accomplished by the “Peace Treaty”.

Physical Health: Physical health training begins with simple hygiene measures, access to uncontaminated water and human waste disposal.  Community Health Workers are trained to bring about understanding of how to purify water, proper sanitation techniques, and using preventative measures to stop the spread of disease.  Other measures include on-going medical, dental and eye-care clinics that work to immunize children, provide vitamins, meet immediate and on-going medical needs, and provide public health education.  Also important is training in supplemental nutrition to prevent malnutrition and starvation.  These training and clinic opportunities will also allow the team to pray with patients and share the love of Christ.

Training families on basic hygiene, water purification techniques in areas where there is not access to clean water and the proper disposal of human waste.  This includes the drilling of water wells and building ventilated pit latrines for groups of households to share.  It is well recognized that the prevalence of water-borne diseases can be greatly reduced by providing access to clean drinking water and safe disposal of human waste.

Community Health Advocates can be trained who are each responsible for a certain number of individual homes.  These Community Health Advocates should also use this opportunity to share how God also purifies our entire being and pray with them and share the love of Christ.

Social Health: Part of the support families receive through the Child Sponsorship Program would go to paying school fees and purchasing uniforms and school supplies.  The youth are the unreached people group in many communities.  Churches, homes and schools lack relevant wholistic programs for ministering to the youth of this generation.   Youth programs and sports at church and at the local school are needed.  Youth discipleship programs are necessary to meet the needs of the youth in areas such as tutoring, abstinence education, and Biblical character.

Training for family adults should be provided in the areas of God’s Biblical view of husband and wife relationships, family responsibilities, and raising children.

Economic Health: The people of the community need to be transformed from an attitude of hopelessness and despair to a community of hope and vision.  In keeping with the wholistic model, job skill training, counseling, and spiritual mentoring should be provided.

This can be accomplished by creating income generating activities and skills training for special target groups like youth, single mothers and families.  Specific areas of training for livelihood skills, craft making, computer skills, carpentry, concrete work, cooking and electrical skills can be provided.  Many of these individuals could receive seed money or be provided micro loans to help them create a small economic enterprise.