Watermark in Africa

Hey guys,

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent today to previous participants on our Burundi trips with ALARM.  Thought you would enjoy.

So what is up in Burundi?  Well if you go to our Africa site (http://watermarkworldwide.com/) or our blog (http://watermarkblogs.org/africa/), then you see all that we are doing in Uganda.  In short, we are ready to do the same in Burundi!  Our Africa Leadership Team (Rick Howard, Matt Levy, Kyle Thompson, Jeff Ward, and me) have been working with ALARM for the past three months to flesh out a vision for our long term work in Burundi, culminating in Kyle meeting with Deo (ALARM Burundi Country Director) in Burundi two weeks ago.  We are now ready to begin moving forward with plans to drill water wells, care for orphans, develop micro-economic development, and expand our equipping (including attorneys, shelter from the storm, etc).  Here is a brief overview.

Location – We will focus most of our efforts in Bubanza Province, the province just north of the capital of Bujumbura.

Water – Living Water has hired their first person in Burundi, a friend of ALARM and Watermark whom we recommended.  ALARM and Living Water are working jointly on the permitting process.  The rig has been acquired.  Our partners are beginning to survey the area.   There are currently no drilling rigs in Burundi (beyond the new Living Water rig), and Living Water has yet to find a location where a true bore hole (deep enough to be in clean water) is currently providing clean water to the people of Burundi.  Please be praying the permitting goes well and allows for drilling to begin in the next few months.

Orphan Care – We will slowly develop a plan similar to what we are doing in Uganda, outlined at http://watermarkworldwide.com/.  We will not rush this, but over time it could grow in size to be similar to Uganda (300-600 kids).  We will only grow in proportion to our ability to do so with excellence.  Deo will be traveling to Uganda soon to spend time with Nelson learning from our efforts there.  We are committed to doing everything in and through the local church.  There is a chance we will need to build an orphanage or transitional home, out of which our heart is to raise up local Burundian families to adopt them.

Microfinance – Two primary targets for this are pastors (very few of whom work full time for church due to insufficient funds) and families adopting the kids.  We hope to lean on David & Missy Williams (http://www.seedeffect.org/), Cary Tucker, and other Watermark members investing in microfinance to develop a plan. We also will look at leveraging folks with “business development” skills to help folks build microenterprises.

Staff Support – ALARM will be hiring some folks to help execute on these plans.  In addition, we are continuing to invest in Deo’s studies, including a trip to the US in May and June for further equipping.  During this visit, he will spend two days with our Africa Leadership Team and a small group of others to continue fleshing out the above.

Someone recently asked this question.  Below is the specific question, and our answer.  I am sure others have the same question, so we wanted to share more broadly.  Let us know if you have more questions.

Question:  I have been wondering about this ministry and would like to understand why we are starting a support ministry for children in Uganda, rather than partnering with Compassion International, or World Vision, ministries that are already up and running, that are doing an incredible job of mentoring and raising up children in the faith of Jesus Christ.  (Like Paul, I am a fan of run-on sentences!)  I support a little boy in Kenya through Compassion International, and that is why I want to know the answer to this.

Answer:

Thanks for the note.  We are definitely encouraged by the work of Compassion, WorldVision and the hundreds of other ministries that are caring for children.  Likewise, we are grateful that our partner, ALARM, has identified these 300 children in great need that are not being cared for by the other ministries caring for children (like WorldVision and Compassion).  We see how God has chosen to have ALARM help minister to these children, and we are humbled that we get to care for these children with ALARM, along with the microfinance, water wells, education, trauma healing, and other ministries we do with ALARM.

Watermark has been caring for these children with ALARM over the past couple years, and as we looked to move from having the church simply support all of them to having individual members sponsor them, we looked at a lot of options.  We met with Richard Stearns, CEO of World Vision, and other leaders of World Vision about Watermark and ALARM caring for these kids while placing the kids in the World Vision program.  We also met with Tom Davis, CEO of Children’s Hope Chest, about a similar set up.  We considered other ministries as well.  None of them was ideal.

At the same time, some members of Watermark who do technology work and love using their gifts for Christ asked if we would let them create a website to easily allow our members to sponsor these kids we were already caring for alongside ALARM.  We soon realized this would drive the administrative costs to be much lower than having another ministry administer the interface for us.  At the same time, it would allow ALARM to continue caring for these kids in a way that encourages us in its holistic, gospel-centered, church uplifting manner.

We are grateful for all the ministries that care for children, and love how God uniquely allows each ministry to identify kids in need of holistic support.  This includes ALARM, World Vision, Compassion, Children’s Hope Chest, Rafiki, and many others.

We continue to meet with many of these ministries, considering whether this is who God wants us to partner with, along with our many EXISTING partners in Africa, including ALARM, e3, Living Water, World Vision, IJM, World Relief, and others.

We shared the below video with our church body on Sunday.  If you are a member at Watermark and want to join us in sponsoring a child, please go to http://watermarkworldwide.com/ and select Meet The Children.  To God be the glory…

Yesterday we got an e-mail from Nelson, ALARM’s Country Director in Uganda.  He told us he had identified the next six locations for ALARM, Watermark, and Living Water to drill wells in Uganda.  We will soon begin drilling wells at six of the following seven locations:

Palisa Eastern Uganda (ALARM ministered here)

Masindi – Mid Western Uganda (ALARM ministered here)

Bweyale – Te Okutu (ALARM ministered here)

Pader – Balakwa CER Community Farm (Te got Amoko)

Pader -Ngekidi Community (Dure)

Pader (Pader TC )

Pader Pajule SS School community (Pajule Center)

Palisa, Masindi, and Bweyale are three locations where Watermark either has or will be doing a conference.  Bweyale is also the location of the Piggery Project we blogged about in November.  Pader is the town where we have done multiple conferences, are building a trade school, have orphans we sponsor, and have drilled four other wells.

Please be praying for the drilling of these wells, the recipients of this gift, and for God to receive all the glory.

On previous posts, I mentioned that we as a church are partnering with ALARM to support about 300 kids in Uganda.  As a church, we have provided financial support to these kids for three years.  Now we have set up a chance for you to directly sponsor one of these kids and more personally increase your involvement in Watermark’s ministry to our brothers and sisters in Uganda and eventually in Burundi and elsewhere.  So if you want to learn more about our objectives in Africa and sponsor one of the children we are ministering to, please go to http://watermarkworldwide.com/.  You can click on THE OVERVIEW to learn more, and you can click on MEET THE CHILDREN to sponsor a child.  This opportunity is open to all Watermark members.

We were able to capture this footage in Uganda on our trip last month.  So humbled that the Lord continues to allow us to be His means of grace to our friends around the globe.  2 Corinthians 8:13-14

On November 13, I told you a story about a child-headed home we met that was in great need of help.  Click here to read the story.

When I arrived at the office this morning, I received an update about Richard and his siblings.  We have been able to provide for their most urgent needs, such as mattresses, cooking supplies, sheets, and food.  When Molly brought the provision to Richard, he said “I thought nobody cares for us, but God is great.”  His sister, Sheila, was so overwhelemed that she was speechless for several minutes.  Then she spoke of the miraculous provision.

We also received a proposal to build them a new home.  Watermark humbly approved the proposal, as we thank God that He is allowing us to play a part in being His means of grace to these children.  We will be sending the funds to ALARM immediately, so construction can begin as soon as possible.

Please be praying for Richard and his family, as well as Molly and the others ministering to them.  Pray we would continue to look for God’s hand and calling around us, that we would have ears to hear and eyes to see, as well as a willing heart to respond.

Richard and Sheila with their recent provision.

I mentioned in the past that we are doing wells in Uganda and hoped to have a door opened to do wells in Burundi.  We have been praying about this and responding in faith to the doors that appeared open.  About ten days ago we were extremely encouraged as the door seemed to open as wide as we have seen thusfar.

Living Water, our drilling partner in Uganda, has been working with us on raising the funds necessary to purchase equipment and fund the first year of operations, including drilling the first fifteen wells.  Over the past few months, Living Water acquired the well, which is being stored in Rwanda.  They just needed funds for the first year of operations.  Ten days ago, Watermark was able to call Living Water and share with them that God provided the funds through our local body.

In preparation for this, Living Water sent us 17 questions in September that are standard issues in launching a new country.  Our team that went to Burundi in September went throught the questions with ALARM to leverage their experitise and resources to allow for a quicker launch.  With that information in hand, Living Water’s Rwanda team is heading to Burundi this week to meet with ALARM to begin the process of Living Water launching operations.  God willing, we will be drilling wells by the summer.

Living Water has committed to allowing ALARM and Watermark to identify the locations for the first fifteen wells.  We are in prayer for clarity on location and how this might dovetail with our broader ministry efforts in Burundi.

Praise God!

Hey friends,

I have shared here about the Lord’s gracious kindness in letting us be a part of His story in Africa through providing clean water to those desperately in need.  This allows us to obediently meet a real need for water (Matthew 25)  and proclaim the gospel of the living water (John 4).  See video below and then go check out this new site at http://www.watermarkconspiracy.com/.  Share with your friends and start engaging in discussions about what you want your Christmas to look like this year.