Watermark Justice

During last month’s trip to Goma, Congo, our Watermark team partnered with the African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM) to conduct conferences with counselors and victims of sexual abuse (led by brave women from Watermark’s Shelter from the Storm ministry) and Congolese lawyers (led by lawyers from Watermark Justice).  Learn more about the trip.

The excerpts below were taken from an email from the Congo country director for ALARM, which later was shared with Watermark’s Shelter leadership.

We are proud of the Watermark team. Their . . . conference for counselors of victims of rape and women living with HIV/AIDS was a success. The conference that started with sobbing, crying and many tears, but it ended with singing, dancing and ululations.

. . .The telling of teachers own past ordeals helped the participants to understand that they were not the only victims in the world. [The] teachers’ victory over the[ir] problems gave hope to them that they too could overcome theirs.  . . . Their openness talking about the past and victory helped some women to disclose for the first time that they too had been victims of sexual abuse but kept it [secret] for many years. The quick response to emotional breakdown by either hug or pat on the back was very comforting.

The participants at the conference suggested that the teachers should extend their reach to other areas beyond Goma. They should also consider preparing lessons on other types of trauma, such as those caused by loss of relatives during the wars, or . . . land grabbing.  . . .The sufferers are the persons who do not know their parents. They would want to know the father, for example, but nobody tells them. They were [born] from either rape or incest and nobody wanted to tell them the embarrassing stories. Some married women who are living with . . . ruthless spouses do not share their story and cannot get any help. . . .

These encouraging words also serve as a renewed call to action and remind us that we must maintain focus on the injustice and suffering of the least of these (Matthew 25: 31-46).  Let us, Christian lawyers, continue building Christ-focused leadership by  sharing the good news and challenging Congolese pastors, lawyers, and judges to speak out against injustice, immorality, and untruth.  Pray that the Lord gives our Congolese friends the strength to speak out in the face of danger.  (See also Why go to Goma?) Pray that the Lord will reveal more ways to use our lawyers, ministries like Shelter from the Storm, and ALARM to “bring good news to the poor” and “bind up the brokenhearted” in the Congo.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.” Isaiah 61: 1-3 (ESV)

ALARM operates in eight countries in east and central Africa, with offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.  Visit ALARM’s website to learn more: www.alarm-inc.org.

As many of you know, I had a great opportunity to speak at Pepperdine Law School’s conference on “The Role of the Church in Doing Justice” back on February 19, 2010.  Notable speakers included Kay Warren (a great talk on doing justice in Rwanda), Sean Litton of IJM, and Rich Stearns of World Vison — and many, many other great speakers.  Here’s a link to the schedule http://law.pepperdine.edu/nootbaar/news-events/events/doing-justice/schedule.htm

The best news is that Pepperdine has now posted all of the video from the conference on itunes.

As I said at our recent justice breakfast, I strongly recommend that if you are interested in justice, you carve off some of your study time to hear from these speakers by watching the videos.

Here’s the link and details on finding the videos:

We are happy to announce that video from the conference is now posted on itunes U, the itunes program for universities. The video is available to the public, so no authentication is required. The only thing required is the itunes player. More information about itunes, and itunesU can be found at http://itunesu.pepperdine.edu

If you already have itunes installed this link will take you directly to the conference videos:

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/pepperdine.edu.3569635999.03569636001

I hope everyone has a blessed Easter

Van

[The following post-trip email is posted on behalf of Rick Howard]

Well,  I’ve made it back from another trip to Congo.  This makes three in a row without significant illness or weight loss.  I am thankful for the former, but probably could use some of the latter.  Thanks to all of you who prayed for and encouraged the team over the past couple of weeks.  I know those prayers sustained us all, but especially the ladies on the trip as they taught 99 Congolese women (out of 100 invited..wow!!) how God and His word can help them heal from the pain and suffering caused by rape both in the recent past and many years ago.

On this trip, the heavy lifting and teaching of the Shelter from the Storm materials was performed the 6 amazing ladies from Watermark Church who spent the past year readying the materials for an African audience, the past three months praying and planning it, and then three days executing the plan as well as can be done in Africa.  It was exciting to see Congolese women break down in tears and for the first time tell the stories of sexual violence against them (some more than 15 years ago) on Monday and Tuesday.  Even more moving was on Wednesday to see many of those same women express forgiveness for the men who raped them in response to teaching from God’s word about forgiveness and an understanding of forgiveness in the process of healing their own hearts.

This transformation of the hearts in Goma happened because 4 of the women on this trip were willing to tell their own stories of past abuse at the outset of the conference.  Immediately barriers were broken down among the women from Congo as they realized they were not “terminally unique” and that other women, even in America, suffered as victims of sexual violence just as they have without any reason.  But, they also saw how Christ suffered horribly through no fault of His own, just like them, and because of the pain He endured, greater good was done.  For many of them an understanding of how the acts against them might be something God could redeem for His greater use flew in the face a lifetime of shame, guilt, and internal bondage.

I was blessed to have Russ Brown join me to carry bags for the gals on the team and spend some time with a group of Christian lawyers in Goma diving deep into scripture for the first time in many of their lives.  We examined parables and passages and had some “lively” discussions on the meaning and application of scripture.  In the end they were left with a practical model for examining, interpreting, and applying scripture.  It was another step in the process of equipping them to use scripture as the basis for how they confront the temptations of life in central Africa.  We are hopeful that the next step before we return in the fall is a weekly bible study for the lawyers led by a pastor in Goma who helped establish our relationship with the lawyers there.

We were also blessed to spend an extended time at the girls orphanage in Goma we visited last fall that specializes in taking in child sexual violence victims.  We gave the girls gifts of blankets and teddy bears (and even a kangaroo from one of the Howard boys) as small tokens to encourage and comfort them a little.  The director of the orphanage told us they have now 143 girls of which 67 have been raped and rescued.  They are between the ages of 5 and 19, so you can imagine the emotional state many are in.  But we found that many are joyful because they are safer in the city than out in the bush (areas outside the city of Goma) where most were raped by soldiers or militiamen while retrieving water or firewood for their family.  This orphanage has a network of churches in the bush that alerts them to girls who have been shunned from their village and they go and rescue groups of girls each month.

Unfortunately there is little money for clothes, shoes, beds, and food for that many little girls.  Most have one outfit and no shoes and the food they receive comes from NGO’s or churches in the area.  We are hopeful that we can develop a plan to send shoes and clothes from Dallas to this orphanage in Goma.  As we put plan together I will email out information for anyone interested in helping.

Finally, we once again spent time at Heal Africa hospital.  A great facility that ministers to the needs of children who are sick or have been injured in the ongoing war as well as adult victims of rape rescued from the bush.  The website is www.healafrica.org if you are interested in what they do.  Part of our time there was spent with founder Jo Lusi talking about the serious need for western doctors to come and perform medical mission trips including doing medical procedures and training for African doctors.  The needs in Goma are every bit as serious as those in places like Haiti.  Unfortunately, long before there was an earthquake in Haiti or a tsunami in Indonesia there was war, disease, and poverty in central Africa.  Lots of help is needed, it is just a little more inconvenient to get there.

Thank you to all who prayed for us as we prepared the trip and carried out the mission.  If you are interested in hearing more about what we did or about Watermark’s overall efforts in Africa, please email me or check out the website www.watermark.org or the blogs at http://watermarkblogs.org/Africa or http://watermarkblogs.org/Justice.

• Safe return to US. Trip reports & photos from this & future trips soon can be found at http://www.watermarkblogs.org/justice. Matthew 5:3-10;25:40.RB #

• Toured Heal Africa & visited patients.Shelter team spoke to girls@school for rape/abuse victims. Great last day.On way to Kigali.RB #

• Today we bring attys & victims/counselors together.Victims/counselors can see support;attorneys will hear tough stories.Pray it is memorable & helps healing/justice.RB #
• Stories of abuse beyond belief from victims. Today girls will address forgiveness for perps & healing/restoration for vics. Pray God w/women as enemy attacks these women today./rh #
• 4young rape victims told hearbreaking stories &acted out skit of being shunned@school. Closed w/ song of hope.Ps61:4. RB#

• @ Lawyers Conf.”Pastor Rick” working through parable of sower w/ lawyers.Luke 8.Lawyers offering excellent observations.Many new attys present;focus great.RB #

• At ALARM ctr. Small sermon, song, then Shelter team will speak. Today is Women’s Day in Goma. Ladies may join parade today. RB#
• Have not seen joy like when the Shelter team handed out Bibles to the ladies attending the conference! They broke out in song that continues.Can’t wait to share photos. RB #
• Shelter team shared personal stories.Led to women of Congo sharing story after story of horrors & innocence taken.RB #
• “as for me & my house..” josh24:15-6 Shelter team serving Lord in amazing way described above..will you serve the Lord today?/rh #

• Finished a great breakfast at ninzi hill. leaving to Goma in two vans.RB #
• 30 km outside of Goma. Children on side of road scooping puddle water into water containers for use. We take so much for granted.RB #
• Visited young girls orphanage in Goma today. 143 girls from age 5-19. 67 are RAPE victims. Rescued from bush when village put them out like lepers. 60 of 65 raped in jungles miles outside Goma.  Not one rapist prosecuted for rapes in the bush. Rapes occur when girls get water or firewood. Militias ambush young girls. No way to prosecute cause no cops in bush and girls don’t know men who did it.  Pray for thos girls./rh #