3/13/10 Goma Trip Twitter Updates
- 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 #
Comments Off
3/10/10 Goma Trip Twitter Updates
- Toured Heal Africa & visited patients.Shelter team spoke to girls@school for rape/abuse victims. Great last day.On way to Kigali.RB #
Comments Off
3/10/10 Goma Trip Twitter Updates
- 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#
3/09/10 Goma Trip Twitter Updates
- @ Lawyers Conf.”Pastor Rick” working through parable of sower w/ lawyers.Luke 8.Lawyers offering excellent observations.Many new attys present;focus great.RB #
Comments Off
3/08/10 Goma Trip Twitter Updates
- 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 #
Comments Off
Walls of Shame Broken Down
Shelter prayer for victims
This morning, March 8th, the team of Watermark women began the Shelter from the Storm conference in Goma, Congo. Each of member of the team who has been affected by sexual violence told her story to the group of victims/counselors invited by our partner in Africa, ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministry). The resulting response was incredible as the women of Goma began publicily sharing their own stories of rape and sexual violence. Most of these stories had been concealed for many years. There were many, many tears and many, many prayers. Walls of shame were broken down in this first stage of the conference as the women from Congo realized that there are women from America who suffer as victims of the same types of abuse that they do in Congo. To use a Wagnerism, they understood they are not “terminally unique.” We can’t wait to see what God has in store on day two and three with the Shelter conference and the lawyers conference that begins tomorrow. /rick
3/07/10 Goma Trip Twitter Updates
- 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 #
Comments Off
3/05/10 Goma Trip Twitter Updates
- Goma team heading out from DFW. Isaiah 1:17!
http://yfrog.com/jwajimj
RB#
Comments Off
“Everything Sad is Becoming Untrue”
[Posted on behalf of Lisa Lopez]
I recently came across the above title in a song by Jason Gray (I believe the quote is actually from Lord of the Rings). This is my prayer for the women of Congo — that the sadness of rape and its effects will slowly but surely become “untrue” and be replaced by hope and freedom. I know this is actually possible because my God delights in “making all things new” (Rev. 21:5) and we can be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12:2).
Along this same theme of transformation, I want these women of Congo to have joy! Robert Hotchkins (as quoted in The Ragamuffin Gospel) says :
“Christians ought to be celebrating constantly. We ought to be preoccupied with parties, banquets, feasts, and merriment… because we have been liberated from the fear of life and the fear of death. We ought to attract people to the church quite literally by the fun there is being a Christian.”
I fervently pray and hope that God will use us to shine JOY and ABUNDANT LIFE in Christ to those who are struggling to hope. I want these women to truly see how God has so faithfully brought people who were once emotionally and spiritually dead ALIVE through Christ. I want them to grasp how the blood of Jesus covers the ugliest and most inhumane of sins and I want us to celebrate the fact that through Christ, sin and its effects can be overcome!
I know we will “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15) — I am ready and willing to do both – but I still pray our entire group will plant seeds of joy throughout this trip. How can those of who have experienced healing from sexual abuse not be the most joyful and grateful women on the planet?! May we bring contagious joy to Congo!
In a sense, the fact that we have a sexual abuse recovery ministry (Shelter from the Storm) at Watermark is a victory in itself. I think a trip like this must be Satan’s worst nightmare – God transforming the evil of sexual abuse into an opportunity to “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). It reminds me of Joseph talking to his brothers in Genesis 50:20 – “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
When you pray for us — please pray for CONTAGIOUS JOY that will spread through Congo to the glory of God!