Watermark Justice

Please save the date and do all within your power to make the next meeting of the Dallas justice group. This has all of the makings of an important meeting. I’d encourage you to move other commitments to be with us.

Anyone and everyone can join us.  Feel free to bring a friend.

We will be joined by David Kasali of Beni, Congo and two of his US friends, one of whom is a justice on the Arizona Court of Appeals. Kasali leads the Congo Initiative.   http://www.congoinitiative.org/view.cfm?page_id=48

I’m hopeful that our great friend, Celestin Musekura, will also be in attendance. You know of Celestin’s faithfulness at ALARM but here is a link to his latest website.    http://alarm-inc.org/   We have some exciting trips and training opportunities planned with Celestin and ALARM.

Together, they will share news from Beni, Congo and Dr. Kasali’s Christian University there. We will hear about opportunities to partner with all of them towards justice in the Congo.

May 27, 2010
1140am–1:15pm
Watermark’s offices — specific room assignment to follow

Lunch with be provided for a nominal cost

Please RSVP to me (no rsvp, no lunch)

Finally, if you have a desire to travel with us to Africa in the coming 24 months, plan on staying afterwards for a short meeting to discuss our next travel plans and the steps you can be taking in the next 1 to 24 months to prepare yourself to go and serve there.

Some might ask, why not serve the Justice needs of Preston Hollow or the Park Cities or even West Dallas and Pleasant Grove? Well, it’s not a binary question. This past month, we have served specific needs of one in our midst with very real probate issues here in Dallas, but we are also called to go to the farthest reaches of the World (Matt 28 and JP’s sermon from last week)

But as I read this article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8530000/8530686.stm), I was reminded of the WHY go to Goma? The answer is simple: there are a host of lies being told there and we know the truth in Christ. John 8:32.

Through our relationships with pastors and believing lawyers and judges in Goma, we can challenge HIS CHURCH (read, HIS Pastors, HIS lawyers, HIS judges) to stand against the falsity and untruth that persists there and can train and equip the next generation of fearless Christian leaders to rise up against the lies that persist in believing that children (God’s creation) somehow are involved in sorcery and deserve death or scars as a result.

See this article to know about the false accusations leveled against kids in Goma.    http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8530000/8530686.stm Here’s just a sampling of what you fill find in the article:    “[this child's] is just one of a fast growing number of children accused of sorcery to come to the attention of Unicef’s head of child protection in Congo, Alessandra Dentice.”

May HIS church, HIS lawyers, HIS judges be equipped and then go and rise up against this lies that persist and may these children know that Christ followers will stand against injustice and will protect HIS children.

[Posted on behalf of Van Beckwith]

So Watermark Lawyers and others interested in justice issues, we are moving to a blog format to let you keep up to date and to dive in on the many exciting plans and projects God puts in our path.

Follow the Watermark Justice blog, or even better, sign up for an RSS feed. An easy way to set up an RSS feed is to have updates delivered to your email or igoogle page (www.igoogle.com to build your own)(or similar homepage) and we will get busy adding blog posts, photos, news and events, and opportunities. I’m new to these RSS feeds, but it is THE way to keep up with these blogs. We also will be tweeting from the road (yes, we have our own Watermark Justice twitter account). The tweets will post directly to the Watermark Justice blog, but you also can follow us on twitter by following “WatermarkLawyer.”

I’ve just returned from Friday’s conference at Pepperdine Law School on “The Role of The Church in Seeking Justice.” Here are just a few thoughts: (1) Jesus has followers committed to living personal lives of justice (after all, that is the first job of a leader — to look in the mirror) and to then take that to the streets of injustice in our homes, neighborhoods, farthest reaches of our city, our state, and around the World, (2) be encouraged by Pepperdine Law School — they have a justice center and they are committed to training up the next generation of fearless Christian lawyers — I was pumped, (3) our friends and partners at International Justice Mission are rocking along and shared the latest field news — including the breakup of an Indian brothel and the rescue of 27 girls (some as young as 11 and 12)!….wow God has faithful servants at IJM. Soon you will be able to dial up the Pepperdine site and listen to Kay Warren, Rich Stearns, Sam Casey of Advocates International, Sean Litton of IJM and little old me talk about justice ministry. I think you will be encouraged by what you hear.

You know the Word warns us about the abundant harvest and the lack of workers (Matt 9:37). Well, that’s how I feel returning from Pepperdine. We have direct opportunities today to: (1) keep loving our friends and lawyers in Goma, Congo, (2) to roll out our relationships in Burundi, (3) to expand in Northern Uganda with Advocates International and IJM and ALARM, (4) to sponsor two Uganda/Advocates International Christ-believing young lawyers as they complete their legal training ($3,000 buys 9 months of room, board and schooling for one of these lawyers)*******just think about the returns on that investment!, (5) to develop one-on-one mentor relationships with African Advocates International Lawyers, and the list goes on and on. Are you ready for some adventure?

For those new to our group, here’s a quick history to set your bearings: we started in March 2007 as an unorganized Spirit led effort to simply love some lawyers in one of the darkest places on Earth — Goma, Congo. Today, we hopefully remain viral (we are a bit more organized but hopefully even more Spirit led), but purposeful as we continue to try to build into our friends in Goma, to love and serve the people of West Dallas through our partner Advocates for Community Transformation, to write and speak on the issue of Widow and Orphan Property Rights and Land Grabbing in Africa (an enormous problem in central Africa that leads to generational poverty), to launch partnerships in Burundi, to partner with IJM throughout Africa, and to grow and expand only as Christ sees fit and leads us. Are you ready to dive in?

We need all types of leaders that are living purposeful lives in community in Dallas to help us reflect the Glory of our King inside our homes, on our streets, throughout Dallas, Texas, the US, and abroad including our beloved Central Africa.

Our next stop? Goma, Congo on March 4 as we seek to serve the battered and bruised women of the Congo as they heal from the trauma of sexual assault. Pray in anticipation for Good News for our leaders on that trip, Rick Howard, Mary Birdlebough, Russ Brown, Lisa Lopez and other skilled women from Watermark who can walk the talk of this training.

Grateful for each of you,

Van Beckwith
May our lives reflect Galations 2:20