Externally Focused at Watermark

• Heading out for some camping action with other dads/sons. I love these times…Psalm 148. #
• If it snows, we're gonna come snuggle. #

If you read much in the area of urban renewal, you will likely have read one of many books by Robert Lupton.  They’re terrific!  In any case, here’s an update that he just released about development strategy in Haiti:

Haiti, a deforested stretch of hurricane-prone island the size of Maryland, was founded by former slaves who threw out their French masters two centuries ago.  Ruled by dictators during most of the 20^th century, its legacy of slavery, oppression, corruption and coups make it one of the world’s most difficult development challenges.   Even before the earthquake of 2010 that shook into rubble half the buildings in Port-au-Prince and left a million residents homeless, three-fourths of its nine million residents eked out an existence on less than $2 a day.  Now, with its infrastructure destroyed and its business sector decimated, daily survival has become even more desperate.

Aid from around the globe has poured in, as fast as the badly crippled air port and harbor has allowed.  Distribution of essential water, rations and medical supplies has been painfully slow and disjointed.  Aid workers have only begun to coordinate services.  It will take many months of backbreaking effort to clear the debris, open the roads, establish temporary shelter, restore basic electric, water and sanitation systems.  Cost estimates to re-establish a modicum of stability exceed an unprecedented $3 billion.

The whole world wants to help, but how?  Send more money?  Send more volunteers?  “The problem is not good will,” says anthropologist Timothy Schwartz, long time Haiti resident who emailed from the midst of the devastation.  “I don’t even think the problem is resources…The big problem is lack of accountability, lack of a mechanism to pressure aid agencies into effective, long-term development.”  Schwartz has witnessed it all first-hand.  Decades of free aid from well-meaning benefactors have produced an entitlement mentality and eroded a spirit of entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency.  The outpouring of more aid, though necessary in this moment of unparalleled devastation, is ultimately worsening the underlying problem.

During the 1990’s the US gave over $100 million to Haiti to assist with their justice and policing practices.  No measurable improvement.  President Clinton led a $2.6 billion international aid effort but cut off payments over allegations of election fraud and corruption.  And this was only a trickle in the river of aid that has flooded the island in recent decades.  Since 1969 $8.3 billion in foreign aid has flowed into Haiti, yet it is 25% poorer than it was in 1945.  Though no other country in the western hemisphere has received the support of more non-profit charitable services, poverty and dysfunction continue to deepen.

Perhaps the earthquake of 2010 will mark a turning point.  Perhaps the world will recognize that emergency relief efforts must soon be converted into development activities if a damaged society is to become well.  Perhaps we will come to understand that as compassionate as one-way giving may be, and as necessary in times of crisis, it places the recipient in a pitiable position.  Perhaps we will see how quickly, how unintentionally, one-way charity can become hurtful to the soul.  As one angry Haitian put it as he witnessed the distribution of free food, “It is true we are in need, but don’t treat us like dogs!”

As rescue and recovery efforts have given way to the bulldozers, as the bleeding has stopped and basic food and shelter has been provided, emergency assistance must now begin to shift toward enabling Haitians to regain control of their own lives.  If health is to emerge from the destruction, Haiti’s many benevolent friends must shift from “doing for” to “doing with.”  Giving must yield to lending and investing, serving to training.   Grants will not be ultimately beneficial that fund our own experts to do for the Haitian people what they must develop skills to do for themselves.  As Brian Atwood, former USAID administrator says: “It is crucial for the reconstruction effort to create jobs for Haitians, even it if means a less efficient operation than one run by contractors from rich countries.”  Though development is a much slower, less efficient and more complex process than charity programs, it ultimately strengthens capacity and increases sustainability.  And isn’t that what Haitians really desire?

Bob Lupton, March 2010

April 8, 2010 at 7 p.m, Northwest Bible Church

Come see Rebecca St. James live in a benefit concert for the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center on April 8, 2010 at 7:00 p.m., at Northwest Bible Church (NW Hwy. & Tollway). Australian born Rebecca St. James is both a Grammy Award winner and multiple Dove Award recipient, who is recognized as one of the Christian music industry’s most globally outreaching artists. She is well-known for her hit songs I Thank You, Breathe and Pray, and can now count her lead acting role in the November ‘09 film release Sarah’s Choice, among her most recent career highlights. A film trailer of Sarah’s Choice will be presented during the event.  The concert is open to all, and doors will open at 6:00 p.m.

Tickets are $12 and may be purchased through www.fearandwonder.org or www.friendsofdprc.com, or through the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center @ 214-343-9263. Northwest Bible Church is located at 8505 Douglas Ave., Dallas, 75225, and parking for the event is free.

The Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center (DPRC) is a pro-life evangelical ministry that works with women in unplanned pregnancies, offering them help and hope to choose life for their babies. For the past 27 years, the ministry has had more than 67,492 client visits in the Dallas area. The DPRC offers services through three locations, in East, West and Central Dallas. All services, including counseling, education, emotional and spiritual support, material goods and limited medical services, are free of charge. For more information about the DPRC or the concert, go to www.friendsofdprc.com.

• Did you get saved? Ha! #
• "My salvation is my magnificent defeat. On his body the insignia of defeat that is victory, defeat of the soul at the hands of God" Buechner #
• Listening to Acoustic Storytime (Live Songs And Stories) by Jason Gray http://tinyurl.com/yl93m29 #rhapsody #
• Conference with World Relief. Like their "Haiti 5" – different phases of development & desire to engage the US church in those efforts. #
• RT @lisa_miller: prepping for small group service project. we're sewing pillowcase dresses for haitian girls! #
• My friend Joe Ader, from Village Church, crushed it at the World Evangelism Conference – God uses broken folks to carry out his mission! #

As a result of the great response to the conspiracy campaign (www.watermarkconspiracy.org), we were able to fund the first water initiative in Burundi.  We were able to purchase this drilling rig, which is in the process of being permitted and moved from Rwanda into Burundi.

Once there, our strategic partners will locate and drill approximately 15 wells over the next several months.  Thanks for your faithfulness! Water is life there…and this will help further God’s kingdom as we also bring the living water of the gospel!

A great montage put together by our resident photo-journalist Mo Sadjapour from our recent trips to Haiti.  Some of these are burned into my memory forever.  Stay tuned as we roll out our long term plans. And in the meantime, please continue to pray for the people of Haiti and our partners there.

Great video that captures much of the outreach and initiatives that we’ve been working on as we work to “Glorify God, Mobilize the Body, and Transform our Community”!

…seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.  Jeremiah 29:7

On Friday, a team of 6 women and 5 men depart Dallas headed for Soroti, Uganda.  Soroti is located in the eastern/central part of the country.  The women are: Mandy Bagdanov, Miriam Sperring, Julie Anders, Melissa Nunley, Pam McGee and Jennifer Lewis.  The guys team includes: John McGee, Kyle Graham, David Dzina, Matt McCuen, JJ Barto.  For most of the team members, this is a first trip to Africa and they are very hopeful, excited, and confident in what the Lord has in store.

Our plan is to visit the trade school that Watermark is building, meet children and families sponsored by the orphan care program, and our primary privilege and responsibility is to teach Biblical principles.  Partnered with ALARM, we are hosting 2 conferences simultaneously – one for the men and one for the women.  We expect 100 or so in each conference – though, as things go in Africa, this number is likely to change significantly with little or no advanced knowledge – Africans have much to teach this American (Jennifer Lewis) about flexibility!

We will be teaching the Biblically-based, hope-filled, grace-motivated messages of roles of men and women in marriage, conflict resolution, leadership, health and hygiene, and the principles of grieving heartache and hurts (so common and horrific there) and receiving and extending the forgiveness that is only available in our Savior.  We covet your prayers as we depart … for the participants to know our Savior and love His Word, for the truths taught to be a source of transformation and not just information (for the Americans as well as the Ugandans!), for safety with flights and physical health, for unity and sweet fellowship of the team.  May the Lord be glorified!

by Jennifer Lewis

Watermark member Scott Jackson has been working with university students and young adults in Cordoba, Argentina for 4 years. Cordoba is Argentina’s 2nd largest city with a population close to 2 million, and home to over 100,000 university students. He uses sports, english, and other methods to form relationships. He also has a heart in serving “Hogar Betel”, an orphanage which is about a 2 hour drive from Cordoba, in the town of La Cumbre. For more information, visit Scotts’s blog at http://jacksonscott.wordpress.com.  Scott serves with ARM ministries (www.armministries.com)

Scott will be heading back to Argentina on the 21st of March and he is hosting a farewell dinner party and fundraiser on Friday, March the 19th. The event is from 6:30 to 8:30 in the fellowship hall of Skillman Bible Church, located at 6043 Richmond Ave (The corner of Skillman and Richmond).  Join Scott that night and here him:

1. say thank you to those that are providing support
2. tell others about his work in Argentina and how they can help
3. and simply say farewell before  he heads back to Argentina

To RSVP or for more information send an email to Scott at scottinargentina@gmail.com

• Putting together work sites for when we cancel services and serve the community together. Ideas anyone to help fill out the list? #
• Been a long time since I've been this excited about a show…@needtobreathe tonight at House of Blues #
• RT @WatermarkLawyer: Team just landed in Kigali. Heading to Goma tomorrow and visiting orphanage. Pray for safe final leg. #
• do taxes? or mulch? or fertilize? or go on another date? we have a winner! #