Externally Focused at Watermark

44 – Hours of travel time from Gitega, Burundi, to Dallas/Forth Worth, TX.

 11.88 – number of team members (Kyle Thompson left 1 day earlier, so he only gets 8/9 credit ).

60 & 40 – Number of men and women that were a part of the conferences we helped lead.

120 – average number of minutes we had to wait for dinner each night. It was good for me – I’ll never complain of slow restaurant service in the states ever again!

8 – Number of young boys we got to sing Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it) with. One of the early highlights was running into a group of young Burundi boys who couldn’t speak a word of English but still knew all of the international language of Beyonce! It was a blast, and I am glad we got it captured on video. 

Brief Trip Summary

Recently a team of 12 Watermark members made the trip from Dallas to Burundi to be a part of 2 separate conferences for men and women in Gitega, Burundi.  I was incredibly proud of our team and of our church. I love the ways we are intentionally partnering with great ministries across the world (ALARM – http://alarm-inc.org/ and Living Water International (http://www.water.cc/). While in Burundi, we partnered with ALARM in hosting a conference for local pastors – we taught on topics such as conflict resolution, leadership, forgiveness, bible study methods, and healing/grieving. The women taught local church leaders on some of the same topics, as well as HIV care, health and hygiene, and parenting. Brett & Sheri Johnston and Kyle Thompson led our teams, and modeled what leadership really looks like through serving the team and the locals with Christ-like humility.

Team unity was incredible – I was in awe of the gifts and skills of the other 11 men and women on this team (Team picture to the right, without Kyle Thompson and me). The ways they served, taught, and led, both one another and the men and women at the conferences, were incredible. Again, I don’t know if I have ever been prouder of the people of our church. We enjoyed rich conversation with each other, and had MANY laugh until you cry moments. We very quickly learned that Americans can’t sing, dance, or worship like our African brothers and sisters. In fact, we were told that ‘white people dance and worship like trees’. Very true…

On a personal note, I was convicted and challenged in so many things. One is how RICH I am – in friends, family, resources, etc… Of course I knew I would be challenged in this, but it really hit me hard. I will frequently make comments about how ‘poor’ we are since I am in vocational ministry, but what a joke… I felt like the richest man in the entire world many times on the trip. At the same time, I found myself still comparing our lifestyle with others I know in Dallas. Somehow as I saw and talked with men and women who earned literally 50 cents a day in manual labor, I still found myself coveting what others back home have, trips they have taken, etc… Honestly I was disgusted by my greed…

We were able to bring a few gifts for them – bibles translated into their language (Kurundi), reading glasses, and clothes. We learned that a very small stack of hand-me-down children’s clothes is worth about 6 months of wages. The joy these men and women had was amazing. The women literally danced for minutes when they were given their own bible and the small stack of clothes.

The country itself is incredibly beautiful physically – very green and fertile. The poverty, on the other hand, was so saddening. The women literally would walk anywhere from 3-10 miles every day to get clean drinking water – a very common site was a woman walking up hill with bananas on her head, a baby strapped to her back, a small child walking alongside her, and a 5-gallon container of water in hand. We absolutely take for granted how blessed we are to have safe and clean drinking water all around us. Also, the consequences of war and internal conflict were evident throughout the country.

Our team had the opportunity to bring the hope of Christ to an often hopeless people. A hope that transcends income level, skin color, and country. It was awesome to watch the ‘lights’ come on as the men we were with learned how to follow Christ, to lead themselves, and to lead their families. In turn, this will help them be better leaders in their churches and communities. The hope of Christ is the only cure to the physical and spiritual poverty – both in Burundi, and locally in our lives here as well (1 Peter 3.15).

-Scott Kedersha