Externally Focused at Watermark

This was absolutely the best trip yet!  We were blessed with an incredible team and some unbelievable opportunties to see God at work in and through the Sudanese.  It’s hard to explain what it was like to be back in Sudan and get the opportunity to experience the fruit of 3 years of hard work… Since our first trip back in December of 2007, we have celebrated 150 families (and counting) who have been empowered to know about Christ’s redemptive love and to provide for their families.  We’ve also hired and trained an incredible national staff.  And, we’re already looking forward to our next site launch (more details on that to follow)…

Some highlights from the trip:
- We visited the markets, met with SE clients, and learned their stories.  We also participated in a couple of loan repayment meetings, a loan selection/ approval meeting, and a loan disbursement to a brand new Seed Effect Cell Group
- We celebrated the end of term for our Seed Effect Vocational School students with a closing ceremony, student-acted drama, and some beautiful singing… and we perused their handiwork as we shopped for homemade gifts for our families.

- We participated in a clean water well drill with Water Harvest International. 
- We played a lot of soccer (the international language
- We attended church that was planted by a previous e3 campaign under a mango tree. 
- We worked alongside the e3 church planting team to help share the Gospel in the village and plant a new church and we ended up planting another church on the side of the road at a brewery.
- We taught 120 (out of 150 total SE clients) about goal setting and business planning on Seed Effect Day and heard their testimonies of how Seed Effect has impacted their families. – We had an amazing trip that never ceases to be lifechanging… God is working in Sudan and we’re so blessed to be a small part of it.

Thank you for your support and prayers! To stay up-to-date on all things Seed Effect, be sure to read our blog, visit us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter!  We are so grateful for your partnership and your generous sacrifice to invest in their lives.  

With much gratitude for your commitment to the least of these, 

David & Missy Williams

 ALARM is currently looking for 3-5 people who would be willing to volunteer in the office over the summer and during the school year, if available.  Below is a job description to describe the tasks that ALARM can use help with.  We are interested in high school students, college students, or adults with daytime availability and an interest in serving the Lord with their skills. We think this could be a good learning opportunity for students with an interest in business and or missions.  Volunteers will interact with American and African staff in conducting a variety of tasks.

 If you are interested, please email Beau Fournet at bfournet@hbk.com.

Administrative Support Volunteer

Purpose:

The administrative support volunteer supports the ALARM office staff with a variety of tasks including answering the phone, greeting visitors, and organizing, updating and maintaining trip information files and general office documents.

Rewards:

• The joy of contributing to a ministry that supports leaders and communities in eight African nations
• The joy of connecting with individuals who are passionate about helping others through service with ALARM

Qualifications:

The administrative volunteer should:

• Be an active, growing Christian.
• Enjoy making phone calls and possess good phone presence.
• Enjoy working in an office environment and have basic experience using Microsoft Office to perform administrative tasks.
• Be organized, honest and able to respectfully maintain the confidentiality of sensitive information concerning ALARM team members and employees.
• Be able to volunteer in the office for a minimum of three hours per week throughout the summer with the opportunity to serve more as desired.

Responsibilities:

The administrative volunteer will do the following as needed in accord with their skills:

• Answer the phone in the ALARM office
• Greet visitors to the office
• Scan documents to maintain electronic files
• Update and maintain team member and trip information files
• Work on projects (currently long term photo project)
• Help with occasional mailings, bead sorting/packing/shipping, and data entry

Connection:

• Please call the ALARM office 972-671-8522 weekdays between 9a.m. and 4p.m.
• Ask for Elizabeth or Naomi
• Group training available June 28 or July 2 or July 6
• Please provide 2 references when you call

Senior VP of Church Engagement for World Relief discusses his prayer for Haiti following the earthquake…

This is another insightful clip of Ken discussing how we can actually “hurt” rather than “help” out of our compassion and his perception of wealth after the trip…

One of my great new friends coming back from Haiti is Ken Wytsma, who discusses the complexities of US church partnership with development organizations in Haiti.

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.

Taking a stretch break.

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

WOMEN

On this trip, the heavy lifting and teaching of the Shelter from the Storm materials was performed by 6 amazing ladies from Watermark Church who spent the past year readying the materials for an African audience.  It was exciting to see Congolese women break down in tears and for the first time tell the stories of sexual violence against them.  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.  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.

 LAWYERS

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.

 ORPHANS

We were also blessed to spend an extended time at the girl’s orphanage in Goma that we visited last fall.   It specializes in taking in child sexual violence victims.  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.  Unfortunately, there is a need for: money, clothes, shoes, beds & food.  We are hopeful that we can develop a plan to send shoes and clothes from Dallas to this orphanage in Goma. 

MEDICAL

Finally, we once again spent time at Heal Africa hospital (www.healafrica.org).  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. 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: medical procedures, 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. 

 - Rick Howard

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

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!