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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.
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
Hello friends and family,
As many of you know I have been blessed over the past two plus years with the opportunity to travel to Central Africa with teams of lawyers from Watermark Community Church here in Dallas. The three trips I’ve made have included time in Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Congo. Each one has involved me and other lawyers from WatermarkJustice (our Watermark lawyers group) leading conferences for lawyers, judges, prosecutors, pastors, and government officials. We’ve covered topics ranging from servant leadership to confronting bribery and corruption as Christians lawyers and judges to biblical conflict resolution. Each trip has been a unique experience and each one has increased my passion for the people of Central Africa more and more.
After returning from my last trip this past October I was asked to lead a very different trip to Goma, Congo in early 2010. Different because for the first time for me the audience will not be men and women in positions of authority or influence in the government, church, or military and because I will not have the responsibility to teach and lead extensively at the main conference. Instead, I and one other guy get the privilege of assisting as (6) incredibly gifted women from Watermark lead a conference for victims of sexual abuse (rape) and the counselors who help them through the healing process physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Eastern Congo is the epicenter of a civil war in Central Africa that has claimed over (5) million lives over the past (15) years. The genesis of the current conflict began with the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The perpetrators of the massacre of (800,000) Rwandans over a (6) week period in 1994 fled to the mountains of Eastern Congo once the international community responded to the crises. There in the sanctuary of a jungle the size of Texas those same groups have killed countless innocent local Congolese men, women, and children and caused millions to die from starvation and disease while forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes for sanctuary in refugee (IDP) camps. However, in many respects the worst actions taken by these men is the brutal rape of women, young and old, as an act of war, and act of vengeance, or in some instances an act intended to procreate the next generation of “soldiers” for their militias.
It is against this historical backdrop that these women from my church, Watermark Community Church, whose lives have all been touched in some way directly or indirectly by sexual abuse along with our partner on the ground, ALARM, will be leading a sexual abuse conference focused on healing, recovery, and forgiveness.. They will be using a curriculum developed at WCC and other churches called “Shelter from the Storm.” These materials which are designed to help take a women through the process of healing from sexual abuse have been modified after much prayer and effort to be appropriate for an audience of victims and counselors in Goma,Congo.
They will spend (3) days leading and teaching a conference for counselors who have for years been serving and caring for rape victims to better show those victims the path to true and complete healing through Jesus Christ. In attendance will also be victims of rape in Congo. Women who have been sexually assaulted, typically in the jungles of eastern Congo, and then rescued from the homes or villages by the staff of Heal Africa or other organizations dedicated to this effort. Approximately (100) women have been invited to this conference hosted by the ladies from Watermark. My guess is (1000) could have easily been identified and invited, but space and resources are always at a premium in places like Goma.
It is our hope that this “Shelter” trip is another door God is opening for Watermark to minister to a truly forgotten people in Eastern Congo. Just as we’ve done with the lawyer in Goma we will spend time seeking out other effective and trustworthy partners on the ground to aid in this effort. We already have a great partner in ALARM and are building relationship with Heal Africa as well. The hope is that this is the first trip of many to help folks on the ground there better recover from the devastation of rape and abuse in their lives.
As horrific and devastating as earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have been for the people of those countries there is a difference from Congo. Most of those people can remember a day when there was peace in their land; when the government provided some reasonable security for them, when food was easy to find. They can also look forward to a day when things will look “normal” again as plane loads of people and assistance arrive each day to help. On the other side of the world, however, there are no such memories for the generation raised in and around Goma. They have grown up knowing nothing but war and violence, hunger and disease. It is our hope that by helping train the leaders of eastern Congo, the women who counsel victims, and the lawyers who will one day take on positions of authority in the principles we find in God’s word that cycle will one day end.
… Please also pray for me and the other lawyer who is joining me on this trip, Russ Brown, as we spend part of the trip discipling a small group of lawyers we’ve developed relationships with since 2007. Below I’ve also attached a link to a well timed Op/Ed piece done by Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times on Congo and the response to the crises in Africa from a number of different groups. Specifically, he uses quotes from Richard Stearns’ book The Hole in Our Gospel. Stearns is the president of World Vision. I recommend you read the article and the book.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28kristof.html
Thanks for all of your prayers and support for me and for Michele over the past two and half years as we have followed this path to Central Africa. Your prayers for my team and our efforts will be appreciated once again. One final note, I am being forced to embrace a higher level of technology than I am comfortable with at this time. Unless I mess it up or the internet crashes in Congo (both are likely propositions btw), you should be able to read updates from our trip by going to http://watermarkblogs.org/justice.
God Bless,
Rick Howard
We recently deployed a medical team of surgeons, followed by a second team of nurses, EMTs, wound care specialists, and others. Todd and I were able to join this group with the purpose of surveying the destruction, assisting our teams, and connecting with some of our partners on the ground as we pray and plan about a long term response. It was an amazing experience and God orchestrated the events, the people that we were able to cross paths with, and even our return trip. We were able to serve in our makeshift Operating Room with Mission of Hope Haiti and in their clinic; helped a motorcyclist who was hit by a truck right in front of us and suffered a fractured leg; walked the streets of devastated Port-au-Prince and mingled with folks scavenging for anything of value; jumped rope with kids in a tent city; set up a mobil medical clinic and treated 30-40 patients for everything from infected sutures to asthma to open wounds; viewed a mass grave and participated in the unloading of bodies and a mass funeral; shared the Gospel everywhere; and encouraged those who had been working there since the beginning. Again, it was an amazing time and I was reminded of Romans 8 constantly and the fact that all creation groans until the day it is completely redeemed when Christ returns.
I was also reminded that God is sovereign; that He cares for us; that remarkably He allows broken people in His church to be the “first responders” when earthquakes happen; as Todd says, “earthquakes are happening all around us” and a great reminder that we need to be about responding to the storms in the lives of people right here in Dallas; that ONE PERSON can make a difference; that we are building our foundations, whether we acknowledge it or not, on either rock or sand, and that the end of all temporal things is a pile of rubble, so we should be investing in the eternal. Stay tuned as we develop our long range plans and in the meantime, if you’d like to volunteer, please e-mail sjordan@watermark.org. Thanks to so many of you who followed Todd and I on twitter and prayed for our teams! If you want to look at those along with the photos, follow @wordsfromwags and @outwardfocused.
Here are some other links to information about that trip and some of my thoughts below those…
Link to Good Morning Texas interview – http://www.wfaa.com/good-morning-texas/Local-Doctors-Return-from-Haiti-83260462.html
Watermark Medical blog description – http://watermarkblogs.org/medical/2010/02/01/first-team-back-from-haiti/
We wanted to update you on some of the details of our initial response to the Crisis in Haiti:
WHEN: A team of Watermark doctors will be leaving from Austin on Saturday at noon. They will be joining up with a group from Hill Country Bible. While the jets have been donated, the cost of fuel is significant. There is a donor matching any contributions, and if you would like to contribute toward this effort, please indicate “disaster relief” on your check to Watermark. The plane will be direct into Port-au-Prince and the team will return on Thursday.
WHO: The team includes several Watermark physicians, trauma surgeons, emergency medicine specialists, orthopedic surgeons, and anesthesiologists.
WHAT: On the ground, our team will be taking over for existing and exhausted teams at clinics operated by Mission of Hope Haiti. MOH has arranged all of the logistics on the ground. We also have a Watermark member who is a photographer and has been on the ground since shortly after the initial quake. He has been reporting daily on conditions there.
FUTURE MEDICAL TEAMS – as you can imagine, we had an overwhelming number of medical personnel offer assistance. Unfortunately, we could not accommodate everyone on this initial trip. However, there should be plenty of opportunities for future teams. Additionally, we hope to be able to soon send teams through our partnership with World Vision.
Please be praying for this initial team….
Here’s a link to the Mission of Hope website: http://www.missionofhopehaiti.org/
Here’s a link to a NBC’s short video of the work of Mission of Hope – http://www.nbc.com/news-sports/msnbc-video/one-mans-mission-of-hope-in-haiti/
I just returned from another trip to Africa – this time Kampala, as well as several areas in Northern Uganda, where the communities that we serve are located. We were there to conduct some diligence in preparation for an orphan care/sponsorship program that we’re rolling out after the new year to connect 600 children with individual church sponsors. We also saw and documented water wells – both new ones that have been drilled recently and proposed sites in preparation for Watermark Conspiracy, which is rolling out next Sunday. We also saw progress on the trade school that we’re building in Pader and visited widow groups where micro-finance programs have had a huge impact, including the development of a pigery, that will bless thousands of widows over the next 5 years. We also met with ministry partners on the ground to learn more about their discipleship/mentoring of the children in the program. It was a tremendous trip and opportunity to see first-hand what God is doing through his church.
I thought I would also summarize a few of my personal takeaways:
1. There is a great joy in Jesus when you realize you have nothing to offer Him.
The folks we met, widows, orphans, child soldiers, and others had none of the trappings of success – no cars, boats, degrees, homes, money, jobs, or even food – yet, there was great joy in their hearts at the generosity of a great God that loves and values them so much that He would send His Son for them. On the other hand, we have all of that “stuff” and whether we admit it or not, there’s a small part of us that believes that the “stuff” we have accumulated somehow gives us value and makes us worthy of God’s attention…
As I walked hand in hand with one of the young girls away from the rock quarry in Kampala, where she had previously worked all day every day busting rocks by hand for 50 cents (and the hope for one meal a day), I’m convinced that until we view our own spiritual poverty in the same way we see the visible material poverty of these people, we will never fully understand God’s grace and love..and therefore cannot truly live to serve Him.
2. There’s a healthy line between guilt and conviction.
At one place, we met a child headed household – a family of 4 – who lived in a hut about the size of my master bathroom (and I don’t live in a huge house) along with spiders, no light, and little food. Something is simply unjust about the fact that because of these kids’ longitude and latitude, they have no access to even the basics – clean water, food, shelter, and school.
I left there thinking that we can’t feel guilty for what the Lord has blessed us with, BUT, we can and should live in a continuous state of tension and conviction as to whether we are properly stewarding God’s resources. Why do we continue to pursue and collect things that: 1) don’t satisfy us and 2) don’t help the lives of others? I repent.
3. When he help folks who are materially poor, we must be careful in what we say, how we act, and what we do, so that we don’t unintentionally make things worse….or create new problems for the communities that we serve or our ministry partners who are there 24/7. Rather, we must focus on oppportunities that:
- develop people and build leaders;
- invest in strategies where folks are empowered, achieve, feel their value/dignity; and
- share the gospel each time there is an opportunity, which is the true hope for the world.
I’m reading a great book right now on this very subject, called “When Helping Hurts”. I highly recommend to everyone.
Also, if you’re interested in viewing the pictures from this trip, here are two links:
1) link to selected portraits of some of the people that we met – http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffsterlaw/Africa2009SelectedPortraits#
2) link to the complete album (800+ pictures) – http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffsterlaw/Africa2009Complete#
Enjoy!
