Ian Daniels knows what it’s like to be a little different. In a room full of Texans, Ian’s English accent stands out. Back home in England, his friends and family have noticed the difference in Ian since he made the decision at 21 years old to follow Christ. “Today, because of what God has done, there’s definitely something different about this English boy,” said Ian. “And my friends are asking questions about it.”
“My attitude has always been, ‘You only live once, so make as many stories as possible.’ What wasn’t the party, got in the way of the party, and my focus was on me. For a long time, I thought I had an abundant life. But nothing ever satisfied me,” said Matt Rubin.
Getting out of his comfort zone. That’s what motivated Rick Wisner to be part of a discipleship trip a team of Watermark members took to Uganda last month. “I’d served in a lot of different ways in Dallas,” said Rick, “but I felt like God was pushing me to love and serve others in a way that was outside my comfort zone. I felt like there was a bigger vision out there, and by being exposed to what God was doing in Uganda, I hoped it would spur growth inside me and give me an increased appreciation of God’s goodness.”
The impact of the decision is still painful. And every time Brandon Avance leads a new group of men through Celebrate Recovery, Watermark’s biblical recovery ministry, he meets at least three other men struggling under the same burden. For many men, it’s pain that’s been buried for decades. But terminating a life through abortion was much more than a “choice”, said Brandon. It’s a tragedy that affected him deeply for years to come.
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“If you had a friend who was an alcoholic, would you tell them they were hard-wired to drink and never encourage them to get help? Would you say God made them that way? Well, many people say the same thing to those struggling with homosexuality. The message is: Reject faith, the promises of God and the church community. You were born this way.” Michael Spain.
“Going to church always felt like a chore,” said Andrew Savage. “My step-father introduced us to church when I was four. My parents divorced when I was in high school, and my thought about church became, ‘Great! Now I don’t have to go anymore.’ Throughout high school, I visited a few churches with my friends, mainly for the social aspect. But the truth is, I had head knowledge about Christ, but I never allowed Him to transform my life.
Before Carol MacQuilkan packed up her husband and two of her girls and joined the 16 other Watermark families who went on a short-term discipleship trip to Haiti last month, she was nervous “I didn’t know what Haiti would be like,” Carol said, “or how our kids would do on a trip like this. But I knew God wanted us to go, so I packed up and let God take over. What I experienced was seeing God’s work through a different set of eyes, because our girls were there. God shaped their hearts and mine.”
“Where do I fit in? That’s the question I’ve wrestled with throughout my life,” said Emily Murphy. “As an adopted multiracial girl, I always felt like the ‘Where’s Waldo’ member of my family. My two brothers and I had a very conservative, Christian upbringing, and we were in church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. Being adopted fueled my need to be a people-pleaser. I always worked hard so my parents wouldn’t wish they’d chosen differently or give me back.
It’s the memories of his own teenage years that motivated Dan Hutts to begin serving troubled teens. “I grew up with divorced parents, in an environment where there wasn’t a lot of accountability or supervision,” said Dan.
“Growing up I believed in God. But religion – or in my case, dead religion – was something I was supposed to do, rather than something I wanted to do,” said Julie Neis. “When I finished confirmation classes in 8th grade, I got to choose whether I’d continue to go to church. So I stopped going.
