Give & Go: Have You Been Told Our Untold Stories?

Give & Go: Have You Been Told Our Untold Stories? Hero Image

November 22nd marked this year's launch of our holiday Give & Go!. Our theme this year, "Untold Stories," highlights the fact that even longtime Watermark members don't always realize the amazing ways God is working through our body locally and around the world. But you can hear these stories - and serve with us this season.

Below are some notes about each of the five "untold stories." Click the link - on any or all - to find more stories and ways to serve this season.

A Story Just Below Downtown

Nestled in a nook just below Downtown Dallas sits Cornerstone Heights. You immediately recognize that this isSouth Dallas, with streets that seem strangely barren as you pass wide vacant lots, questionable establishments, and boarded up stores that signify a largely forgotten place.

But looks can be deceiving. At the head of that same neighborhood sits Cornerstone Baptist Church – and with it, an untold story of how God is using an inner-city church to lead others – including Watermark – in serving their neighborhood’s men and women, boys and girls. While we outsiders so easily focus on the need (and the need is great), these South Dallas leaders see potential, promise, and beauty in the amazing people and these very streets. When we enter the story, we can see the beauty too.

Find several South Dallas holiday service opportunities and more stories from the neighborhood by clicking here.

An Obvious Mission & Untold Story

Every. Single. Day. New stories seem to pop up daily at Watermark’s QuestCare Clinic.

Its obvious mission is health, caring physically for a community just east of our church. But while wounds are bandaged and illnesses are halted, much more takes place: our city is served, a neglected neighborhood is loved, relationships are built, and Jesus is proclaimed to the ends of the earth. Not only do patients visit from down the street or across town, but we serve many who were born in nations far away. And we get to pray with them, connect them to resources, and make new friends. There are so many untold stories about our Clinic… but you have the chance to enter into tomorrow’s newest chapter.

To read more stories about the QuestCare Clinic and find out about volunteering there, click here.

Stories Written in Other Languages

Does Watermark have missionaries? We’re pretty careful about using that word - “missionary” - because too often Christians ignore the fact that we’re all on mission. Each of us has been sent to our own neighborhoods and cities, to serve and share right where God has planted us.

But the untold story here is that He has indeed called some of our body to adventures at the ends of the earth, to disciple people in unreached, unwelcoming, or uncomfortable places. Do you know the stories of Watermark’s missionaries serving overseas? You can enter those stories this Christmas…

For info about each of our missionaries serving overseas and how you can engage them now or year-round, visit this page.

The Story Behind Their Eyes

Have you ever asked for the story of a homeless man or woman?

It’s easy to wonder what’s behind their eyes: Mental illness? Addiction? Laziness? Despair? But I’m even more interested in what’s behind their situation, how they got here, the “untold story” of the soul standing before me outside the post office or the family finding its way off the streets. Just like you or me, these people have been made in God’s image – but the sin within, the sin of others, and a crushingly broken world have left their mark in a particularly destructive way.

Am I up for hearing their stories, so long untold? Am I willing to enter these stories and help men, women, and families take steps toward the life God has for them?

For several serving opportunities with the homeless this season and a chance to learn about our partners impacting this area, click here.

A Story Far Beyond the Box

Operation Christmas Child: it’s so much more than “just a shoebox." But that’s the untold story, isn’t it? We fill boxes with toys, add them to the pile, and assume they will be used for good.

But do you know what happens next? If we follow the box, we find hundreds of volunteers who prepare boxes for shipment across the world. Then these simple shoeboxes work into the story of ministries all over the globe, who use them to connect with kids and families and introduce them to Jesus. (We’ve even seen it in action!) It may start with filling a shoebox – but that’s just the first chapter of this story.

To learn the bigger story and get involved with Operation Christmas Child through filling a shoebox or serving with us, visit this site.