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We are a link between you, your prayers, and your desire to help the people we know, love and help. We are unable to do anything without the help of God's people. The Holy Spirt has been leading people to donate time, prayers and funds toward our ministry for many years.
I am Robert W. Watts, director of our missions in Vietnam.
I am a Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal who believes that God is awesome and loves everyone (though it is hard to see sometimes). I am a Christian Missionary working with World Missions Far Corners.
I run team houses where we have folks stay with us from around the world. Ministers, evangelists, pastors and teachers. I am an administrator and facilitate missionaries and missions. I teach leaders and business people how to start and organize businesses.
I normally start churches. Find, anoint and appoint pastors to start churches.
Now, in Vietnam, we have a team that primarily consists of my wife and I, though there are always others traveling through, stopping for a while and then going on to start their own ministries, or whatever.
Ruth's ministry is love and service. She is the soft side of the ministry and fulfills the support role for us very, very well.
Evangelists, pastors, teachers and others join, minister and move on, or establish ministries of their own.
So, what do we do?
Lepers
Well, We gather gifts for the Lepers. We talk to businesses in Vietnam and gather rice or food, unexpected gifts like books and "extras" for the folks in the villages. The ILEP (International Leprosy Organization) has an agreement with the Government of Vietnam to provide the medicines needed for the Lepers, so we have been told that there is nothing we can do for them.
However, we are trying to negotiate for our WMFC doctors from India to come and help, but the Vietnamese want help from Rich countries and not poor.
So for the lepers, we have continued to provide (as the Lord gives us) support for hospital patients, gifts for villages and assistance for their children.
Orphans
We have recently negotiated for the donation of 20 computers for the
Orphanage at Birla. Along with the computers, we donated the engineering and support as well as supplies and parts to make them work.
Now, we provide local Vietnamese teachers for the kids to bring them up to date. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funding, most of the computers, save 3, do not work. We are seeking further funding to repair them and upgrade them as well as invite more teachers to help.
Trung Tu School
We have invited members from the school to live with us and we supply them with teaching materials as well as teachers. When our children have parties, for their birthday or Thanksgiving or even Christmas, we hold them at the school for the mentally crippled or at Birla. If we have enough funds, we have three parties. One for Trung Tu, One for Birla, and another for the kids around our house.
AMCHAM
I am an advisor to the AMCHAM. We try to make sure that the outlook of the business organization is pointed toward something besides the buck and more toward the "In God we trust." I chaired the Education Humanity forum, the Small Business forum and co-chaired the Infrastructure Committee. I was a member of the American Chamber of Commerce here in Hanoi. We had a businessman who paid for the registration. I was asked by Christian brothers and sisters in town to be a Christian presence amongst that ungodly bunch of folks. This last year, I could not come up with the funds.
We did take on one client, a subsidiary of Airbus, who though offering a great contract, never paid their bills. We kept up the work, using the opportunity to train and help folks, helping them learn how to work with big companies. Though financially it was a disaster, the opportunity to train and assist people turned out to be a tremendous boon to the training.
One client, the World Bank, paid with used computers. We worked as though we were drawing salaries, but received computers which we then gave to people who are now using them to train others.
Enke is one of those who received a computer. 8 months ago he never used a computer at all, and now is not only accomplished in art on the computer but does CAD architecture as well. Enke has become a Christian. We thank God we were able to help he and his family.
In our house.
We invite folks from around the world to our house, to teach them about business. This is a coat that we put on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul did, and many others before and since, we use business to get into closed countries as well as provide a platform for speaking to closed government officials. We shun notoriety and try to provide that quiet place where rulers and religious leaders can come and find the presence of God.
Enke is the most recent example of a recipient of God's grace through us. When Ruth and the children left Vietnam to get their visas last year, they met Enke, Toya and their children at the train station.
Poverty stricken and ill, Ruth introduced them to me and we invited them to stay with us. We taught Enke how to do business and helped him support his family. We provided them with a computer and he and Toya learned how to make their drawings on the computer. When we were given an opportunity to sub out work for the World Bank, we taught Enke how to do CAD Cam Architecture, and took our payment in equipment for Enke.
Now, when Enke returns to Mongolia, he will not only be a Christian, but will also be on the cutting edge of Website production and CAD Cam work with his computer.
Giving fish is one thing, providing funding for a fish pond where someone can feed a community is another. These combined efforts of humanitarianism, evangelism, training, evangelism, loans, evangelism and business funding, pretty well describe my ministry. The only thing still lacking is for Enke to become a pastor and start a Mongolian church. We have time to wait.
Micro Economic Assistance
Since the average income in Vietnam hovers somewhere around 600.00 US per year, it is very easy to get involved in Micro economics.
Our principle is the gathering of family members and assisting them in starting a business. We have a success rate of about 80%.
We take family members, have them pick a project, business or money making idea and present it in a very clear manner. Having done that, we try to give them an overview of the problems they might run into and suggest ways they might go about making money as well as helping others.
We try to stay in the 100.00 USD loan area but have been known to come up with several thousand dollars if the idea is worth the investment. Should the amount exceed 1,000.00 we turn them over to a banking institution, or seek private donors.
During the course of our travels and work in Vietnam, we come into contact with poor people who ask for help. We then send a team to talk to them about the help they need. If their help can be answered immediately, we do that, but then look toward long term solutions.
We purchase bicycles, stoves, tools, water pumps, sewing machines and the like for those who cannot put together enough funding to do so themselves. The loan is a permanent one. The family members are encouraged to keep track of the funds, pay back the money and then the same money, plus interest is available for the next loan the family wants to make.
This has been very effective and breaks the chain of poverty.
This is a general recap of our activities. There are many more activities we are involved in but this should prove a map of our desires and activities.
We pray God will bless you as you read this and if you have any questions, please ask.
bobby,ruth,frances,mercy,rachel,glenn
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