Living Waters - A Healing Opportunity For You

What Is Living Waters?

Living Waters is an in-depth, Christ-centered program for people seeking healing in areas of sexual and relational brokenness.  A healing, teaching and discipleship series, Living Waters addresses the reality that we are all broken in our ability to love others well.  The goal of Living Waters is to lay a foundation for sexual and relational wholeness in our lives.

Developed by Desert Stream Ministries, and with almost thirty years ministering God’s healing love, the Living Waters program is a proven path of healing.  Living Waters groups are currently being offered in 29 states and 26 foreign countries.

Living Waters is particularly relevant to those struggling with sexual promiscuity, the effects of sexual abuse, codependency, self-hatred, homosexuality, relational difficulties, and the inability to love others well.  Thankfully, Christ's capacity to touch and restore us at deep levels of shame and brokenness extends to all of us, regardless of the specifics of our issue.

How Is Living Waters Presented?

Living Waters is a 20-lesson program taught in a closed group format, usually over a 26-week period.  Each week consists of worship, teaching, healing prayer and small group interaction.  There are homework and reading assignments for further study during the week.  

The group will meet each Thursday evening from 7:00 until 10:00 PM.  Our start date is January 8, 2009 and the program will run through July 2nd.  Cost of the program is $150.00 and includes all materials.  Each meeting includes:

WORSHIP - We focus our attention and praise on God rather than on our problems.

THE WORD - Living Waters teachings combine psychological insights and biblical truths that help us to know God and ourselves better.  Living Waters uses a detailed guidebook that includes teachings, questions and additional readings that help us move from brokenness to maturity.

THE WORKS OF JESUS - Through healing prayer in large and small group settings, we invite the Holy Spirit to heal our various wounds. We bring our sins, and those committed against us, to the Lord who is faithful to set us free.

Through the worship, teaching, prayer, and small groups of Living Waters we learn about:

- God's powerful love for us and how Jesus is central to our hope for wholeness
- The depth of our brokenness and our profound need for Him
- The power of the Cross to restore our souls, sexuality, and relationships
- The process of walking out our healing
- Our place in the church and loving others honorably

Foundational to Living Waters is the reality that God created us in His image as male and female.  Therefore we value men and women working out their healing together.  Great healing comes as men and women minister and receive alongside one another, thereby reflecting God's intention and character.  (Although small groups are single-sex, both genders participate together in worship, teaching, and prayer in the large group.)

A Message from the Author: Living Waters... A Safe Place For Hurting People:

“Where can I go to share my pain and struggle?  Will anyone listen to me?  How can I overcome my struggle?  I’m alone, and afraid to tell anyone what’s really happening in my heart.”

Such thoughts and questions plague many Christians.  The Living Waters discipleship and prayer ministry addresses the roots of these emotional and sexual issues (such as abuse, self-hatred, marital problems, addictions, same-sex attraction, pornography and co-dependency) which trap believers in unhealthy living.

"Jesus said to His disciples; 'Now that I...have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.' (John 13:14).  Living Waters is that part of the church where we can extend the lowliest parts of ourselves and there discover His compassion.  Mercy and truth meet us.  As we reveal our brokenness to others, God's living water cleanses us and transforms us into the men and women of God's design.  "Welcome to the Waters!"

Andrew Comiskey
International Director of Living Waters
Executive Director, Desert Stream Ministries

The 20 Lessons of Living Waters:

Section 1: Love Revealed

1. An introduction to Loving Waters
2. Acknowledging Our Need
3. The Father’s Pursuit of Us
4. Jesus, the Son
5. The Realignment and Empowering of the Will

Section 2: Understanding Sexual & Relational Brokenness

6. Welcoming Him Into Our Brokenness
7. Roots of Gender and Relational Brokenness
8. Broken Boundaries, Invaded Heart
9. Narcissism and Relational Idolatry

Section 3: Reconciliation

10. The Cross: Resurrecting and Accepting the True Self
11. The Cross: Forgiving Your Wounders
12. Restoring the True Feminine
13. Restoring the True Masculine

Section 4: Learning to Walk

14. Cross Bearers: Embracing the Process
15. Temptation: Bound or Determined?
16. Freedom From Sexual Addiction

Section 5: Learning to Love

17. Devotion to Christ and His Community
18. Healthy Same-Sex Friendships
19. Healthy Heterosexuality
20. Toward Christian Maturity

Elements and Structure of Living Waters:

To help make Living Waters a safe environment for participants and leaders alike, the following are in place:

1.      Trained: The coordinator of each Living Waters group must have attended an official Desert Stream Ministries Leadership Training seminar. Group leaders have also either gone through an intensive week of training or have served as a small group co-leader in a previous LW program.

2.      Church Covering: Living Waters is meant to function under the covering of the local church, one which values and administers the healing of persons.

3.      Confidentiality: A written policy of confidentiality for all participants and leaders is in place to help ensure an environment of trust and acceptability within the group in order to facilitate the unburdening of the soul. The confidentiality policy also extends to what is shared outside of the group in order to help preserve the safety of the group.

4.      Sexual Sobriety and Relational Integrity Requirements for Leadership: A written policy for all Living Waters leadership helps to ensure the integrity of the group.

5.      Leadership Boundaries Kept with Participants: A policy for boundaries between the participants and leadership is meant to preserve the sexual, emotional and spiritual safety of all involved. All leaders will be held accountable weekly to ministry leadership regarding group and personal activities to assure the safety and integrity of the group.

6.      Participants' Boundaries Kept With Each Other: Again, a policy for boundaries between the participants is meant to preserve the sexual, emotional and spiritual safety of all involved.

7.      Closed Group: The consistency and constancy of a closed group situation helps preserve the safety of the group. The closed confidential group format is designed expressly for the purposes of confession and accountability.

Is Living Waters for Me?

If the following statements describe your vision for hope and healing, consider participating in Living Waters:

•    A desire to deepen your relationship with Christ and grow in your identity as a man or woman of God

•    A desire to allow Christ to reveal His intentions for your sexuality

•    A willingness to face the sinfulness of your present state and the painful realities that led you there.  (This involves digging into hurts from your past, specifically related to key people in your life, such as parents.)

•    A willingness to be open and honest with others about your brokenness, including sexual feelings and practices, as well as areas of identity and emotional immaturity

•    A willingness to receive the healing ministry of the Holy Spirit in these deep areas

•    A desire and willingness to walk free from sexual bondage and find loving relationships within the body of Christ

•    A desire to grow in your relationships in the body of Christ

About the Living Waters Coordinators:

Suzzie and Dale DeMarchi are the coordinators for the Living Waters program at Mountain Springs Church.  They are members of Mountain Springs Church, having attended since August 2003.  During their time at MSC, they have led a home group, ministry groups (CrossCurrent and Living Waters), and coordinated the Integrity & The Cross Conference, held in March 2008.  Suzzie and Dale have both attended the Living Waters Leadership Training provided by Desert Stream Ministries.

Dale has been involved in Living Waters since 1992, when he participated in the program.  Since then, he has led and coordinated Living Waters groups in Southern California.  He has also coordinated The River (a version for 16-24 year olds) in Anaheim and CrossCurrent (an 8-week introductory version) in Anaheim and Colorado Springs, and participated on the Living Waters Leadership Training team as a teacher and small group facilitator. 

Suzzie participated in the Living Waters program for 2 years in Anaheim.  She has since been a leader and coordinated CrossCurrent both in Anaheim and in Colorado Springs.

Testimonials From Living Waters Participants:

The following are from people who have been through the Living Waters program:

Living Waters is a safe place to truly open up and reveal what is in your heart.  The leadership is loving, kind, gifted and experienced.  They come alongside you and walk you into healing.  The concepts are biblical and the healing prayer is amazing.  The result is increased intimacy with the Heavenly Father and in your other relationships.  I believe anyone would benefit with the investment of Living Waters.  I am indebted to them for investing so richly into my life.

Kim

The Living Waters group has been a life saver and a marriage saver for me!  I first attended a group 12 years ago when my marriage was about to end due do my infidelity.  I had confessed to my wife of 10 years that not only had I not dealt with my same-sex attractions, but I had been acting out within our marriage.  Yes, I became a Christian at 13, but there had never been a safe place to get help and be honest and real within the church and with my wife.  Needless to say, we were in desperate times.  In Living Waters, I encountered solid biblical truth about how we’re created new in Christ, how we’re to relate to God and each other, and receive the deep healing that Jesus provides for our past wounds.  There is so much great teaching and healing prayer here that allows room for process.  It is also amazing to grow with your small group in sharing your real self and receiving support.  I recommend this group to anyone who suffers or struggles with relating to others in a healthy way because of past abuse, same-sex attraction, sexual addictions or any other relational brokenness.  I’m excited for you as consider joining Living Waters to receive true freedom, perhaps for the first time!

Erik

I accepted Jesus in 1991 and attended Living Waters in 1992.  I was a new Christian, a relational mess and had been physical with both men and women before becoming a Christian.  My self esteem was non-existent, I lived as a victim, and my relationships were unhealthy and usually emotionally dependent.  In Living Waters, I found biblical teachings that clarified God's boundaries for healthy relationships and provided a framework in which I could work out my conflicted emotions, responses, and thoughts about what it meant to be a man.  The small group provided a safe place for me to be real and receive healing prayer in deep and vulnerable places.  While I had given my heart to Jesus, Living Waters is what helped me to begin walking out a Godly Christian life.  Living Waters is like a relational tool belt that provides tools you can use to grow in your Christian walk, use in your relationships to make them stronger by addressing unhealthy relational patterns, and share with others to help them gain more freedom in their Christian walk.  I recommend Living Waters to anyone who wants to break free from old and unhealthy patterns and live a life of increasing freedom and power.

Dale

Applying for Living Waters:

Please print and complete an application by clicking here to access the application.  Submit your application in one of the following ways:

Electronic: Email your application to Dale and Suzzie DeMarchi at demarchi@integrity.com.

Printed application: Bring your application to the MSC reception desk or mail it to:

Mountain Springs Church
Attention: Living Waters c/o Sally Bausch
7345 East Woodmen Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80908

Please make sure that your application is in a sealed envelope and clearly indicates Living Waters to ensure confidentiality.

Submitting an application does not guarantee your admission into the program.  Please note that space is limited.  All applications will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis.  After we receive your completed application, we will contact you for an in-person interview.

Thank you for considering the Living Waters program.  If the timing is right, we pray the Lord compels you to be a part of this healing work.

God Bless You!