Awaken Humanity or Mosaic Ministry?

Which is it?

The Mosaic Newsletter for December 2007 is now posted at http://mosaic.org/newsletter. Featured at the top of the newsletter is Mosaic's promo for:

AWAKEN HUMANITY - Mosaic 2008 Global Focus for Year-Round Giving and Action

GOAL: $150,000 to bring faith, love and hope to millions around the world!

Is Mosaic taking over for Awaken Humanity? Remember readers, Awaken Humanity, is registered as a non-profit corporation in the state of California. http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/list.html

As such, it is a wholly separate, legal entity from Mosaic.

Awaken Humanity is not yet recognized by the IRS as a tax exempt organization.

http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78

Awaken Humanity is not listed with the California Attorney General's List of Charitable Trusts.

http://www.ag.ca.gov/charities/?PHPSESSID=49f54090f99113cd9f86c197c59f7a73

Oddly, this is the text at the Awaken Humanity webpage:

http://www.awaken.org/awaken-humanity

Awaken Humanity 15 Comments
Humanitarian Projects

“Awaken Humanity
2008″ - a chance to change the world with the gift of compassion and humanitarian service.

GOAL: $150,000 to bring faith, love and hope to
millions around the world!

So, which is it? Mosaic or Awaken Humanity? They both contain the same plea for money but with this marked difference:

The Mosaic Newsletter instructs donors "that all donations are tax deductible" and "please make out your check to "Mosaic" and indicate "Awaken Humanity" on the memo section or offering envelope.

The Awaken Humanity webpage states "all donations are tax deductible" but instructs donors to "please make checks payable to "Awaken" and indicate "Awaken Humanity" on the memo line and send to the Awaken offices at:

Awaken

1443 E. Washington Blvd. #659

Pasadena CA 91104-2650

*Note this is a mailing address and not an office
address.

The Awaken Humanity page also offers donors the option to give on-line through PayPal. I followed this link and found that it is still working under the PayPal banner "AwakenHumanity.org."

The Mosaic Newsletter includes the following sub-headings under Awaken Humanity - Mosaic 2008 Global Focus for Year-Round Giving and Action:

Awaken Africa: Zambia and North Africa

[The Newsletter states that "our Mosaic community will be focusing on alleviating suffering through aide to orphans and community development." The Newsletter mentions "Breath of Heaven Children's Village" and states that donations will "help support the building of a Mosaic home for these children.

Aide to North Africa consists of sending a "business team" to assist in creating entrepreneurial opportunities; supposedly for the needy.]

Awaken Asia and Middle East: China, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Lebanon

[This section includes an invitation to use one's talents and job skills in assisting Mosaic's Cross Cultural Workers (CCW's.) I don't know what "cross cultural workers" are, perhaps this is Mosaic's new name for "missionaries?" Donations will also be provided to Living Stones Village Orphanage in China for the handicapped and abandoned.]

Awaken Ensenada and Honduras

["Mosaic" has regularly sent service teams to Ensenada in the past. What is odd about this section is this rather mysterious bit of information: "Further south in Latin America, a new Mosaic opportunity is being created for our community to create entrepreneurial and educational opportunities for families living in the trash dumps of Honduras, and the city of Tegucigalpa destroyed by a hurricane in 1998."]

Mosaic Alliance Projects

[The Mosaic Alliance is listed under "Movement" at http://awaken.org/. The Mosaic Newsletter reveals that donations will "go towards starting churches and campuses in places such as Dusseldorf, Germany; Wellington, New Zealand and Southeast Africa.]

Awaken L.A.

[A new ministry, "ServeInland", joins "ServeLA."]

Awaken the World

"When moments of crisis occur, we plan to be ready to move and to serve. In the past, we have immediately sent a team to Rwanda in 1994, to Southeast Asia after the Tsunami, and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, to name a few. We can continue to be a part of rapidly responding to meeting the needs in tangible ways through our donations and efforts through Awaken Humanity."

[The text here implies that Mosaic is planning to put together a "disaster response" team for global crises such as hurricanes, tsunamis and other disasters. Note the line: "We can continue to be a part of rapidly responding to meeting the needs in tangible ways through our donations and efforts through Awaken Humanity." Aside from the awkward wording, there is again the blurring of the lines between Mosaic and Awaken Humanity.]

In my earlier post "A Wake Up Call to Erwin McManus and Awaken" http://solidfoods.blogspot.com/2007/05/wake-up-call-to-erwin-mcmanus-and.html I quoted from the original text at Awaken Humanity for 2007:

Awaken Humanity is a documentary film project dedicated to making a difference on the issues of poverty, HIV/AIDS, and human trafficking.Entitled “Things You Should Care About,” each film highlights a community or organization that is actively moving towards global change in their local community. Awaken Humanity strives to help people feel deeply about human suffering and become apart of a global force to bring about change.

[The paragraph above has been removed from the Awaken Humanity 2008 version.]

* * *

“Awaken Humanity 2007″ - a chance to change the world with the gift of compassion and humanitarian service.GOAL: $100,000 to bring faith, love and hope to millions around the world!

[The goal for 2008 has been raised to $150,000]

*AWAKEN AFRICA
Zambia and South Africa

Africa is in a state of unprecedented crisis. In response to the human and spiritual poverty that threatens to devastate an entire generation, Awaken Humanity will be focusing on village outreach, training local leadership as well as providing transportation for local leaders to travel to remote areas.

Breath of Heaven Children’s Village in Zambia cares for children orphaned by the impact of HIV/AIDS. Your donation helps support the shelter,health, education, and spiritual development each child deserves.

Informal Settlements in South Africa are concentrated areas with displaced inhabitants and orphans, the majority living with HIV/AIDS. Your contribution will enable community development, AIDS relief and care, along with leadership training for local leaders and church planters.

[South Africa has been replaced by North Africa in the 2008 version of Awaken Humanity. Emthonjeni, the non-profit organization featured in the video clip, is in South Africa.]

*AWAKEN L.A.

Los Angeles has its own battles with gang activity, drugs, alcohol and spiritual hunger. Awaken Humanity mobilizes service to the needy and disadvantaged living in Los Angeles. Gifts will be used to fund some of the following projects:

[That last line has been changed to read "your gifts help us meet strategic needs in our city." All of the charities below have been removed from the Awaken Humanity 2008 webpage:]

SEA (Soladad Enrichment Action) serves at-risk youth in a final effort to encourage graduation from high school. Awaken Humanity would like to fund 400 students (and all 14 schools eventually) to participate in Yelo, a course in “StrengthFinders” and character development, to help students discover and use their unique abilities.

Nightlight L.A. is an organization in Bangkok, Thailand, and Los Angeles committed to combating human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children through outreach, transformative healing, economic and educational opportunities. NightLight encourages involvement in advocacy and follow-up care for women and children by developing a public awareness of the physical, psychological, legal, and economic consequences of prostitution and trafficking.

Homeless Service is in cooperation and support with other agencies such as L.A. Mission and Union Rescue MissionClean and Sober provides assistance and support for those with life-dominating habits especially addiction to alcohol and drugs.

Neo-Underground Railroad encourages disadvantaged children and youth in South Los Angeles to experience and develop their abilities through a free creative arts and tutoring program.

Addition for 2008 version: The section below has been added.

*AWAKEN THE WORLD
When moments of crisis occur, we plan to be ready to move and to serve. In the past, we have immediately sent a team to Rwanda in 1994, to Southeast Asia after the Tsunami in 2004, and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to name a few. We can continue to be a part of rapidly responding to meeting the needs in tangible ways through our donations and efforts through Awaken Humanity.

[Except for minor changes, this is the same text that is repeated in the December 2007 Mosaic Newsletter.]

So what exactly is going on here?

What is the relationship between Mosaic and "Awaken Humanity?"

At the California Business Portal, http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/list.html, Mosaic's Executive Pastor Eric Bryant is listed as the Agent for Service of Process for the corporation Awaken Humanity. He is also the Vice President of Awaken Humanity.

The address listed for the corporation Awaken Humanity created on 4/20/2007 is the same address for Mosaic L.A. in McGavran Hall, Pasadena. Mosaic moved it's offices here from it's former address at 13200 Crossroads Parkway North in the City of Industry.

The active corporation AWAKEN lists as it's address: 13200 Crossroads Parkway North, City of Industry. The Agent for Service of Process is Sealy M. Yates, Erwin McManus' literary agent.

Which brings us back full circle to the question I've been asking for months:

What is the relationship between Mosaic and Erwin McManus' AWAKEN?

A Side Note:

Beneath the December 2008, Mosaic Newsletter headline for Awaken Humanity is this rather disturbing line:

This Christmas begins the Mosaic Global Focus for touching the world with the gift of Christ through humanitarian service and sacrificial donations. Join us in giving and/or going on a trip this year! Get more info at the Awaken Humanity table on Sunday or contact Janice Sakuma!

The phrase "sacrificial donations" should be familiar to all former members of the Church on Brady who participated in the "Believe the Impossible" capital fundraising campaign held at Los Angeles' Union Station on June 29, 1997. It was the phrase used by Erwin McManus to encourage those in attendance to donate money towards the goal of purchasing a new facility within the Los Angeles area to house the growing congregation.

That purchase never happened and a former member who asked for a refund of his donation was informed in an email sent from Mosaic that the BTI funds "have been spent." I subsequently learned that these funds were used to pay off the second mortgage on Inland Community Church in Chino, California. This church has been renamed Mosaic Inland.

Mosaic Inland is nowhere near "the Los Angeles area" and is a daughter congregation of Mosaic.

The former COB members I have been in contact with were never notified by Mosaic of it's plan to use the "Believe the Impossible" funds for a use other than what was originally intended.

Yvonne W.