Fueled by Heidi Baker

Last night we went to hear Heidi Baker speak at the Foundry. I got to say hi to a friend there I have not seen in quite sometime, Scott McLeod. It was great to see him last night. Then joined my friends to listen to Heidi bring the word. It was great to hear how God had worked on her heart for many of years. She was very honest about the things that bothered with things in America, then to hear how God brought her to a place to reveal His love for those things. God brought her to a place of brokenness as she walked into a bathroom filled with gold sinks and railings with plush red carpet. There God told her that He loved them just as much as He loved those who live in the dumps and slums of Africa.
She then went on to share how she had a vision and seen Jesus standing at the foot of the cross with His arms open wide. Here people would come up to him bow down and laying what they had at His feet kissing them. Then they would get up and go into the dark places of the earth. This was where Jesus light would shine the brightest in them.
When she reached the end of her sermon she had us stand up, close our eyes and ask the Lord to show us who He calling us to serve. When I had done this and I seen the young women who come from the small villages of Ethiopia to the big city of Addis Ababa. Here they are running away from a problem in hopes to find a solution to it, when they only find themselves in a worse position then when they had left home. When they arrive they arrive at the bus station. This is where men come and seek them out. With their smooth talk they take them off to make them slaves, prostitutes, or even worse some of them are sexually abused. Some of them come to Addis Ababa pregnant and have no one to turn to. This also causes a problem for them. They end up homeless and begging.
Why should this be? Sadly there is very little help for these ladies if they can find it. This is my heart. They are needing God's love just as much as you and I do. Who is going to show them? My heart longs to share them the love of God. You see they long to see their dreams fulfilled and they have heard that all the things that they need to succeed is in the big city. These are dreams that God had given them just as He has given us dreams and this is my dream. To see theirs fulfilled. I have joined  Mission Ethiopiawho seeks to fill the desires of these ladies, single mothers, widows, and the orphans. We share the same vision and calling of God's heart for them. I am happy to share this calling with them. While I am in Ethiopia I will not get any financial support from Mission Ethiopia. So I am asking for friends, family, and fellow believers in Christ to partner with me.  I am still lacking just $400 of monthly supporters to make this happen. I need your prayers in this and I also need your financial support. So I ask you to set some time aside to pray about being a monthly supporter. 

The Calling to Missions

Greetings My Friends, Brothers, and Sisters in Christ,

Most of you know about my very first trip to Ethiopia and the following trips after that. This first trip would lead into a calling of full time ministry, ministering to single mothers, widows, and orphans. This is something that I have done nothing but prepare myself for while continuing school for my degree in Social Services. This has been the longing on my heart for the past four years. I cannot express to you the great joy I have to follow this calling as I long to fulfill it.

There was one day started out the same as any other day. It had been raining as it does each day in Ethiopia during the winter time there, but this day would turn out different then all of the others. We had left one of many orphanages that we had visited when our team was approached by a mother that was crying. She got on her knees with her hands clasping in front of her and we could tell she was pleading with us as her two toddlers hung onto her staring up at us. No shoes for either of them and one had only a shirt on. We did not know what it was she was wanting until one of our guides stepped off the bus and told us that she was pleading for us to take her children. She was telling us that she could no longer feed, care, or clothe them. My heart sank as we stood on the street lined with eight foot walls around each house isolating us from the homes. That day and my life and  the direction in what I thought I wanted to do in life would change as stood there feeling shocked and helpless.

I wondered that day what was done for mothers in this position as I started noticing other mothers living on the streets as we drove thru the city of Addis Ababa. As one child after another would come up to our bus offering gum, Kleenex, and whatever else they had to sell us to help their mother who was living on the streets. They would line the bus on both sides each time we had to stop looking up at us, faces covered in dirt and some had no shoes for their feet. As I looked on I asked our guides what causes these mothers to get in this position. They told me that some of them their husbands had gotten a visa or left them so that left the mother with no skills for a job and no one to watch her children while she went to find work, others were left as widows as they had to watch their husbands die from HIV/AIDS, all the while they suffered with the same disease, and others had become prostitutes desperate for money but was never able to change their situation. I had asked who helps them in their situations and I was told that no one does. My heart was sadden as I watched each mother either standing or sitting as we passed them by. All I wanted to do was get off the bus and run up to each one of them, wrap them up in my arms, hold them, and somehow change their lives. It was then I felt the call to Ethiopia. It was then that a dream to change just a small part of the world began to form in my heart. Here I could leave everything I know back home in America and never go back, knowing that this is my hearts dream, but the responsibility of work and school would be waiting on me.

So now school is over and there are no other responsibilities that would give me a reason to stay here. My fiance and everything that I long for is in Ethiopia. My heart breaks when I think of these mothers that have to beg each day just to survive. This has been my dream for the last four years since my very first visit to Ethiopia. Now I am going to volunteer with Mission Ethiopia http://missionethiopia.com who shares the same heart as I do for these mothers, widows, and orphans.
http://missionethiopia.com/empowerment/

My plans and goals for this mission that is already in place is a day care for the children so the mothers do not have to leave them home alone or keep them every where they go. To find housing that they can afford with the money that they earn from working at Mission Ethiopia. To help them develop a relationship with Christ as I develop a relation with them. To help the orphans in their relationship and also going to school as most of them dream of doing, but have no money to do so.

This dream that I am so happy to share and it was one that I shared with my fiance before I asked her to marry me. She was very excited about it and was happy to know that I wanted to leave my country to come and help those in her country. So it is exciting that not only will I have a wife, but also someone who will walk with me and share in this vision and dream.

My dream cannot become a reality without your help. Prayerfully, financially, or spiritually. I need your prayers as I step out in faith. I also need financial support. I am praying for 70 people that would be willing to support me at $20.00 a month for my first 12 months. Starting this September as i plan to be there by Meskel (Ethiopian holy day) September 27. I am asking you to set aside some time to pray about being one of those supporters. For those who are willing  you will be a part of my full time ministry to the single mothers, widows, and the orphans to bring hope, empowerment, and change in their lives.

If you chose to support you can do it two ways. You can send a check to Belmont Church ATTN: Rob Fraizer 68 Music Sq. East Nashville, TN. 37211 made out to Belmont Church and put Christopher Fisher/Ethiopia in the memo, or if you prefer online you can click here Send Chris to Ethiopia then please email me at fisher.cmichael@gmail.com so that I can keep a record of you and send you a monthly letter so you can see how the Lord is using your donations to advance His kingdom.

Thank you very much for your love, support, and prayers. By your support through prayer and financially it is as you yourself are sending me out.

Christopher Fisher

Just a few more days.

In just a few days I will continue to step out in faith and move to Ethiopia by their new year. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. Right now I am still needing people that are willing to support me monthly. I have been faithful to God during this time by stepping out, walking away from my job. It has been a test of my faith believing God for the big and small things in all of this. I do know that God is moved by faith and not by fear, desperation, anxious emotions, or by anything else. Just as one day last week a family was in need of a bed. They had seen my ad on craigslist and called me. They really did not have the money because they needed to pay other things too.
Well they shared their story with me and I did the same, then they got ready to pay me and as I was looking at the money that was being pulled out I started to get focused on my need to move and everything else. Well this thought went through my mind saying, "If you take that money, you will be making a big mistake!" so I thought about it and as I did I knew that it was God and I started focusing on their need. She went to give me the money to pay for the bed and I refused it. I told them that if I took that money then I would be making a mistake and I need a blessing to move to Ethiopia. They broke down and started crying, prayed and then they left.
Later on that night I was with some friends and shared that story with them. We had talked about how at times God puts on our hearts to give or do something for Him and we miss it. We ended up praying for my situation and in return I was blessed with a gift of $400. Now that is faith in action. That is what I mean that God is moved by faith and sowing into others. That is what God is looking for. Just as I sowed into this pastor and his wife, God returned to me double than what I in turn gave them. God is so good.
So I am asking you to seek the face of God and ask him how can you sow into what I am about to do with Mission Ethiopia. I am still looking for monthly supporters that are willing to support me monthly. I have just a few more days until my flight leaves. I have stepped out in faith believing God to fulfill His promises to me concerning this. I believe God has called me to Ethiopia with all of my heart. It is the only place I feel at home at. My heart and mind are there. I was asked the question and God forbid that it would happen, "What if things did not work out with you and Hanna? Would you up and leave just because?" My answer to that is no I would not up and leave. Like I had said, this is where my heart is. This is what I want to do and what I have wanted to do. So my heart belongs to God first and foremost, then to Hanna. I love her with all of my heart and I am very excited about the plans we have together and I believe with all of my heart that God is using all of this to get me to move, cause all I have been doing is waisting time and I am tired of waisting time. click here and watch this!
So I am asking you if you would move with me by faith. I believe God has called me to do this work with single mothers, widows, and orphans. I cannot do it without you at all. Just as God used me to fulfill a need with that family, God can use you to fulfill this need to bring hope and empowerment to single mothers, widows, orphans.
If you so choose to partner with me, let me first and foremost say thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This work cannot happen without you. If it could, then it would not be much of a sacrifice or a move of faith. If you choose to donate here is how:
I am needing monthly supporters. I am asking that monthly supporters just give $20 a month. Or if you would like to do one time donation you can do that too. All you have to do is click on one of the buttons on top of the page either wepay or paypal and you can make your donations there. Or if you want to send a check in you can do that by making it out to Belmont Church and put in the memo Christopher Fisher/Ethiopia and mail it to Belmont Church ATTN Rob Fraizer 68 music Sq. East Nashville, TN. 37203 Please email me at fisher.cmichael@gmail.com to let me know so I can keep track of what you are going to do and also so I can email you each month to share with you what God is doing.
Thank you again for your time and potential support.
Blessings
Chris

Living for something bigger than myself

Four years ago I decided that I would throw away what I thought was a life for me, a better paying job, a nicer car, a house and go and live. Live for something bigger than myself. I decided that would finish my education and when I had finished I would return to a place that few would want to call home. To go and call a place my home that I am not guaranteed a hot shower everyday, electricity everyday, Internet everyday, and have to make sure that I brush my teeth with bottled water everyday. For what? For the opportunity to see one, two, three, ten, twenty lives change just because I was able to walk beside them and help them find hope outside their situation.

You see this is what changed my life. A mother of two wanting to give me her babies that she could not take care of and had to sleep on the streets. Had to beg each day just so that she could feed her babies. I asked who helps mothers like her. I was told no one does, that's just the way it is here. My heart sank that day as I would see one mother after another begging to just survive. I wanted to then to reach out to each one of them and share the love of Christ with them. To help them see that they are priceless and that they are worthy, to help them find work that would provide a stable income for them. That was what I wanted to do.


It was then that I no longer cared about a life in the states where there is more than enough. I had set my heart on never leaving Ethiopia that day. I begged God that if He would let me stay and help these mothers I would abandon everything I know back home. Sadly that day He did not let me stay. That day I returned to the states where I would finish school with a degree in social work. This allowed me to learn more about myself and how I can help others. This is what my heart has longed to do for the past four years and now I praise God I have this chance to join what God is already doing, and that is to help bring hope and empowerment to these single mothers and widows with a ministry that shares the same heart and vision that I do for the single mothers and widows. It is Mission Ethiopia (http://missionethiopia.com/) that provides a job for them. This is a chance for me to walk beside them each and everyday showing them that someone cares about them. So the work is already there, I just have to walk into it. Sadly I cannot do this alone so I am inviting you to be a part of this amazing work. Here's how: I am needing as much prayer on this as I can get. So I am looking for as many as I can get to partner with me in prayer. Also I am looking for financial support for I will be there for a year or more. I am  for 70 people that are willing to partner with me financially at just $20 a month. My departure date is September 9th and I cannot leave until I have the support I need in place. So I am asking you if you would go before the Father and prayerfully consider partnering with me in this great work in sending me out.
Checks can be sent to Belmont Church Attn: Rob Fraizer 68 Music Sq. East Nashville, TN. 37203 or you can click on one of the donate buttons above on this blog.

Thank you so much for your time in reading my blog and praying for me. None of this can happen without you. So I ask you again to take a moment and pray to see if what would God have you do.

Its not about me, Its not about money, Its about relationships!

I have shared many times about my first trip to Ethiopia that changed my life and my view on life. How I returned to the states only wanting to return and help the single mothers who are struggling to just feed their children on a daily basis. Mission Ethiopia http://missionethiopia.com has partnered with different churches in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that allows mothers to work making beaded necklaces. This gives them a paycheck to send their children to school, pay for doctor visits when they get sick, and most of all feed them everyday. That helps them with the financial part of life.
This has been the vision of my heart for a long time. When I say long time, I mean about four years long. To reach out and walk with these mothers and widows as they still have to face life on a daily basis. You see money doesn't solve all of their needs. It is easy to say, "I can send them money" and you can, but just we all are broken and need God's reconceliation in all of our lives it makes much easier when you have someone to walk with.
You see its not about me, or the money, but about relationships. Its in relationships that we can discover who we are in Christ as we walk together in our brokenness and humility. Christ came to this broken world and He demonstrated to twelve men what its like to walk in relationship. He humbled Himself and showed them what it looked like to serve even though He was the creators son.
I look at how Christ striped Himself of his linens and got down on His knees and washed the feet of those he was leading, as a metaphor of us stripping ourselves of the luxuries of life and getting on our knees and washing the feet of those we are leading as a way to help them get closer to God by washing away the lies that the enemy has told them, or what society has said about them. Its more than just a paycheck.
As I am writing this I am thinking about how our Father in Heaven sent His son Jesus Christ to this world to bring hope and empowerment to a lost and broken world and how Jesus sent out the deciples to do the same. And that is what Mission Ethiopia is doing for these single mothers and widows. They are spreading hope and empowerment to them. That is why I am excited about this opportunity. For this has been my dream for past four years. I am so looking forward to this opportunity. Romans 10:14 and 15 says, "14 But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?15 And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims, 'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!'"
This has been my goal, dream, and vision for the last four years and I am excited to share it with you. But I cannot do it alone. As so many has signed up to help answer the call of sending me out I am still short financially. I am still asking for 60 more people that would be willing to partner with me for a year at $50.00 for this first month and $20.00 for the next eleven months. $20.00 is four cups of coffee from a coffee shop. I know this can happen. My flight leaves on September the 9th and I hope to be on it.

Thank you very much for your time and your consideration of giving.
God Bless you
Chris

One less struggling mother, One less orphan

Yesterday I was listing to the radio and they were talking about how the city of Detroit, Michigan had started a pilot program for free lunches in the city, not because everyone there is in need of a free lunch, but because they feel that the children whose parents have signed up for the program are not eating because they are embarressed. So to take away the social status they have decided to put every child on the program even if their parents are wealthy or not.
We live in a society if you loose your job you can go and get unemployment and if that will not cover your expenses you can also go and sign up for free medical and food stamps programs. A single mother can use the a government program to better herself here while she goes to school or to get some type of training and there are some who do just that and are doing great now. But what if you took all of that away? What if there were no programs here in the United States?
Four years ago I went on a missions trip to Ethiopia with Visiting Orphans and I witnessed something that I had never seen before not even on t.v. As we were leaving an orphange that we had just visited a lady approached us as our team was getting on the bus. She was crying, so we thought something happened to her. As she was talking to us her two toddlers scrambled around her looking at us and playing with each other. Neither child had no shoes while the other child had only a shirt on and that was it.
One of our guides Hanna stepped off the bus to see what was going on. She began to tell us that the mother was begging us to take her children with us. I was taken back by such a request. I would have loved to take her children, but why would she want to do such a thing? Hanna went on telling us that she was homeless and had nowhere to go and she could no longer feed her children. Wow! All the thoughts raced through my mind of how I had never seen this such a thing. A mother wanting to give her children up so she would not have to watch them suffer from starvation or even die.
We gathered around her for prayer only after we had given her money to last her a month, pizza that we had left over and had gotten out our donations of children's clothes and put new shoes on their feet, and new clothes on here children. We then gave her a umbrella and a poncho to try to stay dry for it was the rainy season at that time in Ethiopia.
We left after that. I sat down in the bus thinking about what had just happened and I began to talk to our guides as we passed by other mothers I seen standing on the street as their children played around them. I began to ask about how is it that these mothers end up like this. They began to share with me that some of these mothers are single cause some of them, their husbands died either from HIV/AIDS or some other form of death, they may have left them to go to another country such as the states or Europe, some of them became single mothers out of prostitution.
This just blew me away, cause my mother was a single mother most of my life and I just wondered, what if I had been born in a place such as Ethiopia? What would my mother do to provide for me or would she want to give me to a foreigner hoping that I would have a better life? Even though my mother never did use govt assistance she was able to get a job and always had someone to watch me while she worked.
You see that is not the case in Ethiopia. There is no childcare programs all over the city that are free to struggling and homeless mothers. There are no govt housing or food programs in Ethiopia. But there are a few places that are rising up to help provide a job for mothers who are struggling or homeless. One of those places is Mission Ethiopia
(http://missionethiopia.com/). They are providing jobs for single mothers and for those who don't have the ability to have a regular job there. August 29 2011 I am going to leave the luxuries of the United States to go volunteer with Mission Ethiopia to help with their vision that we both share to care for and help provide jobs for those who have less than and on top of that I had mentioned about one of our guides Hanna. Well since I had met her we have had a growing relationship that started three years ago a year after we had met. Last year on my third trip I spent some extra time in Ethiopia to be with her for one reason. To ask her to be my wife. I am excited to tell you that we will soon be Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Fisher.
As of right now I am raising support for this volunteership. I will be there for at least a year. Giving to those who are needing that helping hand, finding new ways to improve their lives. You can partner with me. Here is how. First and foremost we are in need of prayer. Lots of it too. Here is how you can pray for us. That each and everyday is started out seeking God first and laying aside our own ideas of what we think life should look like. Pray that we walk under the authority that is set before us in a godly manner. The other way you can be a part of this is financially. Here is how you can do that. You can either write a check to Belmont Church in the memo put Christopher Fisher/Ethiopia and send it to Belmont Church Attn: Rob Fraizer 68 Music Sq. East Nashville, TN. 37203 or you can go online if it is easier for you at https://www.wepay.com/donate/sendingchristoethiopia and make a donation there. I am looking for monthly partners and if I can get 100 people that are welling to support me for the next 12 months at $20.00 a person that will cover are expense for the whole year.
Thank you so much for your time, prayers, and support. None of this could not happen if it were not for you.

Bringing Hope and Empowerment to Single Mothers and Widows in Ethiopia

Dear Friends,
I want to take a moment to share with you the last four years of my life. In June of 2008 I went to Ethiopia and Rwanda with Visiting Orphans. During my time in Ethiopia the team was leaving an orphanage. As we were leaving a mother of two toddlers approached us. She got on her knees crying as her children played around her not aware of what was going on. One of her children had only a shirt on and nothing else and the other had no shoes. One of translators told us that she was pleading with us to take her children with us cause she could no longer take care of them.
Sadly we could not take them with us, but we reached in our pockets to give her what we had in money and then we got out our donations and found shoes and clothes for her children. We got back on the bus to leave and as we did we seen her sitting by a ditch feeding her children what food we had to give her. I was heart broken over this. As we drove through the city I began to notice other women walking, sitting, and standing around on the streets of Addis Ababa. So I began to ask our translators about them. They told me that most of them were homeless due to their husbands left them, died due to HIV/AIDS, or the had been a prostitute due to their poverty.
I wanted to so badly to reach out to them and help them, but did not know how. I returned back to the states where there is help for single mothers who were struggling. My plans before I went to Ethiopia was to graduate school, get a better job, a nicer car, and a house. I came back to the states longing to return there and give all of that up to help these ladies find a source of income for them and their children.
I returned each year for the past three years with Visiting Orphans and this has kept this vision alive. During this time I want to share with you that the interpreter on my first trip that I had mentioned above is going to be my wife.When I shared my vision with her, it brought her joy knowing that I wanted to someday move there, cause she did not want to leave her country.
Now for the additional good news, I will be working with Mission Ethiopia www.missionethiopia.com & http://vimeo.com/25618178 that has started this very work. Due to the labor laws in Ethiopia they cannot bring me on as a paid employee or even a contract employee. So I will have to come on as a volunteer, so I will have to raise my own support to do this. I am inviting you during this time to ask you if you would partner with me. Here is how: First and foremost I am asking you to pray for guidance as I step in a different culture that I do not try to solve their problems with the mindset of an American. I am also asking you if you would take a moment and prayerfully consider a one-time donation of any amount or a monthly donation of $25.00 with$100.00 for the first month to get me started to bring hope and empowerment to these mothers. Send your check to Belmont Church Attn: Rob Fraizer 68 music square east, Nashville, TN. 37203 or you can go to https://www.wepay.com/donate/sendingchristoethiopia
Thank you for your prayers and your consideration of supporting me financially.

In His Loving Grace
Christopher Fisher