MISSION WORK One of Fishers workdays in Benin She worked through a constant downpour being covered only by a makeshift canopy in order to treat those in need
By: Jenna Frisby
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
Somewhere between 2007 and 2008 Rosemary Fisher found herself sitting in a church pew at Archbold Evangelical Church with Ron and Cathy King giving their testimony of their recent travels.
They had just returned from Africa and their honest conversation with the congregation planted a seed for missions in Rosemary’s heart. She knew then that God was going to call her to Africa to share about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In 2013 she was officially heading to the Dominican Republic on her first missions trip. She traveled with her church as a youth group leader and they provided different service projects to the people as well as held a vacation bible school for them.
While on that trip she was approached and told about the barrio teams of which she would qualify to be on since she was a Nurse Practitioner.
The barrio team consisted of nurse practitioners and doctors who would go out to the communities and give free medical aide and exams to those in poverty.
As well, they also offered free eyeglasses and shoes for children. This opportunity only seemed like another open door for Rosemary to experience more of getting to share the good news of Jesus.
She traveled to Africa, to the country of Ethiopia, in the fall of 2019 for her first trip with Mission Partners for Christ; the barrio group that would bring a medical team to the unreached people groups who are underserved with healthcare.
The barrio works in a way that the team travels to several different villages and provides healthcare to those in need while also spreading the gospel of Jesus. If individuals need prayer for any reason, they do so on the spot while treating them.
They provide medical care and connections for spiritual care with local pastors. Although she was filled with excitement to finally be in Africa, it ended up being one of her hardest trips.
The team was supposed to be heading to a specific village one morning but due to tribal unrest they were diverted to a Muslim village.
Before arriving there they were told they could not talk about Jesus, they could only provide the medical care. Rosemary felt crushed. “We just flew across the world to talk about Jesus, and they told us we can’t”.
They spent several days in that village providing the care necessary to the villagers. After their team of 24 people left, a pastor who had connections to the village, asked the villagers what was different about the barrio team, mind you they did not talk about Christ.
The villagers replied to him “How they loved us and how honest they were.” Rosemary later found out that both of her translators had accepted Christ as their personal savior.
That was the moment that Rosemary was deeply impacted by her trip. To know that she could show Christ’s love even if she couldn’t talk about Him. She learned her actions truly spoke louder than her words ever could.
Her next trip was to Benin, Africa. Benin is where voodoo was originated and of which 60% of the country still practices. Before her trip Rosemary was nearly paralyzed with fear.
She had conflicting thoughts on whether she should pursue going on the trip or not. When she finally reached out to a missions pastor about her fear, he simply asked her “What can you accomplish by staying in safe places?” That was all she needed to hear.
She knew that God was by her side, and she was in fact meant to go on this trip. Her team ended up serving in four different villages. One of the villages had just received a latrine, and their response to God was so powerful that her team ended up helping to put in a well for a source of clean water.
Wells and latrines are the two biggest reasons villagers are sick and many near death. Simply because they don’t not have the resources to use a restroom (latrine) or obtain clean water.
By having both in their village, villagers health improves exponentially over the 5-6 months after being installed and utilized.
After her trip to Benin, Rosemary was able to stay in contact with many of the pastors she had met and worked side by side in the villages.
She realized how their lack of resources really prevented and limited their abilities to share the gospel. After coming home, she had many people ask her “What good can a medical team do in just one week?” This sparked the realization in her that people did not realize that most of the work happened after the medical team left.
Yes, every person is seen by an MD or NP for a health screening and if needed they’ll even be given free medication on the scene.
But many times their medical needs far exceed what can be given at the scene. So those individuals are prayed for and then given to a team of African pastors who continue to pray for them and outreach to them.
Realizing all of this, Rosemary felt the Lord speak to her and tell her that He was going to use her to equip pastors and to give weight to their work.
Being just a few months since her trip to Benin she felt that “Mobility [was] the key to the spread[ing] of the gospel”, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
She then established Momentum in Missions (MIM) the following spring. Momentum In Missions is a non-profit public charity under the Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). Meaning 100% of the donations to MIM go straight to the missions through their projects.
Currently, Momentum In Missions has six ongoing projects which aide their support to pastors in three of the ten countries they have given support to. Those countries being: Benin, The Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Germany, Guinea, Sierra Leone, The United States, and Zimbabwe.
Their current projects include providing motorcycles to pastors, micro-loan programs, a $500 scholarship, a radio broadcast, purchasing Jesus film, and buying land as well as funding churches to be built.
Providing motorcycles was the first program that MIM initiated, which has given pastors in the bush the mobility needed for preaching the gospel.
Most pastors in the bush have to live off the equivalent of $25 a month. Meaning it would take them anywhere from 8 to 10 years before they could afford their own motorcycle.
MIM’s micro-loan programs has allowed them to help 11 pastors take an agricultural entrepreneurship course. At the end of that course each of those pastors were given four goats.
Those goats are ultimately a source of income and livelihood for those pastors to help them and their families as they live on the missions field.
The goats provide more than just milk and meat for them, as the reproduce they can sell those goats which can allow those pastors sustainable income.
Their $500 scholarship is something that they award to a graduating Archbold senior who has chosen to go into a full time ministry degree. MIM recognizes the importance to aide in the area youth who are interested in mission work.
Momentum recently engaged in funding a pastor in West Africa to be able to preach through a radio broadcast. This project is only three months in and already over 100 people have accepted Christ and four villages have asked to have a church planted.
This outreach lead to the idea of purchasing Jesus film backpacks. These mobile backpacks cost $2,500 and would be able to be diversely used for outreach across the bush of Africa.
The backpacks allow for the portability of the gospel to be shared through a film which is packed into the backpacks along with a projector, screen, solar charger, and speakers. This makes for limitless outreach in the bush.
Most recently, Momentum In Missions added the project to buy land and build churches. This established from the requests of several villages for churches to be built for them.
A request that was the result of those villagers being able to hear the gospel and preachings from pastors through the radio broadcast.
The current need is for four churches. One of the villages had a half built building donated to the mission and thus only needs another $4,300 to finish the building to make it into a church for the villagers.
Due to the many medical missions trips that Fisher takes, she is able to grow connections with missionaries that Momentum is able to support.
It has always been an important factor to Rosemary that she personally knows each of the pastors that Momentum supports. On a typical medical outreach with Missions Partners for Christ, the team will serve alongside anywhere from 30 to 60 pastors and missionaries who would be local to the villages that are being offered medical aide.
“After the medical teams leave, it becomes the work of the pastors and missionaries to provide the follow up, evangelism, and church planting.” This is where donations and funding to those pastors and missionaries become key to the spread of the gospel.
Through a lot of prayer Rosemary and her husband, Vern, felt that Momentum In Missions needed a sustainable income source. That’s when the idea for a traveling coffee trailer first sparked.
Rosemary knew she wanted to be able to provide consistent donations to the missions while still being able to keep her Nurse Practitioner job and be able to freely travel back to Africa for her medical missions trips.
When the door opened for her and Vern to be able to purchase a custom trailer with everything they would need, they took the opportunity. The trailer company, based out of Nashville, had a six month wait for custom trailers.
So, after touring the company last July and purchasing their custom trailer the following month, they were able to pick up their trailer this past February. However, since they ordered the trailer they have been preparing for its arrival and for their new business.
Rosemary and Vern together have attended coffee trainings in Orlando, Fl, as well as a barista training from a local coffee shop who will be their roaster.
They wanted to ensure they knew what they were doing in running a coffee business and not just wing it and make coffee drinks with no professional experience.
Outreach Coffee Co., Rosemary and Vern Fisher’s new business, was created to fill the gap for funds needed for Momentum in Missions; in order for them to be able to further fulfill the needs of pastors and missionaries globally, in whom they support.
“The main reason we’re doing this is to give money to global missions. It’s way more than just coffee. Coffee is just the means to get people there.”
A percentage of their profits will go directly to Momentum In Missions. Their staff consists of themselves and three other employees, all of whom have personal relationships with Christ and connections with MIM. Outreach Coffee Co.’s opening weekend for this year was April 12th and 13th.
Of which was “jam packed with such an amazing turn out”. Some people even returned twice in the same day, giving Rosemary a true sense that God is in all of this. They plan to have the coffee trailer open yearly from April to mid-November.
Days and hours of operation as well as locations they will be set up at, will be posted every Sunday night on their social media pages (Facebook and Instagram). For now, they will be set up and open every Friday and Saturday across the street from Archbold High School. Once June comes they plan to add more days and times to be open as well as being able to have the coffee trailer reserved for private or corporate events.
In total, Rosemary has gone on six different trips to Africa, serving in eight different countries. With her group, Mission Partners for Christ, she has helped serve over 1,784 patients, 500 of whom she knows have accepted Christ into their lives.
Each time she travels back she meets more people and the need for means to outreach continues to grow. Rosemary shares that they “rely heavily on donations from people who also have a heart to share the gospel and equip pastors and missionaries in practice ways.
Through generous donors, Momentum in Missions has been able to provide steady monthly ministry support to pastors in three countries” in addition to the other projects mentioned above.
Rosemary Fisher has chosen to dedicate her life to the mission of sharing the gospel of Christ. Although she may not be a pastor or an evangelist, she is making an impact on the lives of those on the missions fields by her relentless love for people and the desire to change lives and obey what God has spoken to her.
Her longing to live out Acts 20:24 is prominent in the way she lives her life. “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:24 NLT).
For further information about reserving the trailer contact Outreach Coffee Trailer Co. at 419-572-4418. For further information regarding Momentum In Missions or to donate to the mission, please go to www.momentuminmissions.org .
