God Bless,
Melissa Fisher

Thank you to each and everyone of you! For every minute you labored, for every dollor you donated, for every prayer you prayed, for every word of encouragement, we thank you! The children of Belize thank you! We are honored to have the friends that God has given us!

I pray you enjoy this timeline of the first LOL Children’s Home being built:)

LOL Ministry Dedication Slideshow Video

Dedication:
The ceremony was amazing! We had such a wonderful thanking God for His faithfulness. I heard a message today that faith is when God has to step in and do what you can’t. Well, the last three years have been nothing but faith. To build a building debt free was surely not us, but only God. We are still working on getting the video of the building up as well as footage from the dedication night. I ended up and sent it all the states because we couldn’t get it to upload from here.

Bringing in children:
With a building finished and furnished we are ready to open the doors. Only problem is the paperwork and the government is in no hurry to help us get that moving. The awesome thing is we know that God is in control and He is still giving us so many opportunities to help. We recently had a lady ask us to take in her two nephews ages 9 and 12. Their mother is very ill and cannot care for them anymore. The government won’t give us permission to have them until we are licensed but we can take them in during the day. We registered them for school and got some clothes out of our storage. They were so excited and the smiles on their face were priceless.

Scholarships:
This year LOL is sending 8 children to school, providing their uniforms and books and paying for them to have lunch every day. In addition to that we are purchasing books for 4 other children. Thank you all for your continued support to allow us to help the children of Belize.

Team opening:
We had a cancelation for a team in November, if anyone is interested in bringing a team at that time please let me know.

Praise:
-We continue to marvel at all that God has done in the last three years. What a wonderful God we serve!
-Being able to help George and Arim during the day, as well as send them to school
- Garrett, Alex, Madison and Darcy our staff/interns that have given this season in their lives to helping LOL.
-The finances God has provided.
-The churches, family and friends that have joined with us to make a difference here in Belize.

Prayer:
-The paperwork would be approved quickly and we would be able to officially open our doors.
-That we would have favor with the government
-The adoption for Marcus would be approved so he can be with his Mom and Dad.
-God would continue to give us the finances we need to operate.
-God would pour out His wisdom on us.

Well, that is the basic details. I am really going to try getting back to regular updates so that you know what is going on. Thank you for reading this and for caring about our family and LOL.

God Bless,
Melissa Fisher

This is such an amazing time in our life, it is breathtaking and I am speechless at all that God has done in a little over three years. I am so excited to celebrate God’s faithfulness! We have almost 50 people coming from the states for the Dedication and we are so blessed to be surrounded by so much love and support. Not just from those that are able to make it, but from everyone.

Please pray for us during this next week. There is so much going on and areas where the enemy is trying to come in and steal our joy. Our brand new commercial refrigerator stopped working after being plugged in for a week. I just received the invoice and it will cost us $2,000 to fix it. Not really what I want to hear right now. The technician also mentioned a couple of things that we are going to have to “fix” to be able to run the freezer and the ice maker which of course will cost us.

I can’t even begin to express in words what it feels like to see a dream that God has placed in your heart come to fruition! Let me just say, dream! Dare to dream for Jesus, dare to change the world, dare to be different!

I will be posting pictures and a video sometime around the 9th.
Sorry I have not had a chance to post them yet. We have been really busy with last minute touches!

Thank you!
Melissa

It started with a young family that we know from a remote village that we minister in. The mother delivered her son, Cesar, two weeks ago at the same time of having chicken pox. The baby then caught the chicken pox and we received a call they were at the hospital. I went to the hospital and my heart was so overwhelmed with grief for this family. The doctors allowed me to go in and see the baby and pray. After stabilizing the baby they transferred it to the hospital in Dangriga which is a couple hours away. We transported the family to the hospital and within minutes the baby passed away. Having lost my own son, I could feel the anguish of this mother. I wanted badly to take her pain away and to be able to comfort her. I could only speak to her through a translator which made it that much harder. The doctors would not be able to do the final investigation until today (Tuesday) so we drove them a couple hours to their village, where they then hiked in a couple more hours. We picked them back up today, did all the paper work, picked up the coffin and the baby and drove them back up to their village.

In the middle of all of that we had another family that we are very close to go through a tragic situation. The mother tried committing suicide by drinking poison. This family has 9 children and we have been so close to them over the last three years. Jervis stayed in the hospital all day Saturday, praying and singing over her. She was in a coma, her mouth, tongue, teeth and gums where black from the poison burning them. The doctors gave up on her and told us it is only a matter of time before she dies. We continued to stand in faith and believe that God could heal her. Today, she is talking, her mouth looks new, and there is no dead skin or burnt marks. We are continuing to pray there will be no side effects from the poison and that this family will come to know Jesus as the ONE and ONLY!

When I was at the hospital today I was asked to help another family from the same remote village as the one that lost their baby. It is actually the sister of the grieving mom. The sister had a baby three days before and this baby now has the chicken pox. She has been in the hospital for a couple of days and she is very tired, so we will be going on rotation and helping her through the night until they are released.

Meanwhile, we are still fighting against the dump. Our container with all the furnishings for the building will be here next week. We have a list of things that need to be done before we can unload it, so we are praying for God to multiply what our hands can do.

We pray that you are doing well and that you continue to see the Lord in new ways each day. We are so thankful for the opportunities that the Lord continues to give us to show His love.

Be blessed,
Jervis and Melissa

Building
- Finishing the paint, man does trimming in take FOREVER!
- Putting on the zinc roof on the third floor.
- Pouring the sidewalks in the next week or so.
- Cement countertops that started in Nov. are 98% finished. They look amazing, but time consuming!

Container
God is so AMAZING! We were at a point where we thought we would have to send a container half empty. Then we received all the finances we needed and went and purchased the remaining items on the registry and the container was too full! A group of amazing volunteers unloaded the whole thing, we prayed and we got everything to fit. The container will be shipped out on the 22nd of May and arriving here in Belize by the 30th. The next thing is praying that the government will help us on the duty of the container. I am confident it will be another story of God’s faithfulness!

Dump
We have had several meetings with the government here in Punta Gorda. Tomorrow (Friday) we will be going to the capital of Belmopan and meeting with some higher government officials at 10am. I know that God is going before us. Please pray with us for favor and that they would have a heart for the value of life.

Marcus
Marcus is already 6 months old! That is so hard to believe. He is rolling over and smiling all the time. He is a very happy baby! The adoption is still in the process and we continue to pray that the Lord will speed up the process to allow him to be with his new family.

New addition
God has given us another opportunity to minister to the hurting. We will be taking in another pregnant rape victim. Please pray with us that God would give us the wisdom and the words to help her to heal and become the woman of God that He has called her to be.

We love you and thank God for supporting us and being with us on this journey. Be blessed and may the Lord reveal how real He is to you!

Blessings,
Jervis and Melissa Fisher

We just returned home from a meeting with about ten government officials to argue our case against the proposed dump site. On the surface it looks like we haven’t made any progress, but I am praying that the Lord will penetrate their hearts. We never really understood the problems that came with a landfill until this situation arose. We feel for the people here that the government would be so willing to take away the quality of their life. The proposed site is not only ½ a mile from the LOL orphanage, it has about 1,000 men, women in children that live within a two mile radius.

Our next step is to take this matter to the capital and the media. Please continue to pray with us that eyes would be opened and hearts would be changed. We will keep you informed on our progress.

Best Regards,
Jervis and Melissa Fisher

It has been such a blessing to be home and to hug on the necks of those that I love. My Starbucks Social was so fun, my jaw hurt after all the talking and I smelled like fresh ground coffee. It’s amazing that I only drank one cup while sitting there for 8 ½ hours. I wish that I had a month to just catch up with everyone.

The Dedication Ceremony is quickly approaching and all the final steps are taking place. There is an amazing opportunity to partner with a wonderful school that has taken on the task of filling a 40′ container with all of the items needed to furnish the orphanage.

We have registered at several locations and items can be purchased at the store or online and shipped to the school where the container is by March 20th. Each registry is already set up to ship directly to the school. There is also a general list of items that can be purchased at any store.

The school has created a great video if you would like to view it you can go to
http://www.rcschool.org/ follow the home page to the bottom and click play.

Below you will find the details of the registries.

Thank you again for your love, support, prayers and encouragement! God is so faithful and we are in awe of His goodness! Thank you for loving the children of Belize!

In Him,
Melissa Fisher

All the registries are under Melissa Fisher, Berthoud, CO with an event date of 3/20/11.

There is also one registry that has items from Home Depot, Sams and a couple of other stores that don’t provide a registry. That registry is under Laugh Out Loud when you click on the organization/nonprofit tab. www.myregistry.com

If you would like to purchase your items from the store you may drop them off Monday-Friday 8:30-3:30 at the school office:
Resurrection Christian School
6508 E. Crossroads Boulevard, Loveland
(970) 612-0672

You may also drop the items off on March 20th from 6-9pm at the Open Our Eyes event held at Resurrection Fellowship. http://openoureyes.eventbrite.com/

Below is the list of general items that can be purchased:
Wall Clocks
Laundry Detergent
Diapers (newborn - size 6)
Kids hangers with clips (white)
Adult hangers (white)
Pillows
The first years - toddler boys & girls insulated sippy cups
Bumbo baby sitter seats any color
Baby shampoo and body wash
Pacifiers
Born Free baby bottles
Born free- stage 2 nipples
Born Free- stage 3 nipples
Kids and adult toothbrushes
Baby Lotion
Toothpaste
Body soap
Kitchen trash bags
Shampoo & Conditioner
Hand dishwashing liquid
Crib mattresses
Baby wipes
32 gallon Rubbermaid trash cans
Crib mattress pad covers

By now I am thinking God is trying to force me to use my midwifery skills and that I will end up delivering this baby. Not bad except I have no equipment, not even gloves! I have one vehicle left, which is our little black truck. I get in, it starts and I head back to their hut. As I pull up everyone is gone, I get out of the truck and a lady yells “help, help!” I then begin to feel the God forcing me thing is about to take place. I start running through the jungle to her hut saying, “thank you Jesus, oh Jesus, thank you Jesus.” I get to her hut, she is clearly in pain. I have no choice but to check and see what is going on. I won’t go into any more details, but let’s just say my training was put to the test. Thankfully I did not have to deliver her since she was only 30 weeks. WOW! That was an experience

We have been going full pace trying to finish the building. We have planned the Dedication Ceremony for July 9th of this year. The building is looking amazing and all the details are coming along. It is hard to believe that in a couple of months we will have more children running around. We are so blessed to be in such a position to make such a lasting impact in the lives of the children here in Belize. If you would like an invitation with the details of the Dedication Ceremony please e-mail nlira [AT] lolministry.com .

We are in need of some experienced laborers to help us finish up on the details. Ideally we would need someone to come for a month. If you or someone you know has the ability to come, we would be able to pay for the airfare, lodging and food. Please e-mail me for more information.

Tomorrow (February 17th), we will have a meeting with the government to get approval to open the orphanage. Please pray with us for favor and that God would open the hearts of the government officials.

We are also praying that God will bring the full time staff that is needed to help once the orphanage is open.

Thank you all for prayers and support! I will add new pictures soon.

In Him,
Melissa Fisher

WOW! Christmas is only a week away! I have added some new pictures to the website of the building, our Murder Mystery Christmas party for the interns and new pics of the kids.

If you sent me your address I also sent out a letter with our new family picture.

We pray that you have a great Christmas this year! That you will be safe and that joy will fill your heart.

Pictures : http://www.lolministry.com/photos/

Blessings,
Melissa Fisher