The drive to the village normally takes about 2-3 hours depending on the road. Then you have to hike in 2-4 hours depending on the trail. We were so excited when we came to the last village before you have to start hiking and noticed the bull dozer had come in and made a road. We were able to drive until we met about 20 of the villagers caring this lady in a homemade gurney. I did a quick assessment to find a full-term mom at the very last stage of labor. I will not go into great detail, but let’s just say if she had been in the hospital the baby would have been born within 15-20 minutes, if not sooner.

I knew that I had the knowledge to deliver the baby, but prayed God would allow us to get her to the hospital since delivering in the jungle or the back of a truck would not be ideal; especially since I don’t have all the right equipment. The whole ride her face bore so much pain. Several times we stopped, when she said she couldn’t take it anymore. I thought for sure I would end up doing the delivery. I was so amazed at her strength and ability to hold on. I don’t think I could have ever had that control. She never screamed, she never cried, her eyes where the only thing that told her pain.

We finally made it to the hospital and she delivered the baby as soon as they got her back to the delivery room. She had a beautiful baby girl, 6 lbs. 1 ounce. They are both healthy and doing great! The sweetest part was they named her after me and thanked me over and over for all I did for them. They made sure to have me write my name down so that they spelled it right. I was so honored!

The whole time I was thinking to myself what an honor it is to live my life. How blessed are we that we would be able to make such a difference in someone’s life. That privilege comes from first the Lord, but then from you! We could not have done all we did to help this lady if it were not for those of you that have surrounded yourself around us. Whether through prayer, or words of encouragement, or donating a vehicle or donating the funds so that we could purchase the gas, or food for the family, or diapers for the baby. We never once had to stop and say that we couldn’t help because we didn’t have a way to help. That is AMAZING! THANK YOU! Thank you for being so willing to let us be here to help when God brings a need! We pray God will show you the difference that you make, that He will show you that even though we may be the physical hands here, that we couldn’t have done it without your obedience as well.

Thank you!

Jervis and Melissa Fisher

That would take one intern to be here for over a year to do all the work they did! That is so awesome! We are so grateful for them and for all the teams that come and serve here with us.

The nation’s elections were on the 7th of March. They were not supposed to be until next year, but they called an early election. This has put our application process on hold because the people that we have been working with for four years were voted out. We have tried contacting the new representatives, but have been informed they are not ready to work on our application yet.

If you would have pulled up to LOL last week you might have thought we were already open. On Saturday I went to town and found 5 children we know with their intoxicated parents. I saw the two boys running in the street only to look across the street and see their Dad barely able to stand up. My heart was so grieved for these kids, so I took them home and told the parents to come when they were sober. We had 12 kids under the age of 12. Nothing like getting some trial runs before we open.

Thank you for continuing to pray with us and encourage us! We know we will see this place open and full with children. Until then we will continue to pour into the kids we do have.

Have a happy Easter!
Jervis and Melissa Fisher

Well about two hours from the house we stop to make a turn and the van just shuts off. Then smoke starts coming out of the hood. Hmmmm… so here we are two girls that don’t know anything about vehicles. So we pop the hood, stand in the rain and wait. After about 45 minutes we got it towed to a mechanic who then tells us that it will take 5-6 weeks to fix (something about a whole in the radiator and gaskets and taking the engine out). At this point I am thinking, I need to get to Belize City and pick up a team, I need to get groceries to feed that team, and I need that van for the team of 58 that is coming in 6 days. Ok, plan B. I call Jervis he brings the minivan and the truck and we plan on meeting in Belmopan. This is about an hour from where I am stuck. We figured it would be best for us to get to Belmopan and start shopping since today (Wednesday) is Belize’s Election Day and all the stores are closed.

So we stand on the side of the road to catch a bus, it of course starts pouring down rain on us. After about 30-45 minutes we see a bus come. We are so thankful because at this point our clothes are dripping wet and the umbrella we were using had a leak right in the middle. We get on the bus only to find out there is standing room only. Here we are standing in the bus, and then two ladies start playing music on their phone and singing really loud. Not bad if every other word was not the F word. Finally some seats open up and we sit down. We arrive in Belmopan and I now have a migraine. We get off the bus and start walking. Two stores and two gas stations later, and I still can’t find any pain meds. They tell me Tylenol and Advil quit making medicine! Somehow I find that hard to believe. After about 20 minutes of walking I find some medicine and then Jervis pulls up. At this point I am thinking why did I get on that bus? He had a three hour drive from when I called him and we arrived 20 minutes from each other. I guess I should have just waited for him.

Well, we got all the shopping done and I sent him back home with the food. Now the trick will be to fit 6 people with suitcases in the minivan and figure out how to replace a 12 passenger van in 5 days.

Life is fun!

Melissa

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