FISHER’S NEWS
FRESH NEWS ON BUSINESS AS MISSION AND THE UNREACHED
March, 2022
38 Students and 18 Nations
Dear Friends in Christ,
Thirty-eight (38) is the number of students right now that will have gone through the School of Business and Entrepreneurship (SOBE) in the first twelve months of the new online for- mat. Eighteen (18) is the number of nationalities that those students repre- sent. This is almost twice the number of students of our largest school the previous years when we were running the SOBE in classroom once a year. I’m so thankful to God for entrusting our BAM Team with this vision and planting this idea into our minds in May 2020.
The school that we have now running has three students, after having seven- teen in the Fall. This is actually the first SOBE that I’m not staffing and the first one that my co-worker Josh is leading. He has an Egyptian working in Northern Iraq with the Kurdish people. He has an American that moved to Morocco in the middle of the school. And finally, he has an In- dian that is connected to YWAM in Mumbai (India). They will present their final business plan on Saturday, April 2nd.
We will begin the last of the schools
of that first year on April 1st. I’ll be leading this next school. The school will be run in two formats. We have six students that will be online. They are in Nepal, UK, Haiti, USA, India and Zimbabwe. We then have ten students that will participate in a co- hort we will run on our campus. In the cohort the students gather daily in a classroom and go through the online curriculum together with staff (mainly myself) facilitating the discussion. These ten students include USA, Canada, Singapore, Brazil and Switzerland.
So, right now we have sixteen students from ten nations in the April school. There are a couple more potential students that I’m in conversation with, so that number could go up, which could increase that first year’s total past 38.
I’m still working through the process of identifying all the staff that will be working with the school, as well as the BAM coaches that will be paired up with each student. I haven’t been able, due to COVID, to host students for a SOBE on our campus since 2019, so I’m of course having to learn new processes that have been put in place over that time. Your prayer for me as I work through the countless details would be greatly appreciated. Most of the logistics of the school are on me. And it isn’t the only thing I’m doing. And then I’ll be in classroom for the better part of three months with the students. I LOVE being in the classroom, but there is always the tension of other responsibilities that I carry.
Upcoming travels
We are also looking ahead at some travel that will be coming up. There is a YWAM leadership conference for the western part of the country that we are encouraged to attend. That is in Chico California in early May. Which would mean missing a week of SOBE class facilitation. I had also hoped to make a scouting trip to Northern Iraq, but I can’t see how to fit it in with the size of the SOBE co- hort.
Then in June we are planning our annual visit to Finland. We will likely be leaving before the final two weeks of the SOBE, and I’ll be wrapping up the students’ final presentations from Finland with staff helping back in Colorado Springs. Our going to Fin- land will be timed with Amanda and her family making her first visit to Finland in over ten years. We would like to be there to help host them and acclimate them to Åsa’s parents’ property. It would be too much for her parents to host and it has been too long since Amanda was last there. She was literally a teenager! It of course will be her husband Michael’s first time there and the first time for Åsa family to meet her boys Micah and Levi. I will continue to work at least part time while there, as I wrap up the April SOBE and prepare for the one that will start in September.
In a couple weeks our daughter Danielle heads to Argentina as part of her role as Director of Communica- tions for the mission organization Every Home for Christ. That same week, Amanda’s husband Michael will be in Colorado Springs as part of a small team that will be teaching in our DTS. If will be fun to have Michael around for a few days, though strange that Amanda and the boys won’t be joining him.
Other News
Åsa has been asked to play a role in our campus Personnel department. There has been one very organized lady running it the last few years. Somehow while working on her Mas- ter’s degree! She is leaving and the ministry is trying to put together a team that will cover what that one person was doing. In principle, Åsa has agreed to be part of this small team. She isn’t wanting to be the leader though. Please be praying that she finds the best way to serve the community in this vital ministry role.
Our trip to Kona in February was everything we had hoped it would be. We really had a great time with our kids and their families. I, Mark, also was able to continue to move forward some networking relationships I had with other staff at YWAM Kona, as well as meet some others for the first time. I’m hopeful that those meetings will bear fruit in the future on behalf of God’s Kingdom.
One final point for prayer. Back in May we sold our Jeep Liberty that we had for 17 years. It has been passed from kid to kid at college for many years. I bought a new car and then passed my 2014 Ford Focus with 82,000 miles to our daughter Hanna a college. The motivation was to give her a dependable car as she is needing to do a lot of driving in her final year of college as she is a student teacher.
Unfortunately, the transmission con- trol module failed. This is a known issue on Fords of that year and the warrantee had been extended, so it would be repaired for free. The prob- lem is they can’t get the part due to supply chain failures. Here we are now in March, five months later and still no part. And that Ford dealer alone has eight cars waiting for that part. Hanna has borrowed a friend’s car, but now she has Åsa’s car and we are a one car household, which is a bit of a logistical nightmare. Please pray that the part comes in and the car get repaired.
Mark & Åsa Fisher
The Mission
To plant churches, businesses and YWAM ministries that apply God’s Word to every area of thought and life in a culturally appropriate way amongst Muslim peoples and the least reached peoples on the planet.
Contact Information
Mark & Åsa Fisher
5648 Preminger Dr.
Colorado Springs, CO 80911
Cell Åsa: 719-330-5342
Cell Mark: 719-659-1512
Mark-email: fisherm@ywamcos.org
Åsa-email: fishera@ywamcos.org
Support Information
YWAM Colorado Springs/Donor Service
505 Popes Bluff Trail
Colorado Springs, CO 80907
Note: Make the check out to YWAM and place the number “111” on the memo line of the check. Enclose a note saying “Donation is for the Fishers”. Or donate ONLINE.
