Partnership Team Building

Hello friends and family,

With more than half of the summer over, it feels strange knowing that I won't be returning to school in September.
This summer has been spent working part-time as a home health care provider and completing the application process to become an official staff-member with VVMI which I'm happy to announce has been completed.
This next year or so will be considered a 'training' phase that will require me to travel and become acquainted with our partnership organizations overseas while we work on developing a training program here in the US.
This means that I have started with building my partnership team that will be support me in finances and prayer.

A highlight of this summer was a visit paid by my supervisor during which we were able to finalize paperwork and the job description in person. Since he had his display along we were able to have my first display table set-up at my church and hand out prayer cards and pr-dvd's. This was very exciting but I was also a little nervous even though it was my own church! My supervisor's visit proved to be fruitful as he was able to be an encouragement to two of my closest friends here in GR who are an integral part of my support team.

I would appreciate your prayers as this is arguably the most difficult phase of becoming a missionary and I would appreciate your prayers.
A very specific prayer request that I have is one for a vehicle. Thus far I have been using my roommate's car to get around, but as I will need to do quite a bit more traveling for partnership building I will need a vehicle of my own. Please pray that God will provide with either the finances to purchase one or that one might be donated to VVMI.
Thanks for praying!
Zach

Baccalaureate whaaaat?!!!

Hello dear friends,

It's been almost two months since my last post, and for good reason, I've been busy getting graduated and adjusting to the 'real world'. So what's been happening lately?
The major prayer points for my life at this point are in the little prayer box to the right, but first of all you can praise God that He has provided me with an awesome place to live this summer. I moved in with a friend that I have grown very close to this past year. Our friendship is mainly based on prayer and though we aren't perfect at it, we experience the presence of God together as we pray, often while driving we will pray aloud for long periods of time. Praise God for times of fellowship such as these and His provision.
Not only has He provided me with a place to live but my friend has taken the time to teach me stick-shift and let me use his car! I have been learning more about cars in these past two weeks than I ever did as we have worked on upgrading his car with the (free!) help of a man from our church who just 'happens' to specialize in the exact type and model car my friend drives.

Another praise-worthy mention is that I was asked to speak and share a part of my testimony at the Senior Worship Commencement Service held in the Chapel (see the picture below). Praise God for the impact it had on the parents, students, and according to the VP of Student Life, the Board of Trustees as well. Pray that God would continue to use me to speak His Word in people's lives everyday.    

The past two weeks I have been in contact with the exec. director of VVMI discussing my hopeful employment and partnership-building for a trip to the Philippines in the Fall and longer-term, providing the Lord leads us in that direction.
Please pray as I will be seeking to build partnerships with churches here in GR and with whomever God 'zaps' to become involved in our ministry!
Meanwhile, I am job-searching for summer employment and continuing to be involved with my local church family here in G-Rap.

Lately I have been reading the book 'Radical' by David Platt and am challenged about how comfortable we have grown in our churches and that we have become less dependent on the power of God and more on programs and 'entertainment' to attract people. I recommend this book to every believer who is seeking a genuine and radical commitment to Christ!
I have also been challenged to think about the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations and how it applies to every single Christian, not just a select few. We are ALL called to be disciple-makers, yet we often feel inadequate or weak in our faith and limited in our knowledge to lead others. But that's exactly why we must! Because when we disciple others it forces us to take initiative in our relationship with God and others and seek to serve and grow instead of being content with our stagnant spiritual life.
So pray for discipleship opportunities. Remember, even Jesus picked merely twelve men to pour into for three years and look how the Kingdom has spread!  

Well, that's all for now.
Praise God and Pray without ceasing!

Zach Fisk

The Cost of the Call

"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Give it all up.
Those four simple words still ring in my ears 8 years after first hearing them spoken by the Holy Spirit at a youth group meeting. We were asked to get on our knees and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to us, and I still remember doubting that God would choose to speak to me, surely there were so many other more righteous and spiritual people to speak to. I didn't doubt God could speak to people, I just doubted that He would speak to me.
And as these thoughts flitted through my mind's eye like a movie played at triple speed, suddenly those four simple words cut straight through and penetrated my soul. I was stunned. Had God really spoken? And if He did, what did He mean?
A cryptic message, one that I'm still learning to crack in my everyday life. But 8 years on, I'm seeing all the ways in which Christ has been beckoning me, and continues to do so every day.
Our journey with Christ is a step by step process, a continuous call to strip away everything that hinders. The initial call is bold, and our first response is often bold, like Peter who at the Last Supper declared he would rather die with Christ than betray Him.
But as we all know, Peter did end up betraying Christ. And like Peter, there are many times in our spiritual journey when we betray Christ, refusing to let go of our own life, our own safety and comfort, our own desires and dreams.
But Christ does not abandon us.
Boldly, once more, He called to Peter from the shore. This time, at the sound of His Master's voice, Peter jumped in the water, not waiting to row back. There, by the fire, Christ restored Peter to Himself.
Three times He asked him if he loved Him, until finally Peter was hurt by Christ's question.
Do you love Me?
Christ asks us all, again. And again. And again.
Our declaration of love must never cease. Each day anew Christ asks us, 'Do you love Me?'

Do I truly love you Lord? Am I truly willing to give it all up?
As I'm preparing for entering a life of missions, providing that's where God is leading me, I feel this question impressed upon my heart.
Lately I have been convicted of my love of self and my preoccupation with image. I have noticed that there is a certain image I am trying to portray of myself, a group of people that I want to be identified with. I want to be seen as a 'world-conscious' person. I take pride in my international experience, and the fact that I want to help people across the world. There is a certain appeal to missions that involves adventure, living in the rough, associating with the lowly, making a difference, helping the poor, living super-spiritually, etc.
To be sure, these are all good things and it's a good thing people are still being drawn to missions, but I question whether we are truly responding because we are being called by Christ or if it's the appeal of an adventurous life style.
 'Do you love Me?'

One of the most stirring letters in all of the New Testament is, in my opinion, 2nd Corinthians.
In it, Paul pours his heart out to one of his churches, the fruit of his devotion and response to God's call in his life. If you read it in its entirety you are suddenly hit by the emotional weight that the letter carries. Paul's letter is a desperate plea to be loved by those for whom he poured out his life. Yet, despite all he did for them, they did not reciprocate.
To a missionary, this is the ultimate blow. Christ calls, Paul responds and faithfully risks his life and plants a church, and then...they turn their back on him.


In a stirringly poetic portion of the letter, Paul gets carried away as he recounts the countless sacrifices he's made for them:
"We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. ⁴ Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; ⁵ in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; ⁶ in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; ⁷ in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; ⁸ through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; ⁹ known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything."
To those who are feeling led to missions, have we counted the cost? Have we answered the question 'Do you love Me?' with complete honesty?  
Where are you at?
Are you standing at the shore for the first time hearing Christ's call?
Or is Christ, after so many years and so many betrayals, once more standing at your shore, boldly calling like He did at first? 

Wherever you are, "I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." - 2 Cor. 6:2


Grace and peace,
Zach

Springbreak Update

Mbote - ('Hello' in Lingala)

Lately there have been a lot of exciting things happening, and I will try to summarize some of what God has been doing.
Two weeks ago I spent my Springbreak with Colin Edwards, Executive Director of VVMI (Vernacular Video Mission International) as a sort of 'extended interview'. I appreciate all your prayers for this week, it went very well. You'll be happy to know I passed the 'dog-and-kid test' in that their dog liked me and so did their two-and-a-half year old grandson. Apparently this is an important part of the interview. Nothing is written in stone yet, but it appears that God has been working behind the scenes and moving other people to be a part of this exciting new process as well.
We discussed the idea of developing video production workshops in conjunction with local churches as a way of mobilizing and empowering the Church here in the US. The workshops would be an excellent way to reach out to the community and develop significant relationships as well as provide the Church overseas with more trainers in video production. Lord willing, I will help put together a 'prototype' program this summer with a church in Watseka, Illinois in June.
This is an exciting new step for VVMI and an answer to the prayers of those here in the US as well as many overseas who have been requesting more trainers in video production.
If this is where the LORD is leading us, then we are confident that He will provide the people with the necessary skills and resources to 'do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do'.
So, please continue to pray for the opportunities that these video workshops would provide and for the 'prototype' training program that I will help put together and lead, providing God wills it.

Thanks for praying and partnering in the Gospel.
Grace and peace,
Zach

"And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebr. 12: 1b-3