|
Fish Company’s Adventures in 2019
2018 was an adventure for Fish Co that included some changes. Julie has gone back to school; Hannah has stepped into a more active role on our Board; and we have formed new partnerships with some local and global ministries. One thing that hasn’t changed is our passion and commitment to help women and orphans around the world.
For the past 6 years, with your help, we have completed 10 orphanages in 7 countries, and funded 2 others. We have been able to provide support to orphanages and hope centers across the globe through the provision of wells, school supplies, toys, blankets, and clothing. We have supported widows in Costa Rica and Guatemala through the purchase of fairtrade products; children in many countries through the support of Operation Christmas Child; and local orphanages and foster care families through volunteer help, gifts and financial aid.
While the main focus of Fish Co. is orphaned children, for the past 12 months we have been feeling a pull towards the support of widows and young women in need as well.
There are more than 153 million orphans across the globe. Many of those children have lost both parents, but many of them are called single parent orphans. These are kids who may have lost their father, and whose mother has no way to raise or support them. So, in an effort to ensure any quality of life, or even life at all, their mothers are forced to give these kids up to orphanages, knowing they would be cared and provided for in ways she never could.
While we are committed to caring for orphans, we feel that if we can find ways to support women, and provide them options, we will be fulfilling James 1:27 and Luke 1:45. That being said, Fish Company is so excited to introduce to you our She did…. Initiative. She did is an initiative that provides support, encouragement and empowerment to young girls and women in an effort to help them live out God’s calling on their lives.
We are hitting the ground running in 2019 with a vision/mission trip to Haiti in February in hopes to move forward with our plans to build the first ever Fish Company sewing school. This school will provide education, opportunity, and empowerment to women and young girls by teaching them a valuable skill that can be used to support themselves and their children. On this trip we will be confirming construction location, education plans, and partnerships, as well as providing another local sewing ministry with much needed sewing supplies. We also will be visiting local orphanages in search of opportunities to serve. Please, please prayerfully consider supporting us in this effort by helping us fund our trip. You may donate now by clicking the donate now button on our website at www.fishcompany.org or the donate now button on facebook at our FishcoTampa page. You may also send donations directly to us at 10407 Lake Grove Drive., Odessa, Florida 33556. Please join us in fulfilling James 1:27 and help us be Jesus to the world.
Blessings, Cindy McFadden
Valentine’s Day Loaves and Fish
On this Valentine’s Day 2017 I am reminded of God’s infinite love for us and I am so amazed that He allows us to be a small part of His big plan. It was about 3 and 1/2 years ago that we sent our first delivery of Mkate dolls with Olivia Kamm, a missionary from Idlewild Church in Tampa, Florida, to the orphans of the Twanza Little School in Zambia. There are more than 1,000,000 orphans in this country that is roughly the size of Texas with approximately the same population. This gives Zambia one of the highest per capita orphan rates in the world. According to Zambian orphan facts, in 1 out of every 4 households, a child acts as the primary caregiver, due to the death or abandonment of the parents. There is so much need…..but God….. I am so thankful that we are a part of helping orphans in Africa and that we can look at those staggering orphan facts and say “but God”. God has a plan and that plan includes each of us. His word is clear as He calls on us to be a part of His big picture.
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
On this day of love, ask yourself how you can be a part of something bigger than you, a part of making a difference in this world? God has given each one of us fish to share. Your fish may be donating money to build a home for orphans in Africa, or helping to build a Hope Center in Guatemala, speaking as an advocate for children in need, or giving fabrics and craft supplies to a ministry, going on a mission trip or sharing God’s word through the purchase of Bibles for a church in China. The point is, we all have something to give, it may be money, talent, time or your prayers, but you definitely have something to give. What are you going to do with your fish? At Fish Company we like to say we just bring what we have to God and let Him do the miracle. Let Him feed 5,000 with your loaves and fish.
Making a Difference One Change at a Time.
| In 2016 hurricane Matthew slammed into the southwestern coast of Haiti bringing widespread damage. Matthew was a late season category 5 hurricane that seemed to pop up out of nowhere, but there were signs. We saw it. Across the ocean, Americans sitting in their air-conditioned living rooms, sipping their ice teas, watching their wide screened tv’s, had a ringside seat to the destruction this storm brought. Thanks to CNN, The Weather Channel, or any number of the hundreds of cable channels we flip through on any given night we saw it all. This storm left devastation everywhere; more than 350,000 in need of immediate aid, thousands homeless and hundreds dead. |
Change of View Change of Heart
As I walked down the jetway that connected our plane to Haiti I was filled with excitement. We were finally here. I was getting ready to step into my “what’s next”. The actual planning of this trip only took about 2 and 1/2 weeks, but in reality, it has been years in the making. I may not have known that God was taking me to this small island nation located in the middle of the Caribbean located somewhere between North and South America in February 2019, until February of 2019, but He knew. He has known all along that one day my next step would be planting seeds for change in the rich, fertile soil of the tropical island of Haiti.
Raise A Hallelujah
Raise a Hallelujah has become my new mantra, and is the theme for our upcoming mission trip to Haiti in 2020, not just because of the catchy tune, or the battle like tempo, but because the words ring so true in my ears. “I raise a hallelujah, in the presence of my enemies. I raise a hallelujah, louder than the unbelief. I raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melody. I raise a hallelujah, heaven comes to fight for me.” I truly believe that and I believe that our heavenly father inhabits our praises. I want to live with God inhabiting my praises. I want Him so close I can touch Him.
Hope For Haiti – A New Well
I recently was asked in an interview, what I could do with $1,000. My answer was “What can’t I do with $1,000?” This week thanks to your support, we are wiring $3,000 to a partner in Haiti who will give it to another non-profit there, Schools for Haiti, who will dig a well at an orphanage for disabled children that we have taken under our wing. Next week, another non-profit, One Ball, One Village, will stop by and put a complete water filtration system on that newly dug well. In 7 days the lives of 24 children, as well as the family who cares for them will forever be changed.