About Our Organization

There is a specific category of people in the world who are hurting because they are victimized by oppression and injustice.  There is also a clear biblical mandate for us to go and care for these people.

For the family held in slavery, for the girl who is kidnapped and forced into prostitution, for the widow kicked off her land, loving these neighbors means doing what it takes to bring them rescue.

Thank you for having the courage to look closely at the problems of injustice and ask, “Jesus, what do you want us to do about it?”

Purpose

Being the Hands and Feet of Jesus in Africa.

• We use short term mission trips as a way to create awareness, develop long term relationships, and provide practical support to existing ministries and projects in Africa.
• We raise funds for medical facilities and create strategic partnerships with medical personnel, teaching hospitals, and foundations in conjunction with short term medical mission trips to serve Africans needing medical care and treatment especially in underserved areas.
• Create strategic partnerships with churches and donors in the USA to support faculty endowments, student scholarships, and programs that encourage the integration of faith and learning.
• Create strategic partnerships with Christian colleges and universities in the USA for faculty exchange, program development, and student exchange programs.
• To develop and maintain strong links to the local, regional, and international communities though focused service and short term mission team projects.
• To equip Christ-centered leaders with relevant theological, business, management, leadership and IT skills that can be easily transferred on the job whether in ministry, government, or the marketplace.
• Promote “Jesus style leadership” helping believers shape and sharpen their talents and spiritual gifts for serving God
• Develop sustainable projects to serve as a bridge for the university in engaging community in a holistic way.

Board Members

Linner Chepngeno

Linner Chepngeno is the co-founder of Bethel Hospital in Kenya and Director of Clinical Services. She is a US trained Registered Nurse. She attended Nyeri Medical Training College, University of the District of Columbia, Durham Technical Community College and Wake Forest University. She has worked in Kenya as a Nurse in various hospitals and currently works in Raleigh area as a Registered Nurse. She is an active leader of Christian women groups in the community and a sought after speaker for women conferences. She has volunteered at Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee camps in Kenya.

Ed Fischer (Founder and Executive Director)

Ed currently serves as the owner of the North Fork Mountain Inn and the Executive Director for Visions of Hope for Africa. He spent 21 years in the telephony and technology sectors working for GTE, VERIZON, and QWEST Communications.  He has served in the non-profit sector for 7 years with Christian Leaders for Africa and has been leading short term mission teams to Africa for over 12 years. Ed serves his local church, Maysville Bible Brethren as leader of the missionary care team.

Academically Ed holds a BS in Finance and Business Administration from the University of Illinois. Ed continues to travel extensively throughout the world as an educational and hospitality consultant.  He has been involved academically and administratively with schools in Kenya, Liberia, and the United States.

Married to the love of his life, Carol, for 18 years and counting, they have two adult children: Danielle and Joel.  Two hobbies consume his leftover energy: food and wine appreciation and travel.

Jeffrey Fischer

Jeffrey is a Professional Engineer and a minister for the Apostolic Christian Church. As an engineer, he has served as an engineering educator for a large engineering and construction company in the power generation and delivery markets. In this role he initiated learning programs that supported leadership organizational development strategies. He also has taught at Pittsburg State and University of South Florida, where he received his Bachelors and Master degrees in Civil Engineering. Jeff enjoys developing and building projects, but states that this experience pales in comparison to developing and building people. He enjoys serving his church, his family and his community.

Caleb Hochstetler

Currently working at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, VA as the Web Content Manager and Strategist. He is a graduate of Goshen College with degrees in Informatics and Biology and will be graduating this summer from EMU from the MBA program with a focus in non-profit leadership. Additionally, this summer Caleb and his wife, Hannah, will be relocating to Jackson, MS to work be Mennonite Mission Network as unit leaders for their Service Adventure program leading participants who are recent high school graduates.

C.S. Caleb Kim

Caleb Kim is associate professor at Africa International University (AIU), Kenya, and currently serves as Director of Institute for the Study of African Realities (ISAR) at the university. He holds a PhD degree in Intercultural Studies.

His missionary services in East Africa began after he was ordained as a minister by the Presbyterian Church in Korea (PCK) in 1989. He joined Africa Inland Church (AIC), Kenya, in 1989 and served as a church planter in Isiolo, northern Kenya, from 1990 to 1993. He did his anthropological field research among Swahili Muslims on the eastern coast of Tanzania and on Zanzibar Island from 1996 to 1998. He is specialized in Islamic studies with focus on African-Muslim cultures. He has been teaching at Africa International University since 2002. (He has also taught cultural anthropology for Korean students at Fuller Theological Seminary as an adjunct professor since 2002.)

Paul Kohls

Currently serves as the Deputy Vice Chancellor-Planning and Development at Pan Africa Christian University. He has spent a total of 18 years at the university: from 1979 to 1989 and then more recently from 2008 to the present. This latter period is known as his “second coming.” He also served 14 years as the Department chair for Cross-Cultural Studies at Master’s College and Seminary in Toronto, Ontario and 2 years as Academic Dean of Pentecostal Theological College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Academically Paul Holds a BA in Biology, and Religion and Culture (Archaeology) from Wilfred Laurier University, an MTS in Old Testament from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a MA in Education from Wheaton College, and a PhD in Educational Studies from Trinity International University, as well as, a Master Certificate in Organizational Leadership from Villanova University.

Rev. Kirwa Maritim

He is the co-founder and executive director of Bethel Hospital in Nandi County, Kenya. He is a native of Kenya but has studied, worked and lived in the US for 20 years. He is a trained healthcare chaplain from Duke University medical Center and has graduate degrees from Liberty University, Hope International University and an undergraduate degree from Scott Christian University. He has worked as a pastor, church planting missionary and chaplain. He currently raises funds and is supervising the Weaver Family Clinic building construction. He recruits and hosts various volunteer teams from USA to provide free services to low resourced population in Nandi County.

Helen Markwell

God is wonderful. His plans for each of us are so mysterious and complicated. As I look back on my early adult years and scan them quickly towards today, I see plainly that everything God put in my past was there for a purpose so that I could use them, both the good and the bad, for his service today. This is really what I’m about – using the last full years of my life in service for my Savior.

I grew up in Ohio with a church going family, who felt it was important to attend church and Sunday school every Sunday. I publically confirmed my baptism in 8th grade. God let me have leadership experiences leading our youth group in high school and teaching bible school in the summers. He also let me work outdoors, which I love. My summers were filled teaching swimming and lifeguarding and working with young campfire girls at a camp for three years. I worked during high school and college as a swimming teacher for the YMCA during the winters. I attended the small, southern Baptist College for two years and then transferred home to attend a community college and major in Elementary Education and Primary Curriculum. In the interim, I fell in love with my husband of forty-nine years. We were married our senior year in college and came to Pendleton County to teach.

My husband started a rock climbing business in 1970 at Seneca Rocks. I happily continued to teach for 39 years. God definitely gave me the skills to teach. I’m still doing that every year when I go over to Living Hope High School in Kenya with the mission team. I’ve come full circle and continue to teach bible school every year. It seems I’m destined to always be teaching something.

I’ve been blessed with a good, honest, loving husband and two children who have each married Christian partners. God’s given me home, family, and health. Could I be blessed more? I say “Not hardly.”

Gathoni F. Mungi

Gathoni Mungai is a consultant in International Economic Development specializing in Finance, program implementation and SME development. Graduating with an MPA degree from Harvard University, Ms. Mungai has spent more than 25 years in international development working for the World Bank, USAID and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) programs in various countries in Africa and Eastern Europe. In Moldova she was a member of the initial World Bank team that was charged with capacity development for the country’s institutions in agricultural development while supporting the international trade. In Bosnia she and her team implemented the post war rehabilitation in the Railways sector under the EBRD rehabilitation program. She oversaw the implementation of Governance programs in Liberia, supporting and strengthening Government and NGO institutions in post war Liberian. Reviewing various production sectors in Afghanistan and identifying the gaps in the value chain in six production sectors, Ms. Mungai and her team were able to support SMEs from production to market, where the Afghan goods were exported to various countries. She was particularly involved in the promotion of the indeginous Afghan carpets and gemstones. In Africa Ms. Mungai has worked on infrastructure, agriculture, capacity building programs, and most recent on leadership and capacity building in the Agricultral and educational sectors for countries in East, West and Southern African countries.

A year ago, She moved to Kenya after more than 30 years in the United States and is looking to build economic and social development initiatives in the country.

Faith Wamburu Ngunjiri

The director of the Lorentzsen Center for Faith and Work and Associate Professor of Ethics and Leadership at Concordia College (ELCA) in Minnesota. Faith has a bachelor’s degree in education, a masters in mission studies, another masters in organization development and a doctorate in leadership studies. She is passionate about women and leadership, and how leaders integrate their faith into their leadership practice. Her first book was Women’s Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders, where she told stories of Kenyan women leading at the grassroots, the national level, the pan African level and globally, and the role of their faith in their leadership for social justice.

Wayne Ross

Wayne has over 17 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and over 20 years of real estate experience. He combines his CPA background in accounting and tax with strong analytic skills and experience in structuring a variety of oil and gas and real estate transactions. Wayne has worked for a variety of clients including owners, purchasers, as well as attorneys, accountants and brokers in negotiating and closing various financing transactions.

Paul Weaver

President and CEO of Weaver Leather LLC in Mt. Hope, Ohio and has been at the helm of the company for over 34 years and is committed to the value of leadership and the importance of developing tomorrow’s leaders. Throughout his career, this commitment has been at the forefront of his passion for developing people of character and inspiring positive change. Paul strongly believes that everything rises and falls on leadership. With this mantra close at hand, he is currently developing a program for businesses, families, church groups and more that instills character and cultivates leadership skills through 48 principles. This unique program, called Lodestar Guidance, has been implemented at Weaver Leather and proven an invaluable tool as they invest in the success of their employees and leadership team. In both his work and personal life, Paul Weaver has chosen to honor God, live with integrity and give generously. He is passionate about organizations that help people and has served on numerous church, civic, community and non-profit boards. He is honored to lend his knowledge and years of leadership experience to developing a hospital in Kenya. A resident of Millersburg, Ohio, Paul and his wife Gladys are active members of the community and NewPointe Community Church. They have been married for 43 years and have a son, daughter and four grandsons.

David Waweru

Has a degree in theology from Eldoret Bible College/West Virginia University and a diploma in sales and marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing- CIM. Currently serving as a Leader with Bible Study Fellowship International. Former Chairman of Homeless Children International, currently known as Teule Kenya. He also serves as a Shephard Leader at Nairobi Chapel.

Joshpat Yego

Founder of Developmentia and retired Professor of Education at Eastern University. He has served as dean of studies at Kenyatta University and served on the governing council of NEGST when it began 30 years ago.

Advisory Board Members

Gloria Fischer

Gloria is a Board Certified Family Physician graduating from the University of Florida and completing her residency in West Suburban, near Chicago. She practiced primary care as a solo practitioner for her first 4 years and co-founded a group practice serving another 10 years in Bradenton, FL. She spent 7 years at home educating her and Jeffrey’s 4 children. Gloria currently serves the Veterans as a physician in a community based outpatient clinic in western Missouri.

Steven Meier

Financial Planner and Investment Advisor, Indianapolis, IN, formerly served with MAP International, and has led many short term mission teams around the world. Received his theological degree from Wheaton.

Joe Williamson

Financial Planner with Wells Fargo and founder of TSOAR Ministries.