The Story of Fischers Village

As we visited with James and Andrea, whey took us to visit the community garbage dump.

God had shown Andrea the city dump and the people that were living here. One day they went there to see for themselves. 

It was a beautiful day with a blue sky. But they saw children, teens and people living and eating from the dump. They saw children fighting with the vultures for garbage that was brought in from the dump

 trucks. They thought, “How can this be?” They asked God, how can we even start here? When they first came, people were skeptical – asking, why are you here? Are you a politician? Are you just here to take pictures? They explained that they were just there to give and to pray. They made a circle and were praying when a man came up to them. He was alone, had no family, lived in the dump, and was an alcoholic. He came up to them crying. 

When they asked him why he was crying, he told them that the night before when he was trying to sleep, he said, “God, if you really exist, send someone tomorrow to help us.”

They started going to the dump every Saturday bringing donations. It was hard to work in those conditions. James said when they first went there; the sky was black with vultures. They knew

 they needed to go where the people lived, but they were very bad conditions, fighting, etc. James kept thinking, “This is impossible.” He said, time after time, he thought it was impossible. He described himself as this 

rock that needed to be broken.

They processed boxes of vegetables and fruits in their garage, and the Lord told them, only give in love.

 They started finding out the history of the city, and discovering generational curses and began to break the division. They started 

a Bible school, teaching children. The parents would ask, “What have you been teaching my children, they are different” The family situation was that there were many families without fathers (there were about 100 families there at that time). They were not doing basic care and cleanliness. But when God began to work in them, they began to care about themselves, and they wanted to change and learn and take care of themselves and their families. 

They took the teens to McDonalds – people thought there would

 be behavioral problems, but they had no problems. They actually had more problems with the church kids. When they first went there, the women were only wearing t-shirts and panties – but as God touched them, they began to take care of themselves. After two years, even the weather was different, the ecology was different and even the smell changed.

They told of one girl, who was 14 years old. In one month, she would turn 15. It was her dream to have a party for her birthday, so Andrea gave her a “Princess Day.” She took her to the salon, gave her a cake and balloons. Before, she had acted like a man – the way she stood, walked and even her voice. Now all that has changed, even her voice is different.

The people were moved out of the dump and now live in a small nearby community.

One woman with three boys, each from a different man, was homeless. The community came together and built her a house.

They started classed to help the mothers find jobs. They established an after school program. They paid a teacher there to do the program. The director of the school called to ask what was

 happening with the kids – they were now learning and growing. They changed the name of the village from Butcher Village to Fischer Village.

This is an amazing story of the transformation of not only individual lives, but an entire community. People who were living in abject poverty, digging through the garbage dump, now lead productive lives. They showed us the baskets and other crafts that they made by hand to sell. Although from Western standards it may seem poor, to these people, the difference is like night and day. God has done an amazing work here.

Teresopolis - Prayer is the beginning

God looks for hearts that are open to Him. Through such hearts and lives, He can do anything.


One such couple was James and Andrea. They are both very skilled medical doctors. In 2002 they came to Teresopolis. In his words, they were "normal" christians. But Andrea had a call of intercession on her life, and she began to feel the heart of God for her city. At one point, she was praying all night - while he was asleep - and God gave her a vision to establish a "net of prayer." He showed her a small fishing line, and God's hand was knitting a circle. Another hand came and they made a big net. (It is interesting how many people in different places have seen such similar visions) Well, they went to the churches and told them about the vision. Andrea set up a 4 pm meeting and set up all the chairs. James was watching their two children, and when he came by about 5pm, there was no one there. All the chairs were empty. When James mentioned that he thought it was a crazy idea, Andrea replied: "Don't you see the angels there in the chairs? One day the angels will leave and people will come." She continued to pray, birthing this network in her prayers. The Lord told her it was not for the churches, but for the city. "You need to go to the city." the Lord told her. People thought that such unity was impossible. Finally in 2003, they decided to hold four meetings in different churches.


At the first meeting 400 people showed up from 30 different denominations. They asked, "How did you hear about this?" "Who invited you?" They all replied, "The Holy Spirit invited us."


James took us to visit the Teresopolis "prayer tower" a narrow building that was several floors tall. They were also undergoing expansion because of the growth that God is giving them.


At the upper floors were small rooms, prayer rooms - with tables, and mat on the floor. This again, was one of those places where you could sense the Presence of God in the place. You knew that many hours of prayer had been spent in these rooms. I just wanted to sit and be in His presence there. Another lesson of the price of time and prayer it takes for His Presence.

Next week, I'll tell the story of how God used James and Andrea in the amazing transformation of a garbage dump community.

Prayer is where God begins to birth His dreams and destinies for our cities. Are we praying and listening and obeying?