Friends! This is the testimony of my good friend and pastor Joe Fischer. I pray that you will be greatly blessed in reading it and that you will see the goodness of our Lord Jesus.
In 1985 after my first year of college, my high school sweetheart told me we were going to have a child. I opted to remove myself from college and sought work to care for my family. Five years and three children later, we were headed for divorce. I was a sports fanatic and had little idea what it meant to be a husband and father. My then wife had had enough and found someone else to fill the gap. She filed for divorce and it was finalized in December of 1990. At the mill I was working at, I starting dating a woman who also was going through a divorce. Ironically, we were divorced on the same day. Eight months later we were pregnant and getting married. As I would find out later, she was a born-again Christian who had turned from the Lord because of the abusive marriage she was in. God would use me as the Assyrian in her life.
During this time I had developed a serious drinking problem. It was my way of hiding from the problems I had. My divorce was bitter and it was a fight to get to see my children. We went to court to fight for the child custody and eventually got custody of the children for every other two weeks. With my wife’s two children full time and my three and our one, we were up to six and number seven was on the way. My wives divorce was nasty too and added to the already stressful household. I turned to drinking more and more until I was drinking a liter every two weeks.
To add to that problem I was also a sex addict. When I was young I was exposed to pornography by older teens in the neighborhood. I was also a victim of two different men who tried to sexually exploit me. Through the combination of these two footholds, the perversions increased and became strongholds. I had given myself over to the evil one, and was inhabited by a demon. (On one occasion, I saw this demon in me as I looked into a mirror). Especially during bouts of drinking, fantasy and reality were skewed, until the point where my perversion had led me to breaking the law. I was sickened and suicidal. I committed to my wife that I would not drink again, but was unable to stop. During this time, she had talked me into going to a Lutheran Church in the area and I agreed. We had a Pastor come over, and we went through the classes so I could become a Lutheran. Perhaps the seed of Gods word was planted in my heart, but I just didn’t get it. Sometime later my wife asked me to go to a Pentecostal church on a Sunday night. I remember the thought, “she must be crazy, and I already put my 45 minutes in that morning”. She and others had been praying, and I agreed to go. That night I heard the gospel and understood it. I was a sinner in need of a Savior. I thought the Pastor was talking just to me. He made an altar call, and I went forward and received Christ. For the next three months I would go to the altar and again ask for forgiveness.
It wasn’t until I had heard the song “Amazing Grace” that I had heard so often as a Catholic growing up. This time I heard with spiritual ears, that is I understood that I was that wretch and I was truly found, I was blind, but now I could see.
I was baptized several weeks later, affirming outwardly what had happened on the inside. I had died with Christ, and now was born again, a new creature in Christ! There were sinful things that God took away immediately, like my cussing, but I was still struggling in sexual sin. For eight months, Gods Spirit would prompt me to come clean about the harm I had caused others. I resisted and God brought my sin out into the open. On occasion, I would drink, tempting the Lord. I thought I could handle it.
The Lord used my wife to make an appointment with our then Pastor. I reluctantly went along and confessed my sin. He brought me down to the police station and I confessed again. Eight months later, I went before a judge for sentencing. The prosecuting attorney was asking for a year of jail with Huber privileges, followed by a time of probation. My attorney and parole recommendations were alike - six-month jail sentence with Huber privileges followed by probation. The judge disregarded all advice and declared to me and the court that he would make an example of me. He gave me six years of state prison followed by 10 years probation.
I was escorted to prison and there remained for two and a half years. (I was released in September of 1997) God knew what I needed. A time away where he would purge me, strengthen me and teach me how to walk in victory. God showed me great favor, both with a discipler, a friend of kindred spirit, and plenty of men lost but searching for the way. The Lord blessed me with a job in the chapel, where I learned to facilitate small groups, then larger groups, and eventually would lead a group of fifty men in a gathering likened after Promise Keepers. My wife divorced me one and a half years into my time, and I was broken. Through it God gave me new fervency to serve Him, and an understanding to be content in whatever circumstances I was in. God would eventually restore what the locust had eaten. First my wife and children, and eventually a release from probation, even though I had nine of the ten years left. He has been so faithful!
From 1998 until 2007 I attended Calvary Chapel of Appleton with my wife and children. Starting in 1998, I taught and facilitated small home groups.
In 2004 I was part of a church plant in Auchwitz, Poland. In 2005, I took part in a school of ministry at Calvary Chapel, looking to be part of a church plant in the area. I also began teaching Sunday mornings at a local nursing home. In 2006, I taught and facilitated a "college group" in our home. In July of 2007 through 2010 I was part of a church plant in Freedom, Wi. In January 2010, my family and I left for Fond du lac to begin a church plant. Through many toils and snares we left Fond du lac and returned home in December of 2010.
In March of 2011, we started a bible study in our home. Eventually because of space issues we began to pray for another meeting location. The Lord lead us to the Menasha community center where we continue to meet as “Simply Jesus” church.
What a wonderful journey, what a faithful God we serve!
Pastor Joe Fischer920-843-2301 Call anytime
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