Chaplain Henri Fischer
c/o The Rock Church
16891 146th St SE, Suite 145
Monroe, WA 98272

In my second Christmas season away from MCC, I want to wish you a blessed holiday season and happy New Year. I also want to share some reflections on my journey since I was turfed out from DOC in October 2021. Strange to realize it has been almost 18 months since I was relieved from “religious coordinator (RC)” duties due to a series of investigations that led to my dismissal. So how should a man of God view such events?

Disappointments are His Appointments. As one who believes in God’s sovereignty over all events, I must conclude that this painful outcome was ordained by God. I don’t believe this reflected the moral will of God – what is good and ought to be – but the sovereign will of God, that which was foreknown and so ordained to be. Long ago I learned the distinction; but ultimately, the sovereign will of God fulfills the highest moral will of God, that which will prevail in Heaven eternally. For God is telling a story through the world that will never again be replicated in eternity, a story of divine justice – how God responds to evil, adversity, falsehood and injustice throughout a diverse world profoundly beset with thousands of different social settings and now eight billion people who all have a different life story. Every one of our lives is just a tiny subset of that great story, but each one is therefore significant.

I came to MCC in March 2009 and left over 12 years later. It was the longest career job of my life and certainly the most interesting in terms of the people I met, the activities which I oversaw and the challenges I faced. Being fired was only the second most painful event – the murder of Jayme Biendl in WSR Chapel in the cold, wet winter of 2011 and its aftermath surpassed that. It marked me and changed the culture of DOC. You are an inside witness to that. And this tragedy, too, was a divine appointment, because suffering is a gift that brings wisdom and blessings that come no other way. Even Christ learned obedience from suffering.

God Causes Good to Come out of Evil. There’s a promise in Romans 8:28 that “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” In Jayme’s case, God prepared her heart with faith beforehand for martyrdom; and now she lives in heaven. In my case, I haven’t missed working at MCC at all, other than the paycheck and the good people – staff and inmates – who wished me goodwill. They live in my memories, and I hope one day to see you free on the outside (and inside, too) and later, in Heaven forever.

In retrospect, it took me over a year to get over being away from MCC. But I have been able to do things I hadn’t before. My wife and I are reading through the Old Testament together. We are presently up to where Ezekiel presents a vision of a restored, Messianic Kingdom in Israel (chs. 40-48) and finished four of the minor prophets, including the Messianic promise in Amos 9 of restoring “the fallen booth of David” that is cited by James the Elder in Acts 15. Both men prophesied doom on their respective kingdoms, Judah and Israel, but ended their messages with promises of hope. I hope you interpret your life in the same way – regardless of what happened before, God’s will for your future is good, reaching into eternity!

We Can Interpret Our Lives Redemptively. The greatest saints were all subject to the fires of affliction, loss and often martyrdom: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel in the lion’s den, John the Baptist, Jesus, all the faithful apostles, plus Paul, Stephen, and so many others. So no matter what we endure, we can view our sufferings as Paul did, “filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” If Christ lives in us, then our sufferings are His, just as our triumphs are His.

Joy Comes in the Morning. This phrase from Psalm 30:4 is the assurance that joy follows redemptive suffering, the pain we connect to Christ’s sufferings on our behalf. It is a sure promise, because it rests in the abiding presence of the God of Joy, who dwells in eternal happiness. God not only has compassion (‘suffer with’) for us, but rejoices in the eternal happiness He already sees us enjoying. For God lives in the eternal present, beyond time, where all eternity is continually before Him. Keep that in mind and your present sorrows will dim.

In my case, I’ve had more time to travel without worrying about religious events waiting to immerse me in job pressure. Every annual event at DOC built up stress beforehand and was a relief when finished, e.g. powwows and Easter events, or Christmas bags. No one writes grievances against me or sues me anymore; I’m a volunteer chaplain with Monroe PD, and they treat me with honor and warmth – a contrast to some at MCC. My wife and I were able to join my older brother, nephew, his wife, niece and nephew’s best friend doing 18 days together on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, and over 180 miles of hiking. We met kind people from different countries doing the same journey along the way, all experiencing the journey as a personal pilgrimage, which it has been for over a thousand years. That wouldn’t have happened if I was still working at MCC. Our total journey, including a stay with a niece in South Carolina, lasted five weeks. Precious memories filled with beauty!

Sadly, my only visit to MCC came last month on a police ride when MCC’s Motor Pool manager died of a sudden heart attack. I prayed for his soul. A few staff who were there greeted me; others didn’t. Nonetheless, I was wearing a Monroe Police Chaplain uniform, not just a blue badge as an RC. (Pray for me, I’m writing to state legislators hoping to restore the honored title “chaplain” that was changed to RC in 2019 to serve a petty “equality” agenda.)

Don’t Worry about Tomorrow. That phrase from Matthew 6:34 adorned my MSU emails. We can live without worry because God has all our tomorrows. “We don’t know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.” This life is just boot camp for eternity; thousands of near-death experience anecdotes affirm what the Bible makes clear: we will continue to live beyond this natural life, and the spiritual realm is much more real than this one. This life is in a relative fog of unknowing; but then we shall know as we’ve been fully known (1 Cor. 13:12). So, love one another, for “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10) – God’s intent for us.

If I don’t see you again on earth, I hope to greet at you at Heaven’s Gate,