Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Parisher.
Hi Michael, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I grew up in rural North Carolina, always going to church, which is where I began to do local and international missions. It wasn’t until I graduated high school on what I thought would be my last short-term mission trip to Costa Rica for a while that I felt God’s call on my life to be a leader within the church. Every summer during undergraduate study (BS in Business Administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship). I would spend exploring missions more deeply. For three out of four summers, I was serving in Costa Rica. The summer after my junior year I worked with the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission in the Southeast Jurisdiction as an intern. I served locally in Alabama and Tennessee. Internationally, I served in Argentina and helped them set up a new mission in a healthy and mutually beneficial way. Before starting Seminary at Duke Divinity School, I spent a month exploring international missions in El Salvador, a month in Tanzania, and two months back in Costa Rica. In Tanzania, in particular, I was able to work alongside the ministries there and helped them move toward more sustainable models of missions. After my first semester in seminary, the COVID-19 Pandemic started, so my Kenya field education placement got moved to the Church World Service (CWS) in Durham. I began to see that all of my international experiences could also be lived out faithfully here in the United States within our own immigration system. Once I graduated, my wife (from Akron, Ohio) and I got married and moved up here to Cleveland, Ohio, and became commissioned clergy in the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. She was appointed as an associate pastor in Chagrin Falls, and I accepted a position as the Spiritual and Program Director at the Nehemiah Mission of Cleveland. I came to the Nehemiah Mission because, for years, Nehemiah has been working with international newcomers in a variety of ways. After about a year, the executive director before me resigned, and I stepped in as the new director. I have continued the work of moving the mission toward healthy and sustainable models of missions and ministry as well as serving our neighbors, both locally born and international newcomers.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think most church or religious leadership would never say it has always been a smooth road. I would say the most challenging part of my time at the Nehemiah Mission so far has been since I took over as the executive director. I was not able to hire another employee to cover my previous responsibilities. Therefore, my building and operations manager (Brian Wright), administrative assistant (Robyn Dimacchia), volunteers, and I have stepped in to fill varying roles as we continue to grow and serve our neighborhood. However, while challenges pop up my team and I have tackled each one and come out stronger because of it. God has always provided the right person or thing right when we needed it, and we know that God will continue to provide no matter the challenge.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Nehemiah Mission of Cleveland?
The Nehemiah Mission of Cleveland has been around for the last 20 years and has grown tremendously in vision and mission over those 20 years. Nehemiah used to be People’s Hope UMC but as their church was dying, they decided to convert their church into the Nehemiah Mission, with the main goal to serve their neighborhood. In the beginning, this primarily started as hosting summer mission teams to do home repair projects. From there, it grew to see more of its neighbors, and a community meal and many international newcomer youth programs started. As with many organizations, the pandemic caused the mission to continue to shift in its leadership and mission. We still offer a weekly community meal as well as spiritual formation for many of our locally-born neighbors. However, one of the things we are most excited about is our Transitional Housing Program for international newcomer families. For at least ten months out of the year, we are able to host a maximum of seven international newcomer families. Largely started out of the Afghan refugee crisis, many of our partners that work with these populations found themselves in desperate need of short-term housing while they worked alongside these families to get them their proper documentation and work visas and walk them through the citizenship pathway. We are not a traditional shelter and rely heavily on our relationships and partnerships with other non-profits and government agencies to fill in a need that many do not realize exists. The housing we provide allows these families to stay off the streets, get the necessary assistance to become productive members of our country, and allow fewer of these families to fall through the cracks of our immigration system. We are in the process of planning, visioning, and potentially renovating our building to provide more space for this need and help our partners create a network of housing opportunities for international newcomers here in Cleveland.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
The biggest lesson that I gained from COVID-19 was to continue to evolve. Many times, we become complacent in how we do something or in the ways that something works. However, when the crisis began, there were those who had a more adaptive or growth mindset, and they were able to pivot and meet the challenge head-on. There were other churches or organizations I saw that had a strong fixed mindset, and they still, to this day, are struggling with what to do and wish things would just get back to how they were before. On the whole, we never know what is coming, but having a growth mindset allows us to face whatever is ahead in healthy ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nehemiahmission.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nehemiahmissionofcleveland?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nehemiah.mission
Image Credits
Simon Vadas
