These are the ponderings on life's goodness from some of the folks at My Fight.

This note takes more of personal tone, and serves to update those who are interested.  I love what I do, I love who I do this with.  I’m honored that you journey with me.

Jeromy, a friend and board member, gently reminded me that not everybody has been riding in the car with me for the last 3 months.  Therefor, not everybody is up to speed with what’s going on around MyFight these days.  Let me summarize.

This season has been perhaps the most exciting yet.

Good news:

The good news bucket is full, and near overflowing.  To start with, last fall a friend of a friend got bumped to first class on a return trip from Mexico.  While in first class, he sat next to Rodrigo, of Rodrigo y Gabriela.  It’s likely you haven’t heard of them, but within their genre, they are HUGE.  They’ve done some of the music to Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, and other movies as well.  Anyhow, on that flight, they got to talking about MyFight and RodGab invited us to be a part of their Seattle concert (the first of their American tour).  We went.  Afterwards, they invited us to join them for the remainder of their tour.  So within 24 hours, we had a whole roadie team assembled and Cate and Cali hit the road for a whirlwind 30-day tour across the country selling shirts, and having about 5 minutes on stage in front of huge crowds (one of their stops was Radio City Music Hall).  Needless to say, that’s been going well.

Meanwhile, I’ve been on another tour doing events at colleges, churches, coffee shops, etc.  This has been very fruitful, and the most encouraging part is that we’re getting to the point where people are seeking us out, rather than the reverse.  So from Tulsa, to Seattle, and everywhere in between, I’ve been on the road for most of the past 3 months.

Another first for MyFight, is our summer retail store that we are opening in Hood River, Oregon.  I sincerely hope you all have the chance to visit this summer.  Not only would it be fun for you to see how MyFight is developing, but Hood River is AMAZING.  Our store will be staffed by 6 interns who are joining us this summer and led by Quinn Neely, who came on board last winter.

Our store is an exciting endeavor on so many levels, not the least of which is that while I am standing here typing this, I’m about 40% covered in plaster as I’ve been working for the past two days texturing all of the walls.  Our building is a garage on the main street of downtown with one of the very few big parking lots in town.  So we’re turning this garage into a very cool, very MyFight retail store. Oh, little bad news here as well:  I got overruled by everybody else, so much to my disappointment, there won’t be a hot tub in front of our store. In this town where there is no empty space to rent, and nothing below $1,500, by God’s grace, and Quinn’s hard work, we’ve landed in a great spot for only $700/month.  A little elbow grease and we’re set.

By Memorial Day, I hope to have our shop up and running.  And yes, we will be selling more than just t-shirts.

Cate and Sarah will be heading off on our second full summer of music festivals in June, and we’re now looking at the real possibility of touring with other large bands (Dave Matthews?) in the fall and winter now that Cate and Cali have done such a phenomenal job representing MyFight to RodGab and their managers.

We’re almost to our third round of loan-funding in Honduras, but as of now, over 100 ladies have been funded in Northern Honduras from our shirts.  That’s 100 dinner tables with food on them provided by mom’s own business.  That’s over 100 families whose kids have shoes, not because I bought a pair, but because mom can/did.  That’s over 100 families whose kids can be in school and not on the streets out of necessity.

Personally:

Over the winter, a family came into a very successful business venture and decided to underwrite my salary for the next few years with the encouragement to work my butt of without ever worrying about how I’m going to fill my gas tank up.  You can understand if I tell you that it’s near impossible to describe my reaction to this.  But here’s my meager attempt:  I’m not worthy, as I’m not worthy of any of God’s goodness–but I want to be.  I want to work harder, love better, lead better, research better.  I want to wake up earlier, go to bed later, forgive easier, care more, be more generous, reflect Christ better.  I want to live a life worthy of my calling.

I’m missing my house, my bed, my friends, and Billings in general, but God’s been very good to me on the road giving me an unexpected ability to just be content by myself….a lot.  And I’ve discovered the wonder of audiobooks.

Oh, and I’m running a marathon on Nov. 27th.

Please forgive any incorrect spelling, grammar, or punctuation.  It’s late, I don’t have a chair, and my feet are tired.

If you’ve actually read this far and have any questions, let me know!

This question, was the opener to the weekend of TEDxSF.  My new friend Tony, has embarked on this mission to photographically display why people do what they do.  I suspect this question does more than provide Tony with some great pictures, it also forces the subject to question for themselves, and alter course towards a more fulfilling life.  As I thought about that question myself, here’s what I came up with:

1) Developing relationships with people in the way that I’ve been able to with MyFight has been extraordinarily rewarding.  From Sammy in Ethiopia who inspired me with his dream of “revenging poverty” to my friends in Deer Lodge MT, who are seemingly on-course to adopt the whole orphan population of the entire world; from the women in Honduras who believe “it doesn’t have to be this way,” to the Katie’s of the world who decide to give up their weekend to showcase MyFight at a campus wide event at Oregon State University.  The inspiration that comes when I get to connect with people who want to see a better future for everybody is priceless.

2) Because I believe the idea that “it’s always been this way, it’s always gonna be this way,” is the most boring and pathetic thing a human being could say and I refuse to waste my life settling for a world where young girls are forced to prostitute themselves for daily bread, and young boys become child-soldiers for survival.

3) Because I believe that God creates us to do something of value in this world.  I believe the words that Paul gives us when he says that we are God’s workmanship, created to do good work, which he has before ordained.  I want nothing less that the life that I have been made to live, I want every synapse firing, and every sense engaged.

I love what I get to do.  I love who I get to do it with.  I love the people I meet.  I love the dreams I get to build.

So I’ll pass on the challenge, Why do you do what you do?  Should you change?

I don’t often journal, but it’s always so much fun for me to read back through the occasional entries I’ve made over the past few years and recall those moments. This is an especially fond evening when I lost myself in Germany. I was fresh out of college with the whole world and the rest of my life before me. Warning, this is very stream of conscious writing, if it doesn’t make sense, sorry.

May 24th, 2008—Dosseldorf Germany (I think)

I don’t know. Here I sit, drinking a glass of wine I do not know, listening in on a conversation I cannot understand, sitting at a table I will never see again. I do not know, nor will I in this short visit to a city that will soon only be recalled as the place in this memory. Dosseldorf, I think it is, and yet it doesn’t matter because tonight I do not need to know.
There they sit, 2 men and 4 women, though I don’t know what they say, I do not need to. I can tell there is love; I can tell there is joy. They speak over each other but it is clearly a pattern of affection rather than the over-shouting of embittered arguers. Perhaps they are talking about the nice evening, the warm breeze or the pleasant dinner—I do not know, nor need to.
A street corner café table is a fine place to sit when one does not know where else to sit. The light above and table below give me all I need in this moment. The rustle of leaves next to me reminds me of the life-sustaining breath of God that gives all we need. But I do not know this breath of God—nor need to, It knows me.
I wonder if all of the cars know where they are going, or are they just trying to get “there.” What do we miss in life by trying so hard to get “there.” Sometimes we never arrive because we never leave. In school I did not know my where I was going, but I went there. Now I do not know where I am going, and I hope I never arrive.
They drive with such speed, walk with such determination, they are alone and in such a hurry. Where are they going?
The beautiful darker girl with short hair and a nice smile speaks to me in a language I do not know. What is she saying? Do I have to leave? Will she kick me off the street? Am I doing something wrong? Am I in the wrong place? I do not know. I shyly say “English” she says, “Are you using the ash tray?” “I’m not” I say. I smile. She smiles. She knows.
I’m not but the people upwind of me are, I can tell. I know. I can smell them light up a fresh round. An unusually sweet smell of small cigarettes. A new round must mean more conversation. They must be settling in for more laughs, more talking over each other and more joy, and then they leave, I guess, I don’t know.
The smoke still lingers lightly, but the air is mostly filled with the rich scents coming from the Café Vapiano. They clean the pizza oven, disposing of the remnant sauce, cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, and herbs. The pasta grill cleans up, similar smells, different concentrations.
But then like a symphony, a new sound fills the air for the finale, the new theme: closing up. Chains wrapping around the tables and chairs, plates stacking as workers discuss their night. Like a new instrument, the street light cues the addition of cars passing and radios blaring. Occasionally, we still hear the irregular drum beat of footsteps on the street side. I don’t know this piece, but I like it. I still do not know where I will sleep tonight, nor need to.

As I was preparing for the board meeting this week, I was looking over inventory reports, sales reports, financials, etc and I realized that it was one year ago this week that we made our first really uncomfortable investment–our first shirts. An investment that set us on course to be unique among charitable organizations in one important way: self-sustaining.

People have asked on occasion, “what’s with the t-shirts” to which I answer, everything! You see the shirts are the fuel of our engine. As you buy shirts, we give microloans. It’s that simple.

Of course, when you get down to the detail level there is always more complexity, but the beauty is in the simplicity. If you buy shirts we have revenue with which we can give loans, if you don’t buy shirts, we don’t have the revenue.

After returning from Ethiopia, I was so moved by the story of the street children and young adults that I really wanted to design a shirt around that, here it is.

So click on the picture and buy your shirt today.  You’re not just getting a sick design, your investing in this new way of delivering change in poor areas.

I’m going to try and update a little more often from now on…

I moved into the MyFight house on 13th and Poly this semester and so far its been awesome! Besides having good roommates and it being a nice house, it has been really awesome to really live in the fight. Remi and Ariana are over all the time working as our first employees booking events and planing everything out. There is new art work littering the house all representing MyFight and on any given day you can be pretty sure that someone will be around working on something Fight related.

I think it’s going to be a great semester!

CreationFest West 2010

Sorry this is hitting the internet waves so late… I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep and with life… but here it is… CREATION CRAZINESS!!!

Wow…. So let me just tell you about the best/craziest trip I’ve been on in along time… Okay but first let me tell you a little about who I am and why I get to blog on behalf of the awesome MyFight… My name is  Arieanna Ramage (recently known as Arieanna Fisher)… I have been involved with MyFight for quite some time now, but my current role in the movement deals with the marketing of this crazy passion of ours… Lately, I’ve been helping plan out many of our events, and this last week got to attend Creationfest West… Absolutely amazing! Okay… so back to the trip…

So, first of all I just want to thank all of the wonderful people I got to meet this week.  All of you who bought shirts thank you, thank you, thank you!! But even more… thank you ALL who just gave us the chance to tell you who we are and our hearts and our passion behind what we do to be the end of poverty!

To start the trip off… our team met at 7am on Tuesday morning at Jesse’s house in Billings, MT…. well we were supposed to leave at 7am… but I accidently may have told 2 of our team members we weren’t leaving until the next morning… woops… OH and those 2 that I accidently told the wrong date to just got married and spent 10 hours traveling back to Billings in time to leave with us what they thought was 2 days later ended up being the next morning….again… WOOPS…

Anyways… we finally hit the road… 2 cars packed full of swag (aka sweet gear for those of you who don’t speak my lingo , our booth supplies, and our team of 5 awesome Fighters… (Remi, Jesse, Larissa, Evan, and myself)… Oh and if the trip didn’t start off crazy enough… one of the cars didn’t have air conditioning and was equipped with crank windows…. Awesome… So, the drive to Emunclaw, WA… (Seattle area) was pretty hassle free… EXCEPT…. we get not even an hour away from our destination and what happens… Oh ya know they decide to close the highway for an hour in order to blast rock in the pass…. COOL. Hahah….

So, we roll into Creationfest around 11:30-12:00 at night to find out… we weren’t registered for a camping spot… after another half hour of running around we find “the man” we need to talk to about camping… we get a camping spot. FINALLY…. a camping spot that is maybe a 20′x10′ that we need to fit 3 tents and 2 cars in… wasn’t happening. So, we down graded to 2 tents and SQUEEZED into the spot… We crashed for the night to wake up in the morning to get the party started.. Figured out where “vendors” setup and found our spot… God truely blessed us with the best spot in the house… right next to the door AND the main stage… how…. I don’t know… our first time at CreationWest and the best spot… someone must be on our side…

Selling goes great… people fall in love with what we do… but how could they not… with the hearts we have?? The bands were amazing… David Crowder Band and Switchfoot the first night… absolutely amazing show… the 2nd night a number of awesome shows, but my favorite by far…… HILLSONG… so so good. Amazing to see sooo many people worshiping together… really powerful.

We had 2 amazing families open their homes to us for showers during the week…. Did I mention we were camping this whole time?? Anyways thank you so much for your kindness of opening your homes to us Dianne and Daramie!! (I hope I spelled that right!!)

On one of the days, Jesse’s bud Kristin gave him and I a tour of the World Vision Headquarters in Federal Way, WA.  She was a blast… So peppy and so passionate about what she does.  Very encouraging to see soo much good in one place.  Anyways… more importantly we got to eat some pretty delicious Thai food! Jesse thought he’d be real “manly” and order his meal with spiciness of 3 stars…. which is the “hot.” It was the high light of my day to see him sweating as he was talking/eating!! Haha….

On the 3rd day, Remi and I took a break from the madness of tshirt sales, and grabbed some of the left over pizza while watching Mr. KJ-52 perform…. I have always been a little skeptical of “christian rappers,” but I must say that KJ definitely changed my mind…. the fact that he could teach 50+ year olds to “get their swaggor on” was very impressive to me…. Mostly because EVERYONE was getting into it!! Funny fact from this moment…. Remi is from France…. he looks at me and asks what “swaggor” is…..?? Try explaining that one…. Oh American slang talk…. KJ wanted to give a shout out to one of his musical inspirations qho had “really influenced his love for music and has really affected his style of music”…. then he began to play Miley Cyrus “Party in the USA.”   The reason I tell you all this…. Well my husband did the very same thing when he performed at the MyFight Bday Bash in Billings, MT and wanted everyone to know that KJ copied him Sure…. I love you dear, I do!! Haha… By the end of KJ’s performance there were thousands of socks on stage that people had thrown up there… that he had asked them to do… hilarious….Oh christian rappers…. they are a strange bunch

Anyway…. that night rolls around and TobyMac takes the stage… giving a wonderful performance that included his own rendition of “pants on the ground.”  Also, hilarious! Then a candle light service…. Tens of thousands of candles lit representing peoples faith in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…. Absolutely amazing to see…. Gosh… Goosebumps just thinking about it!

It’s about midnight and our team rolls into bed…. Trying to get some rest for one last day of hard work…. Little did we know that this last day would turn into the craziest/most stressful/make you appreciate life day of the trip…. So things go as they had the past few days… Early morning coffee… listen to artists sound check then play… talk to a number of amazing people interested in supporting us in fighting social injustice…. visit with our Project AK-47, Invisible Children, TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms) and BFC (Boarders for Christ) buddies…. sell some shirts… listen to more music… eat some carnival style grub….

The day gets interesting when Jesse says… “Okay guys… I’m heading to Federal Way to meet with one of our board members.”  We all think okay see ya in a few hours… so about 20 minutes roll by and I get a text from Mr. Murphy saying, “Lunch cancelled. Wrecked the car.” I freak…. Mind you we had been giving him the hardest time about being a terrible… I mean TERRIBLE driver the night before…. Anyways…. Everyone involved in the wreck was fine…. Except the MyFight car…. she had been totalled… undrivable…. So…. we are left with one car…. Now remember, we have 5 people with us… hundreds of shirts…. and all our gear used to set up our booth…. We are stressed needless to say…. MAINLY because… we can’t rent a car… It’s Saturday at 3pm… and all the car rental places that are also found in Billings had closed at noon…. AND the airport won’t rent to us because they only rent cars for round trips…. shoot….

What to do… What to do…. Well the amazing people from Yellowstone Baptist College in Billings, MT offer to take our stuff home… THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! And we all look forward to cramming into one car for a 14 hour drive home…. UGH….

Skillet closes out Creationfest and it’s all over…. We tear our booth down, pack up and go to a local bar and grill and have a celebratory basket of deep fat fried chicken and fries…. That’s all they had left to serve…. I was hoping for steak… but hey at least I have the privilege of eating late night chicken fingers and fries…. We are sooooo blessed to live in America… SOOOO blessed…. After our fried meal we head back to camp for one last night of sleeping on the ground…

We wake up in the morning… load up…. and hit the road… 5 minutes down the road Remi stops us at a gas station… we get beverages, but everyone wants McDonalds for breakfast… so we get back in and head to McDonalds… the I have to go potty… haha… so we pull over at the next gas station… I walk up to the door… “NO PUBLIC RESTROOM.” UGH… So, Larissa and I walk across the street… Same deal… look to our left… restaurant is closed… Awesome… So we walk back across the street and climb back in the little car…. Jesse and Remi bicker about how to get to Starbucks to use their restroom… we finally get there… Then for the what felt like thousandth time crammed back in and hit the road… just an hour later… It’s fine.. really…

The trip to Billings was smooth sailing after that… But I just want to take the time again to thank EVERYONE for all their support… All of you that let us even talk to you, THANK YOU…. Those of you who brought us new designs (Jeremy), Thank you…. All the great families we got to meet, thank you…. Creationfest artists, Thank you… Creationfest itself, THANK YOU!!!!

Oh… I forgot to mention… I introduced the team to the Mad TV skit “Can I Get Your Number!??!”…. Needless to say… All I heard all week…. “Oh dang…. Okay…. Okay…. Excuse me….. Can I talk to you for a minute?!” Haha… gotta love it!!

We love you all!!! See you next year!!