One of our favorite non-Red Wings hockey play­ers was sent by World Vision to the moun­tains of El Sal­vador. Mike Fisher of the Ottawa Sen­a­tors had already spon­sored a few chil­dren through World Vision. The char­ity asked him to par­tic­i­pate in a trip to film a TV com­mer­cial that will be shown in the Ottawa area to gain more child sponsorships.

As well as work­ing with the poor for a few days, Fisher was also able to see some suc­cess sto­ries from spon­sored chil­dren. Includ­ing a young woman who was able to sell eggs at a mar­ket with the help of some World Vision pro­vided chick­ens. From this story that we found at Canada.com, writer Wayne Scan­lan details the trip.

In South Amer­ica, Fisher was more or less anony­mous, caus­ing a stir just as an out­sider vis­it­ing some of the poor­est vil­lages, barely beyond the bustling cap­i­tal city of San Sal­vador.

“Just five min­utes out­side the city, there is a major, dras­tic change,” Fisher says. “Extreme poverty.”

Fisher has spon­sored chil­dren through World Vision in the past, help­ing to pay for basic needs and edu­ca­tion, so, when the orga­ni­za­tion invited him to see El Sal­vador in the flesh, he was all over it.

“I’ve always wanted to go some­where where the con­di­tions are poor, a place like Africa,” Fisher says. “Maybe I’ll go there next time.”

The rugged Chris­t­ian from Peter­bor­ough, Ont., comes by this mis­sion­ary zeal nat­u­rally. Fisher’s uncle, David Fisher, was the chapel leader of the Toronto Blue Jays for 29 years. Mike’s sis­ter and father have done mis­sion­ary work together in Ecuador.

n El Sal­vador, Fisher spent the first work­ing day vis­it­ing vil­lages of squalor, see­ing first hand the liv­ing con­di­tions of the poor. The con­di­tions of the land alone was a challenge.

“We went up in trucks into the moun­tains,” Fisher says. “It was quite the ride even by truck, and the local peo­ple walk in. It takes four hours for this one fam­ily just to get into town.”

He won’t for­get vis­it­ing the tiny shack of one fam­ily, no food on the premises and eight chil­dren liv­ing in the one room, about 10 feet by 10 feet.

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