Vision Trip Reflection: Lessons & Gifts God Revealed

by David Fetzer

It has been one month to the day since I returned from my second consecutive Vision Trip. I have needed this time to allow my thoughts, questions, and experiences to seep deeper into my heart. I’ll likely need another 11 months for them to be nurtured, cultivated, take root, and blossom into something new, something transformative. I wish that transformation would happen immediately! But I’m learning patience, and I’m learning to enjoy the journey more than just anticipating the end result.

Vision Trip Team 2 in the airport about to leave for their journey to Nigeria!

By the end of our trip, exhausted and emptied, yet filled to the brim, I had a sense of what had happened. I have needed the liminal space to synthesize not just my experience, but what God taught and gifted me into something I could manageably convey to others. For the first couple of weeks people would ask, “How was your trip?”, and my response felt empty. I could not yet put into words what was stirring in my heart. I even had coffee with Andrew two weeks after our return, hoping he would miraculously speak on behalf of my heart for me. That did not happen, but we both were quite aware of new insights and lessons beginning to take shape inside me. I’m thankful for his help in pulling it out of me.

Here I sit today, with three beautiful gifts from God that I’m undeserving to have and incredibly grateful to receive. Three gifts that I will absolutely cherish but not keep to myself. The first gift I had hoped for, and if I’m honest, had some expectation to receive. The second gift was an answer to a struggle that began long before our trip in wrestling with confusing and contradictory emotions. And the third gift was something buried so deep inside of me, something I had been yearning for for so long, that when it appeared I was thunderstruck. Even recounting it now, the feeling is so compelling and intense that it threatens to overwhelm me.

I should preface, I have always tried to enter into such trips with one expectation: to have a completely open heart to what God has in store for me. I wish I knew what a “completely open heart” actually felt like, but it was as open as I could muster, and thank God (literally!) that He doesn’t need but a crack in the door to enter. I must also say that since this was my second trip to Nigeria, my apprehension was far less and my anticipation far greater. In a very real sense it felt like coming home. Even Pastor Ben welcomed me home when I saw him at church. What a joy it is to be received home after being away for a long time.

The first gift was a genuine homecoming. To reunite and embrace with my brothers and sisters in Christ was pure joy. Only in the past few years have I come to accept the term, “brothers and sisters in Christ” as something genuine and meaningful, and not some platitude that we say. Here is the beautiful mystery I found, it’s deeper than what I had even thought and experienced before! God took the relationships that he had planted a year ago and drove the roots deeper into the rich and fertile soil he has been tending. At the end of an exhausting second day on ground I exclaimed to my wife, Liz, “I love this place! I love our friends here!” I can’t tell you how true those words are.

Emmanuel Lovedale, David Fetzer & AB Oshadin

I have had the opportunity to travel and experience many different things, but never have I felt the way I feel about my home in Nigeria. To be honest, never would I have expected to call Nigeria home in the first place. Yet there it is. The trip had barely begun and my hope for a joyful reunion burst forth in celebration. It was like receiving the grand finale at the beginning and I was perfectly fine with that. But that was only the beginning.

When you hear about someone’s pain it can sometimes be difficult to take in. When you see and experience someone’s pain right in front of you, it is heartbreaking. The experience is seared in your mind and you are forced to wrestle with it. Sometimes I wish it weren’t the case, but I also know that in the midst of that pain, whether our own or experiencing it with others, there Jesus sits with us. He is not afraid of pain, and he is eager to make something beautiful out of it.

Day after day we heard stories from staff, colleagues, children…our friends. Many of the stories were filled with brokenness, heartache, and loss. We cried, we embraced, we prayed. At one point I had to even walk away. I have experienced my own share of brokenness, heartache, and pain, and I have also experienced the love and mercy of God in the midst of my own valleys. After visiting the IDP camp and hearing the stories of two young children, I was put to test, wrestling with the dichotomy of hope and despair once again.

John 1:5 eventually crept into my heart, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. That verse was, at first, like a whisper that soon became a thunderous roar. Far too often, we (I include myself in this) have dualistic, or black and white, thinking. All things are either this or that at any given moment. They cannot coexist. Yet here we were experiencing the splendid and innumerable shades of color with Christ in focus across the entire spectrum. His radiant light penetrating the darkness just as his Word promises.

In my struggle with dualistic thinking, I have sought His ways and have prayed for a more open mind and heart. I have asked to unlearn and to relearn much. During my time in Nigeria, God cracked this open wide for me in a gift of understanding and insight. He gave me an undeniable peace that hope and despair, joy and sorrow, healing and brokenness can and do coexist. My friend, Michelle, gifted each of us an Ebo name near the end of the trip. She gave me the name Ifechukwu, “God’s Light.” How beautiful and fitting is that? His light shines in the darkness.

The last gift God revealed to me was from a memory first planted during my 1st Vision Trip in 2024. Last year, I remember returning from a 10 day trip to Nigeria only to be thrust back into the immediacy of the chaos of everyday life. Within 36 hours of returning, I was on a plane starting a new job. I traveled nonstop for the next three weeks, and while the trip to Nigeria made a massive imprint on my heart, I didn’t have much time or space to process some of these memories.

One lifeline that kept me connected to Nigeria, however, was the opportunity to serve as a mentor for one of the winners of the Entrepreneur Empowerment Program pitch competition. This allowed me to serve alongside and stay connected with my brothers and sisters in Nigeria. It was a joy and a blessing to use my time, talent, and treasure to help a young entrepreneur secure a zero interest loan from A2S. Through this, I also had opportunities to stay connected to my friends and support them as they began the early stages of preparing for the new OWA Center.

David Fetzer among the pitch winners and the other judges of the 2025 Entrepreneur Pitch Competition.

During this year’s Vision Trip, we had the chance to survey the land and excavation of where the new OWA Center will be built in 2027. It was only a year ago during my first trip that I had stood in this exact spot praying over the land, praying for OWA, and praying for God to use it for His glory and for the good of all those who walk through its doors. As we began to walk back to the Youth Center, the Lord gifted me with a nearly overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude. It was so unexpected that I nearly stopped in my tracks, yet so appropriate and timely. It was an unforgettable moment to experience HIS joy for what is now and what is to come. It was as though something shifted deep inside of me, as if a key had unlocked an unknown part of me, allowing the rush of His full presence to come in.

His joy persisted in me throughout the rest of the trip and has been flowing freely ever since returning back to the States. Nehemiah 8:10 has been in my heart and on my lips since the trip. The second half of the verse says, “This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The joy of the Lord is my strength. That not only encapsulates my second Vision Trip, it has become foundational to my faith and to my life.

When you arrive in Benin City you are welcomed by the staff with signs, hugs, shouts of joy and praise, and genuine love. It is a welcome like I have never experienced before. I like to imagine it’s a bit what heaven will be like – our friends singing, shouting for joy, and long, loving embraces. All welcoming us home.