Our Story
Our journey began in 1991 when Debbie hired Sean at Century Federal Savings in Brentwood, California. Within six months, we began dating. Six months after we were married at Sean's parents home in North Fork, California, on October 17, 1992.
A year later, we sold everything we owned to pursue an abandoned hotel in the Bahamas called The Out Island Inn. While flying back and forth from Florida, a prospective investor asked us to join him and his family at his church in Fort Lauderdale. On that first Sunday to Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, December 19, 1993, Debbie dedicated her life to Christ, and life for us has not been the same since.
We left the prospects of purchasing The Out Island Inn and moved back to California the following year. I, Sean, pursued my Bachelor In Science in Christian Ministry and Masters in Education at Pacific Christian College (now Hope International University) in order to be more adequately prepared for ministry. While at Pacific Christian College, I saw a flyer pinned up in the students hall requesting help in the planting of a new church in South Orange County. I called the phone number on the flyer, and spoke to the senior pastor of this church plant. John Reed asked me to join him for a cup of coffee and a chance to share the vision for the church. I enthusiastically told Debbie of my desire to join the church, and on February 25, 1996, Canyon Hills Church was born with the assistance of eight couples, including the Frasers!
After six wonderful years of service, we came to a transition in our lives. Sean had become the full-time Associate Pastor at Canyon Hills, and Debbie was serving part time at Canyon Hills with the children's ministry and part time at the Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union. We had no children, didn't own a home, and had recently paid off our debt. We prayerfully considered our options, and, with the counsel of John and another good friend and Church Resource Ministries director, Rob Yackley, decided, once again, to sell everything we own and join a new missions training project Rob began called NieuCommunities. NieuCommunities had just hosted a pilot project in Oxnard, California, and was ready to host its first international project year in South Africa.
The first NieuCommunities project year began in 1993 and the following year we came on staff with NieuCommunities until mid-2006. Over the previous year we discovered we could not have children of our own AND that there are legal preventions for us adopting children in South Africa. So, after a WHOLE lot more prayer, we decided to make the move back to the states and pursue foster/adoption AND the creation of SOME kind of NieuCommunities presence in North America since the Oxnard site closed after the pilot year.
We decided to move to Long Beach, California primarily because of its diverse, urban setting similar to what we became familiar with in Pretoria South Africa. Since we've moved here, God has been SO faithful in our transition - from providing an AWESOME home for us and our future children, a perfect employment fit back at the Teachers Credit Union for Debbie, and ALL kinds of ministry connections for Sean, including hospice care to the terminally ill as a chaplain, social service assistance to the homeless at the Long Beach Rescue Mission, and a WHOLE lot of involvement with existing and emerging missional leaders in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties!
As of the writing of this "background" page, the story in Long Beach has JUST begun! So we ask you now to keep up with us on our main journal home page, which we'll continue to keep up to date weekly!
God bless you and thank you for joining us on this journey!