Naomi E. Fairchild

Naomi was born in Spokane, WA and moved to Seattle at age 16. She grew up in a Christian home, and after high school she went on to work in banking for 14 years. She met her husband when he came into the bank as a customer. After several years of marriage and having two children, they moved to Redondo, WA where she was a waitress and then became the Post Mistress of a small contract post office, which her husband built into their garage. In 1978 her husband had just started in construction and had an opportunity to build a house for one of the post office customers in Hawaii. In February 1979, she and her two small children joined him on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Naomi was involved in a serious auto accident in November of that same year that left her with debilitating seizures and the inability to function normally on a daily basis. The doctors could not give her any answers at that time. In April 1982, Naomi went to Seattle, WA for a second opinion, as the doctors in Hawaii had only given her a 10% chance of a full recovery. The specialists in Seattle were able to give Naomi the ONE HOPE she had asked the LORD for – to give her just ONE sign that something could be done. The doctors discovered she had suffered a severe brain stem injury and over the course of the next several years, she had three brain surgeries to correct her seizures. In 1984 her husband had also suffered a heart condition that needed surgery.

In January 1985, Naomi met Jan and Dr. Madison Patrick at church. John Watanabe, SEAM’s former secretary, had recently turned his duties over to Jan, and Naomi offered to help where she could. Naomi started just by helping a little with the contributions and the banking. Eventually, in July 1985, John Watanabe gave all the books to Naomi along with a half hour of instruction. Naomi was “officially” working with the missions! In 1987, Naomi went into business with her husband running a wind farm at South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Nearly ten years later in 1996 they lost the wind farm, but Naomi was called back to do full time work for Southeast Asian Missions. She went on to have other businesses, including a very successful and one of a kind traveling notary business, and continue to do bookkeeping for several other clients. In January 1999, her (former) husband passed away due to continued heart problems.

Naomi continued to run SEAM’s Hawaii office after the Patrick’s moved to Texas. In February 2010, after living in Hawaii for 31 years, Naomi moved due to health reasons caused from toxic gases coming from the Kilauea volcano. The Patrick’s generously came over to help her pack and move. Since moving to Texas to be closer to the Patrick’s, she has become more involved with the daily workings of the missions and continues to serve the Lord in His vision for SEAM.

Naomi has two children and two grandchildren that she loves to spend time with.