"Words once dominated Western culture, but now images are changing everything from our theology and preaching to the way our brains process information." Shane Hipps, Leadership Summer 2007
"Visualcy?" (credit Andy Crouch) There are all kinds of pitfalls here I am sure, but I am quite intrigued. So, here is my sermon for the day...
Rob
Dear Family, Friends & Supporters,
We want to share with you an exciting opportunity! RMI leadership wants us, as the Haiti Field Director, to have the best resources to better serve the US churches, national church leaders and the RMI missionaries, and to this end, they have requested that we come off the field for 3 months in 2007 and a college semester in 2008 returning to Haiti in late spring. The goal is to get professional training to provide us with additional tools to enhance our leadership skills. The RMI leadership is designing a program for our professional and personal enrichment which will include personal mentoring, a series of seminars including spiritual transformation, leadership development, lay counseling training and formal Bible and theology education courses.
We are working with the RMI leadership to put in place a good plan of action to cover the successful operation of the field in our absence. We have good national and missionary staff that can step into the gap and feel confident that our responsibilities will be able to be fulfilled while we take this hiatus.
There are many details being worked out at this writing. At this point, it looks like we’ll be leaving Haiti on October 3rd, 2007 to begin this training. The girls will be coming with us, of course, bringing their school work with them. It will mean some travel for us, much study, hard work, and a lot of faith. It’s a new adventure - one that we are very excited about and feel ready for. It is a huge step of faith as well. We will need your continued financial support more than ever during these months. The seminars and Bible college training are costly as well as there will be travel and living expenses to cover. Equally, we earnestly desire your prayers for us! We want to make the most of this opportunity. Pray that the Lord would bring the myriad of details into place, that He would give us peace of mind and clarity of thought as we prepare to leave.
Here is our schedule as we see it now:
October 3, 2007 ~ Depart Haiti headed to Florida
October 4, 2007 ~ Leave Florida and head for Texas
October 8, 2007 ~ Arrive in Texas – Savana & McKenna will be staying with family until the end of October. This will give us an opportunity to get the first two weeks of training done and get settled into being “students” again.
October 10, 2007 ~ Billy & Debbie leave Texas and drive to Atlanta, Georgia
October 14-28, 2007 ~ First two weeks of training
October 28 ~ Savana & McKenna fly to Atlanta to join Billy & Deb
October 30 – Nov. 16 ~ Next 3 weeks of training
November 17 - 25 ~ Thanksgiving break we will be with friends in Cape May, New Jersey
November 26 – Dec. 14 ~ Last 3 weeks of training in Georgia
Dec. 18 - ? ~ Travel to Dallas, Texas for Christmas with family
January ? ~ Begin classes at Columbia International University (CIU) in Columbia, South Carolina
Late May ~ Return to Haiti
A note from the RMI Vice President of International Development:
It is respectfully requested that inquiries concerning other communication with Billy and Debbie regarding their response, progress or frustration level be limited to their immediate supervisor and the RMI President. They need to remain isolated from all outside distractions from family (except children), friends, and fellow workers, superiors in mission and church as much as possible for maximum impact to be accomplished. This is especially true from October 14 through December 18, 2007. All must recognize that participants will be fully engaged from morning until night with classes, meetings and home assignments that require full concentration. The week of October 14-20, it is critical that no contacts should transpire from any source or originate from them to the outside unless it is brief regarding their children. They should plan in advance not to be producing blogs, be responding to email, sending email or receiving incoming calls about work on the field or about anything else, unless from the President of RMI from October 14 through October 29. From October 30-December 18, extremely limited communication to or from Billy and Debbie must be observed. We do not believe this to be necessary during the semester planned at CIU. They will be able to breathe from November 17 through November 25 for Thanksgiving break and later for a Christmas break. Some assignments will need to be accomplished over these holidays.
This legalistic sounding statement is full of love even though it appears to be written by a hard nosed lawyer sitting on nails. I apologize for legalistic language but believe this is such an important venture for Billy and Debbie and an expensive investment that every care must be taken to assure their success.
Enrique and Chrissie Coreano just sent out their most recent e-newsletter. If you want to join their mailing list, visit their website at www.coreanofamily.com.
Rob
A final note on our weekend in Columbia, SC...We were also able to visit the Coreano's home church while they were at CIU, North Trenholm Baptist Church. Dan was able to say a few words and a final prayer for both of their Sunday a.m. services as well as was generously given the whole Sunday School class time to share at the Coreano's Young Couples Sunday School class. This was followed by a great Mexican meal at a restaurant with most of the folk from NTBC that recently went to Guatemala. NTBC is a new sister church and they just had their first visit in June! They shared their experiences, what impressed them the most as well as their photos and some funny stories. We really enjoyed spending time with them.
Dan and I are back in the office after a 6 day ministry trip. We attended homecoming at Columbia International University (our alma mater, class of 1980) in Columbia, South Carolina. It was a fun weekend. This year they hosted a reunion of the school's singing group, True Life Company, that represented CIU in the 1970's. Dan sang and played trumpet for TLC for 2 years while he was a student.
True Life Company members sang and provided the worship for all the different meetings and venues that took place this weekend. It was great as we re-connected with classmates and friends, most of whom we hadn't seen for more than 20 years. Frank and Kay Fry, RMI's VP of International Development, were there as well. Frank was TLC's producer in the early 1970's and Kay played violin.
Here, they are chatting with CIU president, Dr. Bill Jones. We were able to share with quite a few people about RMI and its ministries. We also made some significant contacts that will help us within the administration of RMI, possibly in the area of providing counseling for missionary staff.
We were surprised to meet 2 CIU alumni from our own area, Ft. Myers! We plan on getting together in the near future and see how we can enhance each other's ministries. If nothing else, we will enjoy the fellowship of fellow CIU folks.
On a personal note, we were able to spend time with Deb's mom while we were there since that is where we stayed. We also had a brief time with Deb's sister, Marti and her husband, Frank Bedell (CIU's Director of Development).
Dawn is doing well. She is a junior at Evangelical Christian School in Ft. Myers. She is having a blast playing varsity volleyball for ECS. The team is a state championship team and are doing very well. As a 2A school, they are beating many 5A schools in the area! Her position is middle blocker (for those of you who are volleyball savvy) and at 5'11", she has a good vertical jump on her that helps her do a fairly good job!
Devon is living and working in Dallas. Dan saw him recently and was able to spend some time with him. He's doing well and we are proud of him being able to maintain a good Christian witness in his work environment.
Oh, also, be looking for the link to our new personal blog! We hope to have it up and running soon. I know, I know, we should have done it quite a while ago, but we are old dogs learning all these new tricks!
If you didn't see the first post, scroll down! You can also see all the pictures at www.robandbecky.com/family/pictures.htm (you will need to scroll down to find the Guatemala pictures).
Carrie and Susan setting up the army cots in the church.
Julie helped me organize the pharmacy the first day. The drugs were organized on 2 army cots. We had more than what you see, I just only put out a few bottles of each thing.
Chrissy, RMI missionary and a nurse, and Carol at the first station of medical clinic doing triage: Checking vital signs and getting the patients chief complaint. 
Dr's Susan and Trevor seeing patients.
We made sure to pray or present the gospel to each patient that came thru before they got their medications. Here Julie and RMI missionary, Brandon, are sharing.
Here's me counseling a patient on how to take their medications. I had a Spanish translator, Alexis, but the pastor of our sister church, Javier, was often translating the Spanish into Mam. many of the people are illiterate, so we had pictures to remind them how to take their medications. It was important to make sure they understood before they left.
Carrie Jumped right in the kitchen as helped some of the ladies prepare meals. Julia is on the left and Delphina on the right.
All the babies are carried like this on backs! The ladies just go about their work. Older siblings often carried their younger siblings like this on their backs as well.
There is going to have to be a Part 3!
Becky
I have been busy since I got back from my trip to Guatemala! Sorry I haven't posted pictures sooner! You can see all the pictures I took here www.robandbecky.com/family/pictures.htm and go to the Guatemala album. Here are a few from the first few days of the trip:
Below is a view from the roof balcony of the RMI guesthouse in Xela, about a 5 hours drive from Guatemala City.
We were relieved to get to such a comfortable place after such a long day of travel.
Saturday we spent at the RMI guesthouse reorganizing our supplies for the trip out to the aldea (village) the next day. In the afternoon we went to the market in Xela to get some last minute supplies. We also went to purchase a new skirt and top as a gift for our sister church pastors wife.
Below is just one picture of the colorful market.
Julie and I had to get a picture taken with the vegetables at market-- look at that head of cauliflower! Huge!
All the vegetables in the regions were monstrous! (And all sold in the open air market or off the side of the road) The large produce is due to the volcanic soil prevalent in the region.
On our way to the Aldea we stopped at a lookout by the side of the road and snapped a group picture! This over looks Comitancillo and was about 30 minutes from out sister church.
Check out this chicken bus!
The roads from Xela to our sister church in Chipel were steep and mostly dirt roads.
We've arrived at our sister church! The van can't drive the road that leads to the church, so we walk there, about a 1/2 mile?. A group from the church-- lots of kids-- meets us at the bottom of the road and walks up with us.
A picture of our sister church. So much ministry happened in that building that week!
Need I say more?
I'll send another batch in the next few days of the rest of the trip!
Becky
They will be attending homecoming ceremonies at their Alma Mater, Columbia International University (formerly Columbia Bible College) in Columbia, SC. While enjoying the festivities and catching up with old friends, they will be representing and sharing all about RMI. They left today, Sept. 9 and return home Sept 17.
Rob
If you have donated very recently, you may be one of the first to see our newly designed receipt. We are very excited about all the upgrades and changes around here recently! If you haven't donated, then I guess you will miss out on seeing the receipt! Now there is motivation for giving (wink wink)!
Rob
Kingdom work. It is why we are here.
When kingdom work gets tough, my first response is to internalize, stomp my foot and get frustrated. It is easy for me to forget that we are constantly being refined (as long as we are walking with him). It is so easy for things to get out of perspective. Refiner's Fire. You know the song. My heart's one desire? Yes or No. In the midst of it all, I am being refined to be a purer more able servant. It is easy to get discouraged. We are here to see Jesus glorified and his kingdom further established, not ourselves or our own.
God is at work friends. Are you involved in kingdom work?
Rob
Here is a quote form our missionary in Guatemala...
"Well, don't worry too much as Felix has been down graded to a tropical depression. We have received advisories from the US embassy that we should expect heavy rainfall. So far, it is a beautiful sunny day today. So, we will wait and see. The rain is expected to start here sometime tonight through Thursday.
Thanks for the prayers and we will let you know what else happens.
God Bless,
Chrissie"
Rob
Our team from McGregor Baptist Church visiting their church in Chipel, Guatemala has arrived back home safely. Here is an excerpt from an email we received... One of the team members said "God truly blessed us in so many ways as we grew in our love for our Sister Church Members who served us so preciously!"
Praise the Lord.
Rob
