Waiting for Reports from Churches!

Good soggy morning,

After boarding up windows, stocking up on food and fuel, and preparing water jugs because Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on us, the hurricane turned north and went over the island about 40 miles east of us. I think I’ve heard that the southwest side of a hurricane is the mildest. I’m not sure where I heard that, but it sure proved true for Gustav. About 7:30 pm last night (Tuesday night) a gentle summer shower began. It kept up all night and this morning at 8:38 it is still raining. Not a hard driving rain, but just a gentle steady shower. I’ve read that in other parts of the country there have been mudslides and flooding. However, God spared us. Thank you for your prayers. I will be trying to get reports from the sister churches today and I will post them on the RMI blog spot when I do.

We have a couple of systems out in the Atlantic that have the potential to cause problems. A good website to view tropical activity is www.stormpulse.com.

We have heard that Baradere was hit hard by flooding, but we are still waiting for final reports for that and other districts. Please continue to check here for updates.

Please continue to pray for us and for the Haitian people.

Hope For Kidz - It's that time again!

September is upon us with kids groaning and parents giving a sigh of relief. School is gearing up for the Fall. Yes, even though they speak a different language and have their own unique culture, Haitian parents are the same as parents the world over. It is good to get the kids in school again and out from under our feet!

However, for many of those parents, that struggle that so many parents face has been relieved by our Hope For Kidz sponsors. Do you know what it is like when a huge financial burden is lifted from your shoulders by others? What a blessing! What a relief! What joy! Well, this is the type of reaction we get from the parents in Haiti as they learn that their child has been sponsored by a caring and loving brother or sister in Christ, here in the States.

The Hope For Kidz Coordinators in your church are working hard to see all the kids they have in hand get sponsored. What a way to impact kids, families, schools, churches, and indeed whole communities. As these kids get a Godly education, the long-term impact on their community can only be seen from a Heavenly perspective. Talk about a great return for a small investment in lives! Would you consider how you can help your Hope For Kidz coordinator spread this good news around? By sponsoring a child, and encouraging others to do so, you can not only impact a life, but a whole village.

Dan Shoemaker

Gustav Update...

Here is the latest from Billy Moses in Haiti...

"We have boarded up, tied things down, stocked our houses and are ready....but nothing is happening. It seems that maybe we have been spared at least here in our area. We are seeing reports of flooding but only from the Dominican Republic. We haven't heard anything about Haiti at all. The Weather Channel shows the storm to be right on top of us, but it is cloudy and calm outside, actually very nice weather. Stormpulse.com shows the eye to be 38 miles to the east of us moving NW at 7mph. So, who knows if we are going to get anything at all. We have had a few showers this afternoon, but only short ones and just enough rain to get things wet. There has been very little wind, not enough to really even mention it. So, we wait and pray that there has been little flooding and that we will be spared. We will blog as more develops but there just isn't much to tell you at this point.

Waiting for Gustav to pass!"

Hurricane Gustav Bearing Down on Haiti.

RMI Sister Church Partnership Coordinators, Pastors, Friends,

As you may have already heard, or have seen in the news, a major hurricane is bearing down on Haiti as I write. The Hurricane is projected to cross the southern peninsula of Haiti where our missionaries and our Sister Churches are. Please be in prayer for our RMI missionaries, our Sister Churches, as well as the Haitian people. As information becomes available, we will post updates here on this blog. Updates will either be posted by our office here in FL or directly from the Haiti field.

You can track the Hurricane at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml#GUSTAV

Building His Church,

Rob Thompson
VP of Operations
Reciprocal Ministries International

Tropical Storm Gustav coming to Haiti...

I just received this email from RMI Haiti Missionary Billy Moses...

"This is just a quick note to let y’all know that Tropical Depression #7 is now Tropical Storm Gustav. It has 60mph winds and is approximately

287 miles from us at 1pm. It is scheduled to be a hurricane around 7pm tonight. It shows to be off the coast of Les Cayes about 121 miles tomorrow morning at 7am with 75 mph winds. The track shows it passing over Haiti between Cayes & Port au Prince sometime in the late morning."

Rob

New Pastor in Aux Coteaux

From: MEBSH Church at Coteaux (HAITI)
To: Grace Lutheran Church (USA)
Subject: Information.


Dear Beloved,

I am very happy to write this letter to you and greet you as Brothers in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How are things in your church? I hope that everything is going well for you and your family.

I would like to introduce myself and give you some information about my family. My name is Pastor Jean Tatho Romelus, I am the new Pastor of Coteaux Baptist Church. I am 40 years old and I've been a Pastor for 9 years. I have worked in two other churches. I have a license in Theology and Law. This means that I am a lawyer as well as a pastor. I am married to a beautiful Christian woman named Edmond Enalia. She is 38 years old and teaches cooking and art.

I thank God because he has given us Four (4) children:
Their names are:
Marie Serge Elisabeth Romelus is 12 years old and is in the seventh grade in primary school.
Jean Luc Robenson Romelus is 10 years old and is in the third grade in primary school.
Marc Taylor Jefferson Romelus is 4 years old and is in the second year of kindergarten.
Rhodes Esther Vwaldy Romelus is 2 years old.

Please to pray for me that I will be able to do the work that God entrusted to me. The Coteaux Church members have told me how you have helped them and worked with them well for many years. As the new Pastor I want to say thank you for everything you have done for Aux Coteaux Church. I am looking forward to developing a good relationship with you for the glory of God.

I would like to thank the staff of Reciprocal Ministries International here in Haiti for the way they have taken care of me and how they welcomed me when I first came in their office. I pray that during my ministry in Coteaux, our relationship will become stronger for the glory of God and the benefit of the community.

I hope that God will keep blessing you in your ministry. I love you all in the name of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Jean Tatho Romelus

Morency Letter

From: Morency Baptist Church, Haiti.
To: Sunrise Community Church, USA.
Subject: Thank you and Information.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus who is all powerful. He is our hope in good and bad times.

When you leave your country and come to see us here, you give us a lot of gifts, you build houses for us, you enable our kids here to go to school and most importantly you always keep us in prayer. We realize only the love of Jesus Christ can put us together to work as brothers and sisters for his glory. Thank you very much for everything you have done for us in Morency. We would especially like to thank you for the help you give our children with school every year. The parents and I are very grateful and pray for you every day.

Thank you very much for the letter you sent us. We really appreciate that you are thinking about us and love us. Your words are always a blessing for us in Morency. I just want to remind you that we love you and as a new Pastor I am looking forward to meeting you and spending a few days with you here in Morency next year if it is God’s will.

Please pray that God will provide our needs. We are praying for you and we love you in Christ.

May God richly bless you and your church!

Pastor Jean Robert Brunache

Tropical Storm Fay was kind to RMI!

Tropical Storm Fay made landfall much earlier and further south than had been predicted, putting Ft. Myers and Lehigh Acres where the RMI office, Dan Shoemaker's home and Rob Thompson's home is located on the "tame" left side of the storm. The same was true for Herb and Shirley Shoemaker's home in Naples. There was flooding (over 5" of rain!) and some fierce winds, but no damage to the office nor any of our homes. The wind did set off the office alarm. The police responded within about 5 minutes and found nothing amiss.

Hurricane Andrew, 14 years ago (August 24, 2002) is still fresh in our minds, so we are all very thankful for God's mercy and protection during TS Fay!

Here is a picture of Dan & Debbie's neighbor's yard just to give you an idea of the rainfall.

Tropical Update

Wow, what fun it is to be home. We have intermitten electricity, high cost of electricity (so no A/C during the day and only sometimes at night), high temps during the day, high humidity, and Tropical Storm Fay. Stll it's good to be home.

When we woke today, there was a little rain, and cloudy skies. We decided to take a quick trip into town to get the necessary ingredients for our Haiti Dominoes Pizza. (That is pizza that you make yourself) After about 15 minutes in town the bottom fell out. Suddenly all the little motorcycles, and people walking and much of the car traffic was gone. It has now been raining HARD for about 3 hours with no sign of letting up. In fact all the satellite services are gone as there is more cloud than signal. I had to wait until our internet came up before I could post this blog. How do you know you are in Haiti? When you are driving in a torrential rainstorm and you see a guy soaking wet, walking down the street with a turkey under his arm.

The weather channel says that we will have this for another 24 hours or so. We pray that there is not much flooding. However, when we were driving through the little village near our home, the road was already running like a small river. At least we are having a break in the heat.

Tiburon Update

From: Tiburon Baptist Church.
To: Crossroad United Methodist Church(USA).

Dear Collaborators,

I greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How are you doing in your activities? I hope that everything is going well for your church. In the name of the Deacons of our church here, we greet all of you in the name of the Lord and his son Jesus Christ.

First of all, I want to say thank you to God because he has given us an opportunity to work together as brothers in Christ. Here, in Tiburon everything is going very well so far. Our church here is working well even though we are facing a difficult time right now, but we bless the name of the Lord for the faithfulness of the Christians. Thank you very much for everything you've done for Tiburon church and what you are planning to do for us. I know that your presence is a blessing for our church and we believe that God will reward you for everything that Crossroad United Methodist does for Tiburon. Once again, thank you very much for your prayer.

Since you left us last year, the members of the church never stop working because they are looking forward to your return and the dedication of Tiburon's church to God while you are here in October 2008. We are working very hard to finish everything before you arrive. Even though we still have a lot to do, we are counting on God's promises and we believe we will be on time for the dedication. Please pray for us here as we lift you up before God while you prepare to come.

All the members in the church send their greeting and they are looking forward to having a good time with you again this year again. Please, pray for us here that God will watch over us and that we can all meet safely when your team comes in October.

May God bless you and send his blessings upon your church in the USA!

Pastor: Roland Lundy
Deacon: Corila Romelus.
Deacon: Daniel Cherisme.
Deacon: Ernest Berlus.
Deacon: Carilus Beaucejour.

Tiburon Update

From: Tiburon Baptist Church.
To: Crossroad United Methodist Church(USA).

Dear Collaborators,

I greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How are you doing in your activities? I hope that everything is going well for your church. In the name of the Deacons of our church here, we greet all of you in the name of the Lord and his son Jesus Christ.

First of all, I want to say thank you to God because he has given us an opportunity to work together as brothers in Christ. Here, in Tiburon everything is going very well so far. Our church here is working well even though we are facing a difficult time right now, but we bless the name of the Lord for the faithfulness of the Christians. Thank you very much for everything you've done for Tiburon church and what you are planning to do for us. I know that your presence is a blessing for our church and we believe that God will reward you for everything that Crossroad United Methodist does for Tiburon. Once again, thank you very much for your prayer.

Since you left us last year, the members of the church never stop working because they are looking forward to your return and the dedication of Tiburon's church to God while you are here in October 2008. We are working very hard to finish everything before you arrive. Even though we still have a lot to do, we are counting on God's promises and we believe we will be on time for the dedication. Please pray for us here as we lift you up before God while you prepare to come.

All the members in the church send their greeting and they are looking forward to having a good time with you again this year again. Please, pray for us here that God will watch over us and that we can all meet safely when your team comes in October.

May God bless you and send his blessings upon your church in the USA!

Pastor: Roland Lundy
Deacon: Corila Romelus.
Deacon: Daniel Cherisme.
Deacon: Ernest Berlus.
Deacon: Carilus Beaucejour.

The Leadership Summit

August 7 and 8 I had the opportunity to attend the Willow Creek Association "The Leadership Summit" they produce every year. It is beamed via satellite into more than 100 locations in the US. What a great opportunity to be immersed in awesome teaching. As speaker after speaker shared from their hearts about leaders and spiritual as well as practical principles of leadership, I was challenged and re-vitalized.

It was a great time of input into my life personally and as a leader. I have some good input that will help me as an RMI leader. I was also able to make some good contacts for possible future sister churches.

But mostly I appreciated the emphasis from all the speakers on the need as leaders for spiritual holiness, freshness, and devotion to Christ. No matter the ministry, organization, or company, the first order of business is your own personal pursuit of holiness. Funny how that sounds so biblical! However, in the pursuit of providing good leadership it is so easy to forget the foundation.

I needed to hear those words. I was challenged in my own faith to verify my continual pursuit of Christ. How close am I to my Lord? How sold out am I for Him? Can I say as one speaker said, "Bring it on God! Whatever you want, I am yours".

How about you? Are you pursuing God? What is your first order of business? Can you say to God, "Bring it on God! "?

Dan Shoemaker

Update: the cast if off, the boot is on!

Jenn's x-rays were reviewed by Dr. Bill (the US doctor who is the director of the clinic) and he was able to determine that there were no broken bones as was thought. She does has a torn ligament. The cast was taken off today and she is now in a boot. She'll have to wear it for a while until her foot is healed.

She shares that she is so happy to be able to bath normally now, not to mention drive more easily!

Update: the cast is off, the boot is on

Jenn's xrays were reviewed by Dr. Bill (the US doctor who is the director of the clinic) and he was able to determine that there were no broken bones as was thought.  She does has a torn ligament.  The cast was taken off today and she is now in a boot.  She'll have to wear it for a while until her foot is healed.

She shares that she is so happy to be able to bath normally now, not to mention drive more easily!

Mailboat's in: Picot to Trinity

From: MEBSH Church at Picot, Haiti.
To: Trinity Bible Church, USA


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Christians in Picot Church greet all of you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is my first letter to write you since you left us here after your last visit in Haiti. In the name of the communities of the church, in the name of the members, in the name of youth, the kids, and the ladies in the church we greet all of you again.

We say thanks to God for the good time he allowed us to have together during your last visit. We were very happy to see all of you during your visit. My family is doing very well and I want to let you know that my first daughter who was married last December is now pregnant. The students are in vacation now and we are going to have the Vacation Bible School with all them. God blessed us this year because we had a good rainy season and the farmers planted gardens to take of their families. As you know life is very difficult here in Haiti but God has an special way to take care of His children.

All the members in Picot church say thank you for the generator, the sound system and the money for helping the families in the church. We shared with 91 families and 27 other people that were very much in need. They were very happy to receive the support and they are praying for you all the time and asking God to bless your church.

Our activities are going very well for the district. We always have service every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. All the groups are working very well and they want you please to pray for them so that God can give them strength to do his work until he comes to take them with him to Heaven. We had a convention for the members where 335 members participated. We had some nice worship service and some good speakers that were there to share the spiritual food with us.

I am working on four new rooms on the parsonage. Please pray for us that God will provide. This year again we had two ceremonies of graduation. One is for the Kindergarten and the other one is for the young ladies that were in the sowing school (Center). Every year we had Vacation Bible School with Kids, so this year again from July 7th to July 13th we are going to have VBS for all the kids in the district. Please pray for us so that we can have a good time with kids.

Please pray also for Elliassaint family because Brother Tiyel was an old deacon in the church but unfortunately he died.

Finally, I want you please to pray for all the Christians in Picot Church and once again thank you for everything you have done for Picot church.

May God bless your church abundantly!

For the committee:

Pastort Calixte Dorval
Brother Amos Dorvil
Brother Andre vessano
Brother Esleve Nadin

Chambellan to Crossroads

From: M.E.B.S.H. Church at Chambellan
To : Crossroad Bible Church (Texas).


Dear Brothers and Sisters.

I greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How are you doing my dear beloved? I hope that everything is going very well for you and your church.

The reason I write this letter to you is thanks you for your help and your support for Chambellan church. Praise the Lord my family is doing very well but we are very sad to hear that you cannot come here to visit us this year. Your visit is very important for us because when you come here; it's a blessing for all the Christians here in Chambellan Church.

Our activities are going very well here. We had a very good conference service during the Easter season. Many Christians from all the churches in the district came to worship and praise God with us. We always have a Bible study here in our church with the Kids and they are always so interested to learn the word of God. We pray all the time for our sister church in Texas and I believe that God will watch over you. Thank you for all the financial help that you sent this year so that our kids can go school. We are very grateful for that.

Please, pray for the families in the church because they are facing difficult problems this year with food being very expensive it is hard to feed their children. A lot of them are very sick and many have already died. Please pray that God will lead our government with the destiny of this country.

May God richly bless your church and your family!


Pastor Jean Benoit

A Letter to Creekside

From: M.E.B.S.H. Church at Baradere
To : Creekside Community Church.

Dear Brothers and Sisters.

It is a great joy for me to write you and greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How are you doing in your church? I hope that everything is going well for you by the grace of his son Jesus Christ.

Here in Baradere, we are doing very well. Our spiritual activities are going very well. We always have nice services every week. We have Sunday school, the worship service, a Tuesday night service and a Bible study every Thursday. In the first week of July we are going to have a big convention for the whole district and we are going to have a community sale at the church. Praise the Lord the church is growing in numbers because we had 3 persons that accepted Jesus as their savior and 3 affiliations as well as two couples that are going to get married.

Thank you very much for your help and your support to our kids here in Baradere. Thank you for helping them with school again this year. This year we sent 107 students to the officials' exams this year and we believe that God will help them pass the test. Please, pray for them so that we can have a good result. Thank you again for your help for the parsonage. We are working so hard to finish it before your next visit, because we want to receive all of you in the same house. I mean the team and the RMI staff.

I wish that everything will be fine for you. Please, pray for us as we will do the same for you too. Pray specially for the ladies here because they are going to have a great party and after that they will close the party with an open air service.

I send my greeting to everyone in your church especially Pastor Richard, Brother Toby, Brother Tom, Brother Wes, Doctor John and everyone else. We love you and we pray for you all the time.


Pastor Leon Bonhomme.

Jenn has broken her foot!

Haiti missionary, Jenn Rogan, fell on her motorcycle yesterday afternoon.  She injured her right foot just a bit.  She knew her foot hurt, but it wasn’t until later that it started swelling.  They put ice on it throughout the evening.  This morning she went to the clinic for x-rays and it showed a small fracture in a small bone just below her ankle, in her foot.  She is in a cast and finding it very frustrating to be on crutches.  She’s unable to drive anything (motorcycle or car).  Dr. Bill, the director of the clinic (who comes in once a month for a week), is coming tomorrow, so she is going to ask him to look at the x-ray and see if he’ll approve of her being in a boot instead of a full cast.

Pray for her patience during this time.  She has a lot on her plate, plus the summer heat is stifling as usual – not the time to have to have a heavy cast.

Outback was Outstanding!

Our first team after returning to Haiti has come and gone. It was "Outstanding", as the team leader would say. We had a wonderful time out in Les Irois Haiti.

This team was what Harper E Free Church called a "rogue team", because it was planned outside of their regular sister church visits. The team members consisted of 5 married couples and the main project was a marriage seminar. Other events were done like a HFK's meeting, a youth meeting and a Ladies Tea.

We also walked 2 miles up the mountain to visit a satellite church in Jorge, but the main focus of the trip was the marriage seminar. When Billy and I visited Harper church in Washington state back in March of this year, we were not sure how this kind of seminar would go in Haiti as we had not handled this kind of project before. We have done leadership seminars, youth seminars, ladies seminars, but the marriage seminar was new for us. We were concerned about many different things but our main concern was that the teaching be fruitful and with the cultural differences, we just didn't know if that was possible. We were also a little concerned as to what it might "stir up" in the marriages of the leadership at Les Irois church and the surrounding satellite churches. We didn't know if they would be open with us or receive the teaching well. There was some concern that they wouldn't openly share their struggles especially with their spouses sitting in the same room with them. Well, God knew what He was doing when he put this team together. It was an amazing time. Pastor John Edgecomb, of Harper E Free Church did an outstanding job of putting together material for the marriage seminar. Billy and I worked together to tweek it to meet the culture here. Benjamin (our head translator) was instrumental in translating the material where it could be understood culturally and yet not lose any of the value in it. And God showed up! Doesn't He always! Sometimes I wonder why we doubt HIM! If we just take the steps He will direct our paths and that is what this team did. We worked together to make sure that all bases were covered as best as they could be and then we prayed and turned it over to Father God.

The first day of the seminar went very well. Pastor John gave his teaching and then we broke up into small groups. We wanted to separate the men and women and see if they would open up to us about some of their struggles. Our team of Americans began by sharing some of the struggles they have in their marriages hoping to set the example. I just about fell off my chair when these Haitian men & women started opening up. They shared their struggles and were very open about wanting to work to find solutions. I was just amazed at how God worked in them. They were open to trying to work on their own behavior instead of trying to change their husbands or wives. What was even more amazing that first day was that the men's group talked longer than the women's group. They say that women have 10,000 words per day and men only have 2,500, well that was not the case during this particular session.
On the 2nd day of the seminar, the direction we were going was changed by a question that was asked by one of the Haitian pastors. Pastor John Edgecomb felt led to "go with it", so as a team that is what we did. The question was, "what do you do when one of you feel called to ministry and the other one does not?". Pastor John looked at Billy and I and asked us if we would be willing to share our testimony about how we were called into full time ministry. We shared with the whole group how we struggled with one being called and the other not and how God changed my heart after a season of prayer. Amazingly, one of the other couples on the US team had a similar testimony with a very different outcome, one that took them out of full time ministry in the church. They shared their testimony right after ours. Both testimonies being shared back to back like that gave the Leadership two great examples of how God works differently in our lives and what He might be calling one couple to do, might not be what His desire is for the other couple. These examples are just a couple of the ways that God worked in the lives of these people during this seminar. The church at Les Irois is excited to take this teaching to the leadership and others in their church congregations.
At the end of the 2nd day of seminars, every couple present, Americans and Haitians renewed our wedding vows. We started with Pastor John Edgecomb leading the renewing of vows between the Pastor of the Les Irois Church and then he in turn lead Pastor John and his wife Cyndee in the renewing of their vows. After they were done, then the rest of us couples did a group renewing of our vows with the American pastor saying them in English and the Haitian pastor saying them in Creole. I don't believe the Haitians had ever seen anything like this before, at least not at this particular church. It was awesome to see and everyone celebrated with wedding cake after the last kiss. I have to say that our staff were tickled at Billy and I renewing our vows. They whooped and hollered and were teasing us about our kiss.

As a special bonus for the Haitian church, the US church came with 10 beautiful wedding dresses for the church to loan to couples when they get married. This is very important to the Haitian people. They want to be dressed beautifully for this most important day!

The team had a couple of days to decompress both at Zanglais at the Retreat Center and here at the Mission Center before leaving early Friday morning. Our family got up together and accompanied them to the airport. Yes all 4 of us got up at 5am. There were lots of tears as we said our goodbyes and the Harper team got on the plane. They have since arrived home safely and are sharing the stories of how their trip went with family and friends.
Pastor John Edgecomb shared with Billy and I how special it was for us to be a part of the team and even told us that they considered the rogue team 2008 to be 6 couples not 5, as it had originally started out. It touched our hearts to get so connected to not only our American team but also the Haitian people in Les Irois. This was a great homecoming for us and an Outstanding trip.

Debbie Moses