RMI’s 2009 Christmas Party

Kim and Barb Rose were gracious hosts for RMI’s 2009 Christmas Party. Thanks, Kim & Barb, for the use of your home, the good food and the even better fellowship.

Rob & Becky Thompson, Dan & Debbie Shoemaker, Charlotte & Mel Zegers (Charlotte is one of RMI’s faithful volunteers!).

Herb & Shirley Shoemaker, Mary Anne Cosper (Deb’s mom who is living with us for several months) and Barb & Kim Rose.

Barb & Kim Rose and their son, Mason.

Dan & Debbie Shoemaker

Dawn Shoemaker (a freshman at Trinity College of Florida) and her PopPop, Herb Shoemaker.

Goodbye Rob & Becky! Their container is packed and gone. They left for New Jersey (and 2 feet of snow) the next day. Their time in the RMI office is finished and their departure for Haiti is fast approaching!

The end of an era! Bittersweet but exciting at the time time.

Merry Christmas from RMI!

Food for the Widows

Recently RMI was able to obtain 600 cases of pre-mixed food from Food for the Poor. Five Sister Churches participated in covering the cost. Pastor Jim Bry, the pastor of one of those churches, Second Cape May Baptist Church, Marmora, NJ asked Dan to go with him to help hand out the 150 cases of food aid that his church covered.

He and Dan were in Haiti last week Dec. 16-18 (yes, it was a very quick trip!) to do this.

Pastor Jim, Dan and all the guys unloading were all smiles.

Each widow & widower received enough for 108 well-balanced, nutritional meals.

Pastor Jim was excited to be there in person to show his church’s love and care for these widows and widowers.

Going home happy!

Pastors Jim Bry and Yvon, Dan Shoemaker, 3 RMI Haiti staff men and 3 district pastors in the church yard after the Port-a-Piment distribution. The rest of the cases of food (130 cases) will be distributed in the district with some of their most needy families.

If you want to see more pictures, click here.

The other 4 churches’ food was delivered this week. These Haitian Sister churches felt God’s love to them in a very real, tangible way through this food!

Dan is in Haiti

Pray for Dan as he is in Haiti for 3 days. He went in with Pastor Jim Bry of 2nd Cape May Baptist Church, Marmora, NJ. They went to hand out food aid that Pastor Jim's church bought for their Sister Church. It should be an exciting day! Photos will be forthcoming once they get back. It’s special to be a part of helping our Haitian brothers and sisters where they hurt.

Jules & a bone marrow transplant

Dan talked with Jules today and learned that he has started the process for his bone marrow transplant. The first phase is for him to receive some heavy chemo therapy. This past Thursday (Dec 3) he underwent a procedure that placed a valve in a vein in his neck that will be there for 2 months. He stayed overnight in the hospital for observation and went home on Friday the 4^th. They are now giving him heavy doses, much heavier than before evidently, of chemo that is causing him much more side effect issues.

He goes to the hospital now 3 days a week for a couple of hours a day for his chemo treatment and then goes back to their efficiency apartment. This will go on until his transplant. They have not given him a date yet but we are guessing they will probably do it in January sometime.

He takes 42 pills a day. Dan joked with him that he doesn’t need meat now that he gets to eat all these pills! (Jules really loves meat!) With the stronger chemo now he is finding it more difficult to eat regular food as he has a tougher time with nausea, etc.

He sounded encouraged though. Please pray for God’s intervention and healing for him. What a great testimony this would be. Thank you for your participation with him in this.

Excellent Board Meetings!

Thank you for your prayers for RMI’s semi-annual board meetings last week. Thursday and Friday RMI’s Board came together here in Ft. Myers. Our board members are encouraged to include their spouses in the meetings and we were happy that all but one were able to attend. They add a great dimension to the meetings, asking insightful questions and participating in the discussions. We welcomed a new Board member, Tim (and Trish) Osborne (Trinity Bible Church, Lafayette, LA). They have been friends of RMI for about 20 years (ever since their kids and our kids were very small), so they have the perspective of many years of history of being on teams and involvement through their local church. Tim is Trinity’s missions pastor, so he comes with a worldwide perspective. They jumped right in with a real desire to understand RMI further and be an active member of the board. They are a great addition!

Another new item was Kim Rose’s participation. He was there with Rob, learning the ropes of presenting the financial reports, answering questions, discussing budgets, etc, as our new VP of Ops. Again, another excellent addition to RMI’s administration.

And it was Rob’s last board meeting as VP of Ops. I’m not sure, but I think I heard a big sigh of relief from him when the final closing prayer was said Friday afternoon! We will miss him and his valuable input. Yet at the same time we look forward to having he and his family on the field in Haiti.

We really feel that with these additional personnel and new initiatives that were introduced and approved at the meetings, we are poised to surge forward into the New Year. The one thing lacking is finances! Yes, it’s a big “thing”, one that was the subject of much discussion at the meetings since giving is down significantly. We really need you to partner with us in asking the Lord to bring the funds in in the next 3 weeks, before the year’s end, to reach the matching grant challenge. It is so important to enable RMI to not only finish the year in the black, but with some reserve to jumpstart things in the New Year.

Can you do something now toward this need? RMI's Ways to Give will help you do this right here!