Creekside Community Church in Baradares

In April Creekside Baptist Church visited their Sister Church in Baradere, Haiti.  The team was greeted at the edge of town by a small brigade of children and some of the adult church members and deacons. They marched the team through town to the Pastor’s house where they were greeted with a “Welcome to Baradere” poster and a song by the ladies of the church. It was a great start to a great visit.

The visit was bittersweet as it would be the last visit with Leon Bonhomme as the Pastor at Baradere as he and his wife will be transferring to another location in August of this year. Despite the sentiment of losing a dear friend in Pastor Bonhomme, the visit was a great time of fellowship between Creekside Community Church and the Baptist Church in Baradere. In addition to many of the normal activities such as an evangelistic service, Ladies Tea and the Deacon’s Meeting the team was able to spend a good bit time out in the community visiting and praying with some of the church widows and shut-ins, visiting the homes of their sponsored children and also the school to observe the CRS feeding program in action. In addition to the community visits the group also took an hour’s journey by boat out into open ocean to eventually reach the destination of Gran Boukan, one of the Baradere Satellite locations where they had a short service and a craft for the church members in attendance.

At the end of the week, back in Cayes, the team was able to spend a little time with the new Pastor and his wife who will be serving at Baradere starting in August.

Pastor Bonhomme and Renee just after the team’s arrival in Baradere.

Lee visiting the home of his sponsored child.

Joel hangin’ with some of the local youth

Laura and Joel with one of the Pharmacy Staff at the Hospital at Bonne Fin.  The team donated some medical supplies to the hospital.

It was a great week for both the US team and the Sister Church and in all the activities and events throughout the week it was a great time of building up the church, reaching out to the lost and encouraging one another in Christ.

Too see more pictures from the week check out RMI’s Online Picasa Web Album.

Did you miss RMI’s first webinar?

RMI held it’s first webinar on June 16, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

RMI’s **NEW** Starfish Strategy for Sister Church Partnership and its 5 Points of Strategic Impact was introduced and explained.

Other topics discussed included:
• Homes for Haiti Progress Report
• Hope for Kidz Update
• Food for Haiti Pre-Positioning Disaster Relief Need
• Upcoming 2011 Global Leadership Summit in Cayes, Haiti
• Life of Christ Picture Booklets
• Support Funding for Haitian RMI Staff

Each of these topics were discussed as it relates to the Starfish Strategy. We will be using the Starfish Strategy as the framework to evaluate each Sister Church Partnership in order to provide well developed, well-rounded holistic ministry to the Haitian Community that Sister Churches partner with. Additionally, we introduced the 2012 Sister Church Partnership Conference in February of next year in Fort Myers, Florida.

No need to worry if you missed this important webinar. You can catch up and listen to it HERE. To access and download the power point for the webinar go HERE.

Feel free to download the webinar and use it to catch up on what is going on in RMI and how it will affect your Sister Church relationship. It is something for your missions committee needs to hear so they understand the Starfish Strategy and how it will have a strategic impact on Haiti. Share it at a gathering of Haiti alumni or maybe even with another church in your area.

We are excited about this new tool! Not only does it give great updates, it’s live and interactive. People were able to send in questions during the webinar that could be answered right then. We hope to utilize this tool more in the future to better communicate with our volunteers, coordinators, teams, and churches.

Office Minutiae

If you have ever wondered what volunteers do around the RMI office…here is one project that has been going on:

The storage loft and shelving project has been expertly done by Roger Kruger, a member of Estero United Methodist Church, a Sister Church which is located in Southwest Florida not far from the RMI office. We’re excited to have room for long-term storage in the loft, which is accessible via a set of stairs that is winched up and down. We can now clear most of the floor surface in the garage section! This clear space is what we use for gathering things to be sent to Haiti and other projects. It will enable us to be much better organized and efficient.

Thank you so much for your hard work Roger!!!

30 minute interview on WRXY TV for RMI!

Tune in to WRXY TV, Christian Television Network on June 4 at 2:30 EST and again on June 9 at 10:30 pm EST. It will also be shown on these times at www.wrxytv.com. Paul Lodato will be interviewing RMI President, Dan Shoemaker, and RMI Ministry Development Coordinator, Amanda Biser, for WRXY’s Ministry Moments 30 minute segment. What an incredible opportunity for RMI to get our ministry more public exposure.

If you are in the Southwest Florida (Sarasota to Marco Island and Arcadia to Sanibel) area, these are the channels where WRXY can be found:

• Channel 49.1 - via air antenna
• Channel 10 - Comcast Cable; Fort Myers, North Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Lehigh Acres, Alva, Bokelia, Bonita Springs, Captiva, Estero, Naples, Pineland, St. James City, Sanibel Island, Cape Coral, LaBelle and Punta Gorda.
• Channel 22 - Comcast Cable in Cape Haze, Englewood and Port Charlotte.
• Channel 44 - Comcast Cable in Arcadia.
• Channel 10 - Marco Island Cable.
• Channel 049-00 - Dish Satellite
• Channel 49-2 - International programming to the diverse cultures of Southwest Florida.

If you are not within range of these channels, you can see it at the above times on www.wrxytv.com. It’s a great interview! Don’t miss it!

Pray that it will touch lives…

spark interest and possibly new Sister Churches….

result in more Hope for Kidz sponsors….

lay a burden that will provide food through Food for Haiti…

or give the urge to build more houses through Home for Haiti!!

Hello Maniche!

Florida Bible Church is preparing to visit their Sister Church next week. They made this video to take with them. There will be having a video and picture night one of the evenings that they are there. This is the greeting video and the pictures are ones that were taken during their visit last year. It should be a fun night.

This is a great idea for other churches to do! Great job Florida Bible!

RMI missionaries & staff sit down on the job

RMI missionaries and staff sit down on the job, 12 hrs. a day, in the rain, over the mountains, through the rivers - and we are proud of them!

May 31 (left to right) Benson, Wilfrid, Jan (non-RMI missionary), Dan (Jan’s son-in-law), Rob Thompson and Gary McLaughlin went on a 180 mile trip around the southern peninsula…in one day – in the rain! They delivered funds to one Sister Church pastor, checked on the progress of a project at another Sister Church and take pictures of a 5 couple wedding and deliver funds for that wedding at a 3rd Sister Church.

Gary posted the picture on his Facebook and his son, Joe, commented, “Some people's fathers retire and play golf and take it easy... NOT MINE!!!! I love it!!”

We couldn’t agree more. Our missionaries and staff are the best!!!