RMI founders, Herb and Shirley Shoemaker, were honored during the recent RMI Board Meetings for their 50 years of faithful and sacrificial service in ministry. Dec. 6, 1961 they went to Haiti with their 4 year old son, Dan. That son, now RMI’s President and RMI’s Chairman of the Board, Billy Byrd, presented them with a framed certificate of honor and an engraved gift at the Semi-annual Board meeting dinner on Dec. 8.
What a legacy! We are grateful to them for their steadfastness, their enduring love for Haiti and their continued involvement with RMI. It is because of them that RMI exists and is where it is today.
RMI’s national Haiti Administrator, Benjamin Altema, was also able to be present at the RMI dinner. He was in Ft. Myers at the annual ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) conference. Being a trained agronomist, it is a part of his continuing education and networking opportunities that RMI provides. Besides his being connected to RMI by being an employee, he has a personal connection to Herb and Shirley since he was a little child. His mother worked for Herb and Shirley in their home in Haiti since she was 18. Her husband asked Herb for her hand in marriage. When Dan returned to Haiti, as a single missionary, she worked for him until he left to get married. When he returned, she worked in Dan and Debbie’s household for many years until the day they left. Benjamin started working for RMI on a part time basis in the last few years before Dan and Debbie moved to the US. The Shoemaker and Altema families are intricately connected.
He was happy to share a few words at the dinner.
Thank you, Herb and Shirley, for your outstanding example, selfless servanthood and dedication to the Lord for these past 50 years!
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