Saturday, February 14, 2015

RMI's Field Missionaries

We have begun calling our entire staff "missionaries", both foreign and domestic.   Why? We want to emphasize that we are all here as ONE TEAM, with ONE CALLING, for ONE MISSION, no matter the color of our skin or the location of our original zip code.

"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV

"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:24 ESV

All of RMI's Field Missionaries

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Ask Yourself This Question...

Will you eat today?  That's a real question that many people ask every day in the majority world.  America is the minority, it's not even close.

Here in Haiti, TODAY, 5075 children will eat because they are in our Hope for Kidz Hot Lunch program.  "For more than half it will be their ONLY meal."  We are privileged to be able to be the hands who are able to get this food to them.


It takes a lot of work... many partners working together, believing in one another, and a great deal of logistics, trust and team work to make it all happen.  Not just happen, but happen with excellence.  We are grateful for Feed My Starving Children who donates the food itself to us and the many volunteers who we don't even know who pack this food.  We are grateful for Food for the Poor - Haiti who provides reduced shipping costs and provides expert expedited shipping logistics.  We are grateful for our donors who make this all possible, including covering our shipping, distribution, management and oversight costs.  We are grateful for the RMI national staff who are doing the work of getting this food into the hands of so many.  We are grateful for our school cooks who take great care in cooking and distributing this food everyday.

We invest a lot of time in seeking to do things right.  We unload and load, store and deliver the food, provide accountability, track stock, produce reports, procure and manage funding, oversee food storage depots in 20+ locations, plus much more.  All in the name of, and to lift up the name of Christ.

Last year, we provided a total of 865,296 meals just in our Hope for Kidz Hot Lunch program alone.  Through our total Food for Health program, the number jumps to 1,206,576 meals!  Frankly, these numbers are hard to even comprehend.  Just think... there were 1,206,576 times people put nutritious food into their mouths in the last year.  That's just awesome!

Help us Help more...  there are 2 ways to financially help provide more meals.  For every $25 donation to RMI's "Food for Health" program, a family of 6 will eat one nutritious meal a day for a month.  For $10/month, you can feed 2 children a day for an entire school year through our "Feeding Two" initiative. Please DONATE here.

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

February 2015 Ministry Highlights...

Each month we have a feature that appears on the back of each paper receipt and now appears in text on the e-receipts. Some of the items also appear here in our blog. We didn’t want you to miss out on any news, so we’re going to be posting them here.

This month's Ministry Highlights featured:

13,000 Kids De-Wormed...
In December, the 3rd Annual Hope for Kidz (HFK) Deworming seminar was held. All the school administrators attended to review the program protocols and the meds were distributed for the clinics at their schools.

The last two years we’ve taught these school leaders how to administer and keep good records of deworming meds distributed at their schools as well as gave them educational materials and training on how to teach worm prevention to each of their classes. This year we distributed deworming medication and cups to 51 schools for 12,576 students and 508 teachers. That’s right, we handed out over 13,000 doses of deworming meds!


If you sponsor a child through Hope for Kidz, don’t miss the impact you are making in this small area of the program! A portion of each sponsorship goes toward deworming as a whole and has a big impact on not only a sponsored child, but that child’s school and community. Not only sponsored children receive the medication and education, but every child in that school. The more people in one school and/or community who receive deworming treatment each year, the less worm infections in that school and in the community. Add to that the prevention teaching they receive at school through the deworming program (which includes important education on hygiene and cleaning of food). The leaders shared that the impact this treatment has had on their students has been dramatic and obvious. 

Leadership Training...
Leadership training is a very important ministry of RMI. This kind of training is hard to come by for the typical pastor. Bayou Church (Lafayette, LA) sent several of their leaders to teach a 3 day leadership training seminar to the pastor of their Sister Church as well as pastors and leaders from a number of surrounding churches. Taking place at the Zanglais Retreat Center, they worshipped, studied the scriptures, sang, played and ate together. The “trust fall” was especially interesting since the pastors had never participated in anything like this before. It was a refreshing and encouraging time and will be well used in their leadership of their churches.


Goats Receive Vaccines...
In 2014 RMI was able to deliver 108 goats for our partner churches. But the story doesn’t end there. Several of our national staff are trained veterinarian technicians. Recently they made trips to visit the goats to do checkups and give vaccines. These visits are a valuable tool to give these goats a greater chance to grow and reproduce, giving the new owners a better chance to provide for their families.

Providing goats is an excellent tool gives these families a hand up, enabling them to become more independent. It also gives them dignity and an increased sense of worth. Quite a return on your money, wouldn’t you say?