Behind the Scenes…

Greetings from Haiti!  Wow, what a summer!  Our staff has been working hard.  Not only have we received several teams, but we have been working hard here in our office to support all of our programs.

Among other things, we have spent significant time processing and receiving several containers, maintaining vehicles and other equipment, facilitating active projects (construction and spiritual), receiving new missionaries, visiting all of our Haitian partner churches and schools, preparing for a new HFK school year, providing updates to our US Partners, and planning for the future.  We love what we get to do.

If you could be a fly on the wall of the RMI Haiti Office, you would likely be amazed to watch the amount of behind the scenes activity that happens here on a daily basis.  It’s extraordinary.  We are grateful for the faithfulness and hard work of the whole team…

New Life, New Culture, New Home, New Job–The Nunemakers Have Arrived in Haiti

July 20 was a notable day in RMI history. This was the day that the Nunemaker family flew to Haiti!

They prayed, planned, packed, moved, traveled and raised support for several years. Their container arrived before them, was unpacked by the RMI staff and put directly in the house that was waiting for them. [For those of you who have been to Haiti in the last few years, their house was formerly RMI’s Guest House and temporary RMI Haiti office.]

They got right to work unpacking and settling in. Field orientation was an eye opener for them as they learned how to live life all over again in a new culture….learning how and where to shop, about Haitian currency, how the water system works, learning the ins and outs of having city electricity, mission center electricity and a generator and invertor for the house, meeting their fellow RMI missionaries and other missionaries living in the area and finding out which families have kids the same ages as the boys, hiring help to work in the yard and in the house….so many new things!

Lee, Tina, Daniel and Josiah have started language lessons, which will take about 3 months. RMI firmly believes that having a firm grasp on Creole is key to having an effective ministry, thus they are taking care of this first before getting directly involved in ministry. Tina is making preparations for homeschooling the boys in a few weeks and Lee will slowly be eased into his position as the C3 Partnership Coordinator overseeing 30+ C3 Partnerships. This recently created position will increase the effectiveness of the C3 Partnership Program through improved communication and oversight between C3 Partners. It will greatly ease the work load of Haiti Field Leader, Rob Thompson, allowing him to focus his time and energies on running the RMI Haiti field.

They’ve not wasted time in exploring Haiti and enjoying some of what the area has to offer. Their weekend excursions have involved motorcycle rides up into the mountains, a dip or two in mountain rivers and waterfalls, and some days at several beaches. They’ve become familiar with Haiti’s wildlife (there’s only 1 kind – tarantulas). The terrarium they brought already has a resident tarantula in it. 

And they’ve added a new family member: Tobi the dog. A mixture of several large dog breeds, he’s a huge but gentle giant. He came from another family who returned to the US but he’s already loyal to them and a good guard dog.

Tina summed things up this way: “Five years ago, Lee and I took a short term missions trip to Haiti that has changed our lives forever. Today, we live in the house that, at that time, was the guesthouse in which we stayed. We are surrounded by new friends from around the world, are learning a new language, and trying to take in all that we can of the Haitian culture. Some days all of this is easier to comprehend than others but all six of us are adjusting well to the new reality in which we live. Five years ago, we couldn’t imagine this life, now we can not imagine it any other way.” 

They have gone to Haiti on faith, relying on God to supply the rest of their support. They still lack 30%. Would you partner with them in this exciting ministry that God has given them? You can do that online HERE or send a check, earmarked for the Nunemakers’ support to RMI, 5475 Lee St., Suite 301, Lehigh Acres, FL 33971.

You can find both Lee and Tina on Facebook, and their blog can be found HERE.

Will you Pray?

Haiti is in the midst of a multi year drought.  The people are suffering.  Crops are dying.  Rivers are dry.  Wells are dry.  Rain is rare. It’s bad.

For RMI, it is also proving difficult.  This week, our cisterns at our Zanglais Retreat and Training Center ran dry.  Again.  We use this facility for all of our teams, leadership seminars, and outside groups. It’s VERY dry.  Our well has been dry for a number of years. 

A year of so ago we did some work to more efficiently collect rain water.  It helped.  Even though it seldom rains, we need to do all we can to collect it when it does.  Building additional water storage capacity may be the only solution, but it will cost us approximately $25,000 to do so.  This is about $24,999 more than we have.

We’ve talked to the experts.  They tell us drilling a another well in the area would be a gamble at best.  The coastal area there is known to be exceptionally dry.  The $5000 that it would cost to drill a well, would more than likely end up a total loss because the potential for finding water is very low.  Although it’s a chore, when our cisterns run low, we send our trucks and pumps to a nearby source.  Today I was told that that source has now run dry.  Wow.

We are really in a difficult situation.

As I shared with the team this morning.  I am tired of hearing about the problem.  I need to hear solutions.  The team member looked at me and said the only solution we can think of is prayer.  Period. 

Would you please pray for rain?  Pray for creative solutions.  Certainly not just for RMI.  Pray for Haiti.  Pray.

Here we are running some technical tests on our well.  It’s dusty dry. It’s dead.