New Photo Update from RMI...

Just a few more hours until 2017...and just a few more hours to make that end of the year donation. RMI needs your help to end the year well. We need your help so we can feed, house, and help the Haitian people who are still so devastated by Hurricane Matthew. Please consider RMI as you make your final year-end donations. You can donate online at http://ift.tt/2gFklbP or call RMI at 239-368-8390.

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While You Were Christmas Shopping

The Christmas season can be all consuming for us here in the US.  There’s shopping for gifts, wrapping those gifts (maybe mailing them too), decorating your house inside and out, Christmas concerts, programs and parties to attend, special meals with friends, caroling, some more shopping, and traffic – a lot more traffic from all those people trying to do the same stuff you are doing, with perhaps some travel thrown in there.  It’s a very busy time.  But while you were shopping, in a far away, very remote area of Haiti, goats, food aid and a pastor’s motorcycle were delivered, an RMI staff team has put on a roof of a parsonage and the site survey and prep work has begun for building a new parsonage.  Oh, and a house is being built for a widow and water filters are being installed.

Funds given by C3 partners far and wide have provided these badly needed things – things that will help those families and communities begin to recover.  A roof on a parsonage means that a pastor will be able to better care for his own family and for his congregation.  A goat means that a family can begin to be self- sufficient.  Food means that hungry families will have hot, nutritious meals that will sustain them.  A motorcycle for a pastor means that he doesn’t have to walk or ride a horse to the smaller churches and church plants that he’s responsible for.  Some of those smaller communities may not have had anyone come to check up on them and they desperately need to know that someone cares.  A water filter means that a family (and probably more since they’ll share the clean water with their neighbor and friends) will have clean drinking water which in turn means that they will be healthier and not threatened by cholera.  A house for a widow means that she won’t be sleeping in a makeshift lean-to.

Besides the obvious provisions, these things also provide hope and give the recipients renewed vigor and strength to help them continue on in their daily struggles.  It’s not just about rebuilding.  It’s also about recovering.  Coming alongside them in these days, weeks and months of such hardship after the hurricane is a healing balm to their souls.  Knowing that someone cares and the people in the US are praying for them and trying to help is indeed a comfort and is oh so encouraging.

Thank you to everyone who has given goats, seeds, water filters and much more to help Haiti in this rebuilding and recovery!  The need is still there.  If you haven’t done so or feel that you want to do more, you can donate HERE.

End 2016 with a Bang

Get the best “bang for your buck” by directing your end of year donations to RMI!

Your generous gifts will impact Southern Haiti by helping to continue these worthwhile programs:

    —Hurricane Relief Efforts
    —Child Education
    —Feeding Programs
    —Disease Prevention (water filters)

To see the details of these and other programs, please visit our website: www.RMIBridge.org.

Rebuild and Restore Teams Being Scheduled

Haiti’s recovery from Hurricane Matthew is going to be long and slow due to the totality of the devastation, the lack of resources, and the remote location in many cases.  RMI’s first priority is to get roofs of schools repaired/replaced so kids can get back to school.  This will help give families some semblance of normalcy.  Then we’ll focus on church and parsonage roofs as well as other repairs like benches.  With crops gone, hunger and malnutrition is everywhere now.  RMI is continuing to distribute food aid and water filters to meet these needs.

Rebuild and Restore teams are now being scheduled for the coming winter and spring season.  Your church can send a team or you can join a team that is already scheduled.  Go to www.rmibridge.org/rebuild-and-restore-work-teams for more details.  We need you!  You can be a part of rebuilding southern Haiti. 

Make Christmas Merry

Gift ideas that will leave a legacy...RMI is focusing on rebuilding Haiti in many ways.  This Christmas, instead of spending hours shopping, consider giving a gift of life to a family in Haiti to honor a family member or friend.

• GOATS:  A sustainable option that gives hope for a better future. A goat provides a family with means to help them nutritionally and financially.
• SEEDS:  Southern Haiti is the breadbasket of the country and the majority of families grow crops to feed their families and to sell. Crops were literally wiped out by the hurricane. Providing seeds gives life back to families.
• WATER FILTERS:  The lack of clean water is currently causing widespread outbreaks of Cholera, an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease. Our water filters are portable and easy to use, giving families safe water and protection from disease.

Ordering is simple—you can order online by visiting our website: www.RMIBridge.org and click on the Christmas Gift box. You can also place your order by mail or telephone. Toll free 877-764-5439 or 239-368-8390.

If you’d like to purchase a package (all 3 items) if you “round up” your order to $250 we will add a bonus pack of seeds to the gift.

*Seeds are purchased in bulk/pound, the quantity of seeds distributed will be determined by the type of crop.

Shop with a Smile

Your online shopping can benefit RMI - at no cost to you!

Visit smile.amazon.com and select Reciprocal Ministries as your charity of choice before you begin shopping. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation to RMI.  Replace your Amazon bookmark with smile.amazon.com so each time you shop, Amazon can donate on your behalf!

How easy is that?!  Thank you for remembering RMI this season!