She Received a Foundation for Her Future

Marie Mirline Batistin was born in 1989. Her mother had two children, one boy and one girl. Marie lost two precious things in life soon after her birth: her father, who died when she was two months old, and her mother when she was two years old. God, in his mercy, touched the heart of her grandparents to take care of her. Marie Mirline became a member of a Christian family of seven children, four boys and three girls, including Marie.

Marie took the last name after her grandfather (Batistin), who adopted her after her mother and father passed away. They did that to show how much that they loved her and cared about her. They fed her, dressed her, and treated her the same way they treated their own children. When the time came for Marie to go to school, they sent her. They were very surprised to see how great she did in school. She was always happy when it came to going to school, studying and doing homework. She always had good scores. Knowing her love for school and the lack of means of her parents to take care of all the children, Pastor Termitus Milien (he was the pastor of the MEBSH church in Morency at that time) presented her story to RMI’s Hope for Kidz Program and she was fortunate enough to be selected. She was sponsored by Pastor Jim Halstead, who was the pastor of Sunrise Evangelical Free Church, C3 Partner to the Morency church, at the time.  He was able to meet her in person in the mid-1990’s. The picture was taken at that time.  He supported her for a number of years. 

After she finished with primary school in Morency, she moved to Les Cayes to continue with high school. Knowing the story of her mother and her father, she took good advantage of what her grandparents did for her. She also did great in high school. She finished high school but couldn’t go to college due to the lack of funds. After high school, her dream was to study business administration because she loves business, dealing with people, communication, and being self-employed. Fortunately, her dream of being self-employed came true. She is now running her own small business in Port-au-Prince. She has two children, one boy and one girl.

When Benson, RMI’s Hope for Kidz Supervisor found her recently, she shared, “I started by growing up without a mother and father which created a big hole in my life, but having God in my life filled the hole.  …thank you to everyone including my RMI sponsor for helping me have a better future.  If I did not know how to read and write it would be disastrous for my life.” 

Marie still has the picture of his family that Pastor Jim gave her in 1995 when they met.  She continues to pray for them to this day. 

She has things she didn’t expect to have – the knowledge and tools to run her own business and now a family of her own.

Hope for Kidz truly transforms the lives of the kids that are sponsored.

Missionary Candidate Updates

Raising support to go to the field is a challenging time for missionaries.  They must continue with their full-time jobs as well as travel, share their ministry, and work hard at cultivating contacts and supporters that will  be on their ministry team.  That in and of itself is often a full-time job.  It also involves a lot of prayer!

Jim and April Starkey are in that phase of raising their support.  They have been working hard at contacting churches, Bible studies, family, friends and acquaintances.  It has been slow-going but their enthusiasm has not waned.  The boys, Isaac, Micaiah and Ezekiel, are equally excited and anticipating the move to Haiti.  Jim has already finished one online Creole learning language study and he speaks Creole only with their youngest, Ezekiel, who is quickly picking it up. 

They are in need of additional contacts. Do you know of churches and/or Bible studies that would be open to hearing them share their ministry?  Would you be willing to become one of their ministry partners and take them on for either monthly support or by making a one-time gift to their ministry? 

They live in Ohio, but are willing to travel!  They can be found on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jim.starkey and www.facebook.com/aprilcstarkey) as well as their website, www.toHaitiwego.com.   You can also donate online at www.RMIbridge.org/financial-donations.
 
The recent departure of the Harvies and Suttons have left a void in our Haiti staff that the Starkeys’ skills and talents will fill.  They are urgently needed on the field as soon as possible.  Please pray with us and the Starkeys that their support will come in quickly.

God’s timing is not always our timing - but we are assured that all things work together for good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  Thus we know that the delay in Jeff and Christina Speel’s departure for Haiti will work out for their good.  They were to leave in August but that date has been pushed back to the first week of January, 2019.

In late April, Jeff began to struggle with back issues.  He had back surgeries in 2010 and 2011 and has been good since then; however, issues began to flare up in April with two herniated discs, and worsened going into May.  In mid-May, he experienced disc fragmentation.  On top of this, he got a serious infection (cellulitis), and was hospitalized for nine days.  This was operated on June 1st.  Between surgery and antibiotics, the infection has now been resolved.  In an effort to avoid a third surgery on his back, he received two spinal epidural steroid injections that have helped tremendously to get swelling down.  He is currently under the care of a physical therapist to get his back in better shape in order to get the doctor’s clearance to go to Haiti.

God is still moving them toward Haiti.  Jeff’s physical issues are healing, his back is getting stronger, their home in New Jersey sold and they have moved in with Christina’s family in Speculator, NY. 

Jeff shared, “God is so clearly at work, and we know so many of you are praying!  Doctors are very happy with my progress, and we hope to serve in Haiti whenever I get the green light to do so.  Until then, we’re excited for all the many things RMI has us involved with stateside.  We will start language school online here in the States so that we get a good grasp on the Creole language.  We’ll also be studying from some assigned texts that will better equip us for the field.  We’ll continue to dialogue and meet various individuals/churches, sharing our hearts for Haiti and talking more about the ministry of RMI.”