One More HFH Home Completed!

Mr. Benoit Joseph Cambry has been an active member of Picot Baptist Church for a long time. He is married with 7 children. They were living in a house of tarps for a long, long time. As you can imagine, this has been incredibly difficult, and even seems impossible.

When RMI told Pastor Calixte Dorval, the pastor of Picot Church, that we have a house to build for a family through RMI's Homes for Haiti Program, he and the church committee decided together that this family should receive this home.

Mr. Benoit Joseph Camby, the father. is a farmer. They work hard to make ends meet as they live their daily lives counting on the Lord to provide for the family. 

After we built the house we handed the keys to the family. The mom said to us “Thank you very, very much for changing my life and my family. We have lived in that tent house and I must tell you that when it rains it was like we were outside. Sometimes we think the kids pee in their bed, but in reality it was just rain water! When it rains nobody can sleep because we have to stand up until the rain stops. While everybody is praying to have rain, my family and I are very worried because the rain is not good for us. Once again thank you for all you do and thank you for changing my life."

As we were building this home, the mom would walk around singing praises and thanking the Lord. She was clearly grateful! The family helped as they were able to with the build itself.

We are also grateful for the opportunity we had because someone in the United States made a donation to help make this happen. Thank you to that donor and all praise goes to the Lord!

You can see more pictures here.

The first one is their original "house", the last one is their new home.

This is a picture of the old "Tarp" Home.

Interior work is being done.

This is the HFH Build Team
with some of the Family.

Finished!

Ministry is an action verb

Ministry around RMI is an action verb. If you wonder what goes on from day to day, in addition to preparing for, receiving and caring for teams, take a look at Gary McLaughlin’s Facebook page.

Feb. 24: “Saturday I put in 2 BioSand Water Filters, Monday 6 with to Haitian helpers and today going to do at least 3 more in the Picot area. Take a break at the water falls while in that area. :-) Marilyn is working on HFKz like always.”

[Left: Gary with one of the biosand recipients. Right: Another family with their biosand filter installed in their Homes for Haiti home.]

Feb. 23: “Tuesday we got 4 more water filters put in Haitian homes and yesterday, after working hours, I got another filter installed. First 45 almost finished and getting ready to bring out the next 30.”

March 2: “Yesterday Marie France and I delivered a refrigerator, 50 French Bibles and 50 Kreol Bibles to Astruc and then drove to Lievre to deliver 48 songbooks, 50 French Bibles and 50 Kreol Bibles. All gifts from their sister churches in the US. Today we are driving to Cherette to hand out clothes sent in by their sister church.”

[Left: Children modeling their new clothes from their Sister Church. Right: The Women’s Group modeling their new clothes!]

March 2: “Waiting for Our Savior's Lutheran from Lake Owego, Oregon to arrive at our guest house. Maybe around 3pm our time.”

A team from The Summit Church in Little Rock, Arkansas just left today and a team from Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Lake Oswego, Oregon is going in today. When they leave Trinity Bible Church, Lafayette, LA comes in and a week later The First Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church of Gastonia, NC is going in for their very first visit. In addition to this a family will be visiting the field for 2 weeks as they consider serving there with RMI.

Oh, and Dan will be in Merritt Island, FL, Chicago, Haiti and the Carolinas this month. Stay tuned for other happenings in RMI – we’re not quite ready to unveil them yet but you’ll like it! Yes, ministry is indeed an action verb here at RMI. There are no idle hands around here!

Home #50 is Complete. Much More to be Done.

RMI vigorously launched our campaign to provide housing to earthquake displaced families after the EQ of Jan 2010. Just the other day, we completed our 50th home! Praise the Lord! On the Haiti side, RMI Missionary Gary McLaughlin has done a great job in facilitating this program, and Wilfred Fanfan, RMI Construction Boss, has done a great job leading our Haitian build team to make it all happen.

I have had the privilege of handing over the keys to just a couple of these families. They had tears in their eyes and joy in their hearts. It’s been a pleasure for me to see it all happen.

Sadly, I constantly meet families, living even here in Cayes, who are still in a desperate situation due to a lack of stable housing. The tent cities in PAP remain.

Last week, right here in Cayes, I visited the home of a family of 7 who are living in a rented 64 sqft room, with only half a roof made of metal, the remainder a tarp. No beds. They all sleep together on a blanket on the ground. They lost their home in PAP in the EQ. No relief in sight. Typical story.

I met another family of 4 who lost their husband and father in the earthquake. They are living in a rented home. They have no income, and the Mom clearly can’t afford to send their 3 beautiful children to school. I was told the Homeowner is evicting them soon and they don’t know where they will go.

Story after story. They are hard to hear. May God listen to the cries of the masses here in Haiti. I am glad I get the honor of being on the front line of God’s response.

50 Homes for 50 families. Praise the Lord.

Rob

Did you miss RMI’s first webinar?

RMI held it’s first webinar on June 16, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

RMI’s **NEW** Starfish Strategy for Sister Church Partnership and its 5 Points of Strategic Impact was introduced and explained.

Other topics discussed included:
• Homes for Haiti Progress Report
• Hope for Kidz Update
• Food for Haiti Pre-Positioning Disaster Relief Need
• Upcoming 2011 Global Leadership Summit in Cayes, Haiti
• Life of Christ Picture Booklets
• Support Funding for Haitian RMI Staff

Each of these topics were discussed as it relates to the Starfish Strategy. We will be using the Starfish Strategy as the framework to evaluate each Sister Church Partnership in order to provide well developed, well-rounded holistic ministry to the Haitian Community that Sister Churches partner with. Additionally, we introduced the 2012 Sister Church Partnership Conference in February of next year in Fort Myers, Florida.

No need to worry if you missed this important webinar. You can catch up and listen to it HERE. To access and download the power point for the webinar go HERE.

Feel free to download the webinar and use it to catch up on what is going on in RMI and how it will affect your Sister Church relationship. It is something for your missions committee needs to hear so they understand the Starfish Strategy and how it will have a strategic impact on Haiti. Share it at a gathering of Haiti alumni or maybe even with another church in your area.

We are excited about this new tool! Not only does it give great updates, it’s live and interactive. People were able to send in questions during the webinar that could be answered right then. We hope to utilize this tool more in the future to better communicate with our volunteers, coordinators, teams, and churches.

30 minute interview on WRXY TV for RMI!

Tune in to WRXY TV, Christian Television Network on June 4 at 2:30 EST and again on June 9 at 10:30 pm EST. It will also be shown on these times at www.wrxytv.com. Paul Lodato will be interviewing RMI President, Dan Shoemaker, and RMI Ministry Development Coordinator, Amanda Biser, for WRXY’s Ministry Moments 30 minute segment. What an incredible opportunity for RMI to get our ministry more public exposure.

If you are in the Southwest Florida (Sarasota to Marco Island and Arcadia to Sanibel) area, these are the channels where WRXY can be found:

• Channel 49.1 - via air antenna
• Channel 10 - Comcast Cable; Fort Myers, North Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Lehigh Acres, Alva, Bokelia, Bonita Springs, Captiva, Estero, Naples, Pineland, St. James City, Sanibel Island, Cape Coral, LaBelle and Punta Gorda.
• Channel 22 - Comcast Cable in Cape Haze, Englewood and Port Charlotte.
• Channel 44 - Comcast Cable in Arcadia.
• Channel 10 - Marco Island Cable.
• Channel 049-00 - Dish Satellite
• Channel 49-2 - International programming to the diverse cultures of Southwest Florida.

If you are not within range of these channels, you can see it at the above times on www.wrxytv.com. It’s a great interview! Don’t miss it!

Pray that it will touch lives…

spark interest and possibly new Sister Churches….

result in more Hope for Kidz sponsors….

lay a burden that will provide food through Food for Haiti…

or give the urge to build more houses through Home for Haiti!!

Homes for Haiti going up in Leogane!

Gary and the Homes for Haiti staff headed to Leogane early this morning to put up two more houses. They left Cayes around 3am this morning and arrived in Leogane around 7am. They are currently working on one site and will most likely finish the first house and start on the second one this afternoon!.

Here are a couple pictures from a trip two weeks ago. All of the pictures from the week can be viewed in the Reciprocal Ministries Picasa Web Album

The original blog post is here.

Please keep in your prayers the families who are receiving these houses. Please keep the Homes for Haiti staff in your prayers as they work on the houses and for traveling mercies on the road as they return Thursday.

Two More Homes Ready to Go!

Just this afternoon our national Homes for Haiti staff loaded up the truck and headed off to Port au Prince to install two more homes.

Here they are in the depot yard loading the truck:

And here is the truck all loaded up and ready to go!

Wilfrid and his team will arrive in Port later this evening and will begin putting the homes up tomorrow and Thursday. Please pray for the guys as they travel to Port and over the next two days as they work on site.

Its so exciting to know that in just a few days two more families will have a place to call home!

Posts from Fred

Grace Lutheran Church member, Fred Feiertag, recently took a Homes for Haiti team to Haiti (his 4th team in the last 9 months!). Some pictures of the team working can be seen on the March 16th blog post.

The team of 3 men spent a week doing essential preparatory work for the next 24 houses to be built. These homes are larger than what has been built up to this point, (they are 16’ X 20’) and new “jigs” or “fixtures” had to be built so subsequent homes could be quickly and efficiently assembled. God knew that each man was key. It was definitely a God appointed team. Each one was an engineer – real problem solvers. The week was full of challenges, struggles and collective scratching of heads in frustration, but in the end, they got every fixture finished and even started one of the homes before they left.

While Fred was there, he was able to post updates on Facebook. [Times have changed, haven’t they?! Cell phones, laptops, and internet in Haiti….simply amazing!] We thought you’d enjoy reading how the week went from his perspective.

Saturday, the day before departure: Packed. At least all the stuff that I didn't forget to pack. Exciting discoveries await our arrival. Port Au Prince are you ready?

Sunday: In Miami airport. The clock says 6:24AM. Doesn't feel like it.

Sunday a.m.: Waiting for the mechanic. . .Airplane is full but an air conditioner unit doesn't want to go to Haiti. We are patient.

Sunday a.m.: On the ground in Port au Prince. Loong delay in MIA. Sunny in the 80's. Battery done.

Sunday p.m.: We have arrived at the guest house near Les Cayes in southern Haiti. It is about 9:30 PM and we have been traveling since around noon on Saturday. Despite many improvements getting here can still be a challenge. I'm sitting outdoors typing under a velvet black star strewn sky. The sounds of barking dogs and critics dominate. All is well except I can't get may phone to work. Tomorrow the real job starts.

Monday a.m.: Good Morning from Haiti. We slept like stones and are slowly starting to stir. It is a spectacular morning. The roosters and cows say so!

Monday a.m.: We are still stunned by the sights we saw yesterday in Port Au Prince. The fresh devastation in Japan makes it all the more stark. The vast tent encampments are now over a year old and only small and very haphazard are gone. We have come to Haiti to help change that. Our challenges are right here, right now

Monday evening: We had a good first day. Almost finished a new roof panel fixture that will build roof panels for the small and large house. It includes the porch roof into the panel. It is built to allow the large panel to be broken into two more manageable sub panels. It took a bunch of design and effort, but it looks like it will work

Tuesday evening: Tuesday and it must be time for more fixtures. Team 4 is still alive and working. We were successful in making the first panels for the larger house. The work moved to making a fixture for the end wall. Very complicated, by sunset we were about 75% done, and 100% tired and dirty.

Wednesday evening: Wednesday has come and gone. More progress to report. The new fixtures are done. All the panels for a new larger house have been made. The Haitian workers have made panels in the new fixtures and know how to do more. Many details yet to do, but the big test is tomorrow. Will they fit together on the foundation as a new house? Stay tuned.

Thursday evening: Team 4 report. It has been a very challenging day. One injury that took time to deal with and a string of technical details to keep us jumping. But in the end it was a big YES.

Thursday evening: Team 4 continued. Yes we could carry the parts to the work site and set up the walls. Yes the two part roof could be raised and rejoined. Yes, the bigger house can be built. The Haitian crew did much of the work and we helped deal with new things. By the end of the day the house was nearly finished.

Thursday evening: Team 4 some more. Was it easy? NO! Should we have come? YES!

RMI missionary, Gary McLaughlin, had this to say on his Facebook: Good day as we put up most of one new home 16' X 20'. Should finish it in the morning after I take the three amigos from Grace and the Roses to the Cance airport for their return trip to the US. The team did a great job making the fixtures and putting the house up today with our Haitian staff. THANKS Fred, Fred and Brian. Please come back again.

A Day in the Life of RMI

Today, like most every other day on the field, RMI was hard at work.

Here are some images from the depot yard just this morning!

At one end of the depot yard:

The Grace Homes for Haiti team is here and working on assembling some new panels for the new set of houses to be installed. They have set out the tools and the plans for the project:

Here they work on some new fixtures which are being measured and assembled.

And at the other end of the depot yard:

RMI mechanics are hard at work repairing and installing parts on the red truck

and working on Becky’s 4wheeler.

Later in the afternoon there was a meeting with the leadership team and Kim down at the Thompson’s House:

On the roof of their depot:

Kim makes his point, using a stand in white board (legal pad) and marker (ink pen). In Haiti, that’s what you call ‘degaje’ing it, which roughly translated means “making do” or
“rolling with it and making it work”

(Those not pictured: Becky, Pastor Jean and Amy)

Today was a busy day and much was accomplished. Looking forward to the activities tomorrow holds on store!

This is real life

January 12, 2010 changed life as Haiti knew it forever. It has been a defining moment for Haitians around the world just as 9/11 has been for Americans. How can a nation so desperately poor endure the loss of 250,000 people, all of it’s infrastructure, government buildings, businesses and countless schools, churches and homes all in less than 30 seconds?

How can it rebuild? Rebuilding implies that there was something there of worth in the first place. In many instances this wasn’t the case.

A late season hurricane hit the southern peninsula hard, severely affecting crops.

Cholera has reared its ugly head and killed over 3,600.

Life was hard before. Agonizing more often describes it now. But this is real life. It is inescapable and unforgettable.

The world has forgotten for the most part. There have been other happenings that have grabbed the headlines.

We here at RMI have not forgotten, and never will!! It was a “game changer” for us. It brought about a paradigm shift within RMI. One day we were solely involved in the Sister Church Program and Hope for Kidz. The next we were thrust into disaster recovery: organizing and delivering medical and relief supplies, flying in medical personnel, and organizing and delivering relief food aid. Our missionaries and national staff worked tirelessly for months trying to meet the needs of the earthquake survivors.

In response to the ongoing needs for transitional housing, RMI started the Homes for Haiti Program. To date, 28 homes have been built and the material for 24 more homes are in customs. Monies are still needed for homes. There are so many families that need them!!

In response to the ongoing hunger issue, RMI started the Food for Haiti Program. Since this program began 6 months ago, we’ve been able to distribute 540,000 meals – just think about that! God has been at work.

The Hope for Kidz Program is now providing a hot meal for over 1,300 kids every school day. Not only is it meeting nutritional needs of kids, it has become an evangelistic tool. Once people heard that the schools were providing a free hot lunch, they flocked to the school, transferring their kids so they could be a part of it. Those additional families are now exposed to the Gospel on a daily basis!

In response to the cholera issue, we have a cholera handout in creole for each Sister Church to pass out to their congregation and people in their community. This will go hand in hand with a seminar for the people in the community on how to prevent, recognize and treat cholera as well as how to properly treat water for drinking and cooking.

RMI is committed to coming alongside the Haitian people in meeting their needs and helping them as they travel the road to recovery. We are enabling people here in the US be a part of meeting those needs. Hands on ministry that makes a difference

Remember Haiti today. Don’t forget the Haitian people!

We will not forget!

RMI missionary, Amy Long, has many memories of that day and the long days that followed. Here is Amy Long's blog.

The Ft. Myers newspaper, The News-Press, has a reporter and photo journalist in Haiti this week. Besides their general reports, they are visiting several ministries from the Southwest Florida area who are ministering in Haiti. Thursday (tomorrow) they will be meeting with RMI President, Dan Shoemaker, and visiting some of the Homes for Haiti homes in Leogane. Look for links to those pictures and the report on this blog in the next couple of days. Once they return, there may also be a TV report on the local CBS affiliate. (Cool, huh?!)

Crosses mark the site of a mass grave Tuesday in Titanyen, just outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Bodies were brought to the spot after the devastating earthquake of one year ago today (Andrew West/news-press.com)

You can find more News-Press photos here. Reporter Rachel Revehl’s, article for today can be found here.

Additional resources:

Haitians rely on faith-based organizations (video from ABC News)

Haitians turn to God at quake anniversary (Yahoo.com article)

Franklin Graham's crusade in Port-au-Prince (BillyGraham.org)

US Ambassador: Progress in Haiti is slow but real (The Washington Post)

In Haiti, Hope is the last thing lost (Wall Street Journal article)

We know that Haiti’s hope and answer is in Jesus Christ. We are excited that God is using us and you to make an impact!

5 Week Report Card

Remember the dread you had in school when it came time for report cards? It has been 5 weeks since our Staff Strategic Planning Meetings at the end of August and the start of the fall team schedule. We can honestly say that we don’t have to face this “report card” with dread, but with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord and with excitement. Here’s why, in the last 5 weeks…

2 Sister Churches visited their Haitian brothers and sisters.

• NewChurch Georgetown (Austin, TX) / Abricot Sister Church Visit
  • Satellite church visit
  • Youth meeting
  • Open air service (three people accepted Christ)
  • Installation of fans in the church
  • Hope for Kidz meeting
  • Deacons Meeting
  • Ladies Tea
  • Town Carnival Day (The church met at the town square and had the whole town involved. Kids and parents from all around came and participated in games, activities and face painting.)
• Schuylkill Valley Bible Chapel (Mohrsville, PA) / Camp Perrin Sister Church Visit
  • Visited three satellite churches
  • Distributed 75 bags of beans and rice at each location
  • Ladies Tea
  • Deacons Meeting

2 Homes for Haiti teams came to build homes & do additional projects

• Grace Lutheran Church (Seattle, WA) Homes for Haiti work team
  • Built home panels
  • Took an inventory of the entire HFH material supply
  • Visited their Sister Church for a Sunday morning service
  • Installed a house at Grand Goave for Pastor Bien-Aime, his wife and their 3 children.
• 2nd Cape May Baptist Church (Marmora, NJ) Homes for Haiti work team
  • Installed two houses, 1 at Croix de Bouquet and 1 at Delmas 33
  • Visited their Sister Church for a special Tuesday night service
  • Worked around the mission center:
    • Installed and tiled new kitchen counter at the RMI Guesthouse
    • Built and installed a new folding buffet table at the Guesthouse
    • Installed ceiling fans in 2 RMI Offices**
    • Did electrical work at the Guesthouse and the Thompson's house
    • Prepared and poured the foundation for the HFH model in the RMI Depot yard
    • Networked the office computers
    • Created the building plans for the new Haiti RMI Office**

39 people have come on these teams.

And this is the “short” list! It means that many lives were touched, much ministry happened, and projects were accomplished. This is an exciting “report card”, don’t you think?! One that we know our Father would be proud of.

It does need to be mentioned that this kind of intense activity (4 teams in 5 weeks!) means an immense amount of work, coordination, long hours, a lot of travel, blood, sweat and tears for our missionary and national staff. And this in tough, hot, unpredictable Haiti conditions. They have labored through rain, broken vehicles, stress and time away from families. Pray for them as they continue to do God’s work with a smile on their faces.

Rejoice with us about this excellent report card!

**RMI’s Haiti office on the mission center has been officially condemned due to damage by the Jan. 12 earthquake. We have temporarily moved the offices to several rooms at the Guesthouse until a new office building can be built on the 2nd story of the RMI storage depot. More details will be forthcoming in a few weeks so stay tuned!

In Twos

Two teams, two Haitian “bosses”, two locations, and two houses. In two days!

The Homes for Haiti team from Cape May, New Jersey sent ten men into Port au Prince on Friday, October 1 to work on two houses in two separate locations. The original plan had been to send the team to another location outside of Port but plans were changed last Tuesday when days of rain made the road impassible, a (STILL) broken truck made delivering supplies insolvable, and a yet to be prepped site made working on it impossible. Fortunately, God had other plans which He orchestrated perfectly.

Despite days of rain- there was nothing but clear skies! Despite missing pieces- a container truck which was being unloaded on the Mission Center in Cayes on Saturday and returning to Port the same day was available to transport the parts we were missing directly to the site! Despite searing heat, back breaking work, and not a lot of shade- not one team member got sick! And despite all the complexities of working in Haiti which make completing most any task in a timely, efficient manner difficult- in just two days, two new homeowners were handed the keys to their new homes!

The new homeowners (two ladies in the center of the photo) at the Croix de Bouquet location with some of their friends and family. They will live here with their children (One has 2 children and the other has 1 child).

The new owner (standing on the back row) with the team from Second Cape May Baptist, and Wilfrid, the RMI “Boss” for the Delmas 33 location.

Right tools for the job

Rope: Thanks to 2 supporters, Rob Thompson in Haiti, now has the right tools for the job. 600’ of rope, who would have thought?! [What are they for? To tie down luggage, supplies, coolers, equipment, and much more as we travel to and from the capital, outback to Sister Churches, delivering food aid, taking wall panels and equipment to housing sites for Homes for Haiti and much, much more!]

Evaluation and Strategic Planning: August 24-26 RMI’s First Annual Strategic Planning Meetings took place in Ft. Myers. In attendance were the RMI staff, Dan & Debbie Shoemaker, Kim Rose, Kent Commons and Herb & Shirley Shoemaker, RMI missionaries Amy Long, Rob Thompson and Gary & Marilyn McLaughlin and RMI’s Haitian Administrator, Benjamin Altema.

Using his background in human resources and as a manager, Kim led the 3 day meetings in first learning how to effectively evaluate a system or program then in careful evaluation of each of RMI’s programs and centers of operations. It provided a thorough look at how we are doing, where we are now, where we want to be in future, what needs to change or be improved and how we can implement that change. There was a lot of brainstorming, discussion, laughter, and open sharing. We were able to gain the perspective of the office administration, the field missionary perspective, the Haitian perspective and the Haitian staff perspective.

It gave us tools and a solid foundation from which to work as we work to improve our systems, programs and operations. We also found that we enjoyed these days of working as a team, with real one-ness of mind. Don’t be surprised if you see changes here and there in the coming months…as they say, “pardon our dust as we make improvements to better serve you”!

9’ X 12’ Double Sided Screen: One of the tools used to hold an open air service. The Jesus Film or another evangelistic film in French is shown with an intermission of testimonies and a sermon.

Faithful National Staff, a Drill and a Pair of Gloves: All and more needed for building quality homes of displaced families.

The results?

Keys to his new home! No more living under a piece of tin. Priceless!

Vehicles: To carry a team across the river to their Sister Church.

And to get the wall and roof panels to the worksite to build a home.

Dedicated Staff: We couldn’t do it without them!

It isn’t all of them – there are more faithful missionaries & national staff!

Facilities: Another vital tool!! RMI’s Retreat Center on the Caribbean, looking at the hotel section.

View #2 – looking out from the main building. What a special place to rest, debrief, regroup and reflect.

The RMI Guesthouse in Cayes.

Tools come in many forms, but having the right tools is essential for getting the job done. Pray with us as we seek to get the job done with what He has given us!

Imagine

Imagine for a moment….

As the sky darkens, “Marie” looked up to see the clouds coming together for yet another rainy season downpour. She sighed and started pulling the family’s still wet clothes off the rope that her husband had put up to hold her prized pink sheets that now served as their only shelter. If only it wouldn’t rain for one whole day, she’d have the chance to get them dry. The kids played on the mounds of rubble that used to be their house. Had it really been 6 months since the earth shook so terribly? She thanked God again for the fact that her family lived through it, although some of her neighbors hadn’t been so lucky. She was so tired of first the dust, then the rain and mud, of huddling together at night, trying to sleep and not feeling safe and secure, of trying to fix meals and live under the little bit of protection that those pink sheets offered. How on earth could they ever get back on their feet and even think of rebuilding with things the way they are she wondered. The sound of a truck making its way carefully down their tiny road made her look up. She watched in amazement as, in 3 hours, a team of Americans and the national staff from Reciprocal Ministries International put up a transitional home on the foundation where her previous home had stood. She and her husband were thrilled when they received the keys to their new home. They couldn’t stop smiling. Tonight they would listen to the rain on a tin roof. Tonight they would sleep safely locked in their new home.

Can you imagine for just a moment if this were you?!

Can you imagine what it would mean to you?

Can you imagine how life changing it would be?

This last week RMI President, Dan Shoemaker, and RMI Vice President, Kim Rose, led a Homes for Haiti team to southern Haiti. The long awaited windows and doors (which were stuck in customs) arrived, enabling the RMI national staff to be trained in their installation as they fitted them into the 4 homes that had already been built. The team was also able to put up 2 more homes. One was for a Baptist pastor and his family. Another (the one pictured above) was for a bookkeeper for Radio Lumiere, Haiti’s largest Christian radio station. These families AND the team were all smiles and moved to tears as each family was given the keys to their very own earthquake and hurricane resistant home. An interesting affirmation was received from townspeople who came to see the house. They said, “Of all the temporary houses being built, this is the one I want!” Wow. And this in a town where a number of organizations are building shelters. Which one would you choose?

The two on the left are made of a tarp type of material stretched over wood frames. RMI’s metal home is on the right, behind the truck. What is the difference? RMI’s home is a transitional home not a temporary shelter. It is made of metal anchored in a cement floor. Our homes provide security, safety and dignity. They are built to last years.

You can change a life! $4,400 is all it costs to set a Haitian family on the road to recovery.

How can you help spread the word?? We need more sponsors. You can be an agent for change. Actually you can be our real estate agents! What a great ministry: being a “real estate agent” of sorts, helping RMI find sponsors for more homes in Haiti. Can you promote or do a fund raiser for a home at your place of business? Can your Rotary club sponsor a home? Three different friends of RMI are donating 10% of their profits from their businesses for the next 6 months to building homes. What other creative idea can you come up with to help us raise these funds?

Be sure to keep up to date with RMI’s happenings on Facebook and the RMI website, here. Or feel free to call us toll free at 866-RMI-5439 or 239-368-8390.

You can see more pictures of the first homes being built here and here. From start to finish, one home took 3 hours to build. Let’s work together to get these homes built!