A glimpse into the Shoe's Soul

Many folks have asked us to include information on how our family is doing.  You can now get a little insight into the Shoe's Soul by going to www.theshoessoul.blogspot.com.  You can catch up on what is happening in our personal lives since we've moved to the states (and there's a lot!).  You may be amazed, you will laugh and hopefully be spurred to pray for us on our life journey as we continue to serve the Lord through RMI.  To whet your appetite, here are a few pictures:

Dan and I, the re-invented U.S. version!

Devon, 20, and Duke the Walmart shopping dog!

Dawn, 17, and a State Volleyball Championship!

A recent visit to Abricot

Our trip to Abricot on January 10: We took pictures for Hope for Kids and looked at possible projects for New Church to consider for future visits. Last year the students had to walk about 5 miles to have their pictures take but this year we have a new road into Abricot. It's a beautiful part of Haiti and one is able to see the beauty even better on this road. But the true beauty is in Haiti's people. They are always happy to see us as we are them. Here is a slideshow for you!  Gary McLaughlin

A letter from your Sister Church

From: Abricot Church

To: New Church

I am very happy today for the great opportunity I have to write you this letter. How are you and your church activities doing over there? I hope you are doing great in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. The reason I write this letter to you is to wish you all in New Church a Happy New Year of 2008.

Here in Abricot Baptist Church, we had a good year of 2007.  God took care of us here.  The only  problem we had last year was when we were preparing for your coming but unfortunately the team was cancel, after that everything was fine for us here in Haiti.  About the school everything is fine, we have more kids in the school this year but we don’t have enough class room.  This year, again, 20 kids are going to attend the official exams, I want you to pray for them, please.

Thank you very much for the generator that you sent for us. It is very helpful for us because we use it every evening when we have service. We started this year with a nice prayer service in the church where we had many people accept Jesus as their Savior.

Finally, we want to say thank you for the support you give to our kids here in Abricot. Thank you for helping our kids go to school. We really appreciate that and we are praying for you everyday and asking God to fill you with his blessing. All the church members and the deacons send their greeting to all of you.

May God bless you all in your church!

Pastor Yves Renous Mathurin

A letter from your sister church

From: Anse–a-Veau Baptist Church

To: Linwood Church

I greet you all in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.  May the grace and the peace of God be with you in this New Year.  I wish you all a Happy New Year of 2008.

Here in Anse-a-Veau, we are doing very well thanks to God.  We praise the Lord we had a good year of 2007 spiritually, only some of our people in our church were facing the Hurricane problems. Thank you the help you sent for those with hurricane damage problems.  They really needed that help.  Our church is working very well here. We had a nice prayer service on the night of December 31^st where all the Christians met together for a worship and prayer service. We were happy to meet together; we heard a lot of testimonies from the members and after we all had a good time of discussion together and we drank coffee at the end.

In the name of all the kids and the parents who are sponsored we say thank you for the money you sent this year again for the kids.  The parents were very happy to see their kids going to school and have their school paid for.  That’s a blessing for them. The kids and their parents are praying for you daily and asking God to bless you. Thank you for the motorcycle battery you sent for me.  I appreciate that. We are praying for your coming again this year and we are looking forward to meeting you all.

I send my greeting to all of you in Linwood Church especially to Pastor Rick and his family, to the deacons, the youth, Sister Betty, Brother Art and his wife, Sister Barbara, Brother Tom, Brother Tommy and to all the members.

Pastor Dieusseul Malbranche

A letter from your Sister Church

From:     The Committee of Dame-Marie Baptist Church

To:          To Pastor Guy Glass and Calvary Church

Object:    Information

Dear Pastor Glass,

May the grace and the peace of God be with you!  My family and I have a pleasure to greet you in the precious name and savior Jesus Christ.

We were very happy to receive you here in Dame-Marie 6 months ago.  It was for us a great privilege to meet some members from Calvary Baptist Church in New Jersey as our sister church here in Dame-Marie. I wish that everything will continue to work well for the glory of God. Praise the Lord; we are doing fine here in Dame-Marie spiritually. At the beginning of December we started our worship service at 6 a.m. and finish at 9 a.m.  We had a nice convention for the whole district at the end of the year for four days. It was a great success where 20 members were baptized. We also had a nice party with 250 people for those who attended the Sunday school. We have a big choir with eighty (80) people now in our church and we wish to participate in the convention that the MEBLH mission organizes every April.

In the name of all the Deacons and members of Dame-Marie Baptist church, in the name of my wife and my children, we join our voice together to wish you a happy new year of 2008. We hope to have you again this year in Dame-Marie, your sister church.

We love you all and May God in his power send his blessing to you and Calvary Church.

Pastor Evelt Mentor

A letter from your Sister Church

January 2008

From:     Ducis Baptist Church, Haiti

To:          Village church of Bartlett

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are very happy to write this letter to you just to give you some information about our church here in Ducis and also we want to take this advantage to wish you a happy new year of 2008. We are very happy for the good communion that God our Father established among us and allowed us to live as brothers and sisters for the glory of his ministry. This is by the same love he left behind his kingdom and came to the earth to die for us. That’s really a great love, isn’t it?

We say thank you to God the way he did take care of us for the year of 2007, even though we had insecurity problems in our country but God has take care of each family in our church. For this reason, from December 16^th to December 31^st of 2007 we had a nice prayer service in our church in Ducis where all the members in the church met together to praise him and thank him for his mercy. We had different speakers who would preach for us from Exodus 33:13.

Our purpose for this new year is to have more people baptized, teach more people the words of God and create a new strategy where all the family in the church can know the power of God better and seek more people for his kingdom.

This year again we want to start working with the plan we had a long time ago called “AWANA”.  We have already met with the responsible people and  they have approved it. I hope next time when I write I will give you more explanations about it.

We are praying for you everyday and we hope that you are going to do the same thing for us.

Once again I want to wish you all a happy new year of 2008 and May God send his blessing upon your church.

Your brother,

Pastor Anthony Moise

A letter from your Sister Church

From: Baradere Baptist Church

To: Creekside Church

I greet you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ! How are your different activities doing?  I believe that everything is doing well for you.

Here in Baradere, we are doing well by the grace of God. God always stays beside us to protect us. We say thank you very much for the money you sent for the Christians here that were facing a difficult time after the hurricanes. 

For our spiritual activities, everything is working well now.  We have good worship services on Sunday morning, evangelism services Sunday night, Prayer services Tuesday night and Bible study every Thursday nights. We also have a meeting with the deacons; we have 9 classes for Sunday school. This year we have a meeting with each different group in the church to make an overall plan for the different projects we wish to realize.

This year we are going to have our Carnival (Mardi Gras) retreat for the youth in Gran Boukan’s area where 150 youth are going to participate. We want you please to pray for us so that God can give us a good time there because we are going to have evangelism service every evening. Please pray for me because in January 30^th, I am going to have surgery on my left eye.

I send my greetings to all the members in Creekside Church, especially to Pastor Richard and his wife, Brother Wes and Brother Don. We are praying God for you and asking him to bless you and your church.

Pastor Leon Bonhomme

A letter from your Sister Church

From: Port Salut Church.

To:  Abbeville Main Street UMC

My name is Jean Edert Pierre.  I am 45 years old.  I am the new Minister at Port Salut Baptist Church that you visited last summer. My wife’s name is Leonne Pierre, she is 45 years old too and she is a teacher. We have three boys: Renaud-Zicky, 12 years; Pherry, 11years old and Dinaud, 5 years.  Like my wife, I was born in a Christian family and our fathers were both Pastors in the same mission as well. I was ten years old when I took Jesus in my heart and since then I’ve been serving Him. I wanted to be a Doctor first and I started studies for that. But not a long time after I started, I heard a special message in my heart from the Lord telling me to heal souls for Him instead; and without contestation, I started my study in theology. Once graduated, I began my ministry.  That was in 1999.

I have a special ministry with the young people. We are praying for a spiritual and social expanding in the Port Salut church and we’d like you to pray with us about this. Our dream is to give assistance to our kids and give possibilities to our young Christians to help them avoid leaving the area to look for a trade or a job elsewhere. Leonne, my wife, is so active and has a special ministry with the ladies and the children’s association in our church. She wants to extend activities in the other churches connected to our pastoral district.

Thanks a lot for being our sister church. Let’s work together for the glory of the Lord. Like it is said in the book of Colossians 3:23, “let’s do everything we have to do not for men but the Lord.”

In the name of the whole congregation, we’re sending our love to each one of you.

May our Lord Jesus Christ richly bless you all!

Pastor:  Jean Edert Pierre and family

A letter from your Sister Church

From:  Cance Baptist Church

To:  Our Sister Church, Great Valley Presbyterian Church

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ,

May the Grace and the Peace of God be with you.

The Deacons of Cance Baptist Church congratulate you for the good work you did here in the church while Pastor Borel Geneste was here as Pastor of the church, and also they would like to take this opportunity to inform you that the church has a new Pastor.

My name is Pastor Maxilorme Moise, and my wife’s name is Nadine Herard Moise and she is a nurse. We have four boys and we live in the parsonage of the church with them.  My goal is to continue with the Ministry of the Lord in the Cance area.

The names of my boys are Max Herard Moise, Hendell Moise, Karl Eddy Moise and the youngest one is Lee Sebastien Moise. Please, we would like you to pray for me and my family so that God can guide us and help us to work better for his ministry.

We count on your collaboration and Cance Baptist Church is going to keep you in their prayers.

For the committee:

George Jean Stenio Laurejoie Marcelin

Maxelorme Moise Pastor.

A letter from your Sister Church

From: Picot Baptist Church

To: Trinity Bible Church

I am very happy to share with you some information about our family, church and activities. We are doing well here by the grace of the Lord. My wife who was very sick is doing better now, but she still needs your prayer. The church is working well too; the Christians always come to church to worship. We always have four services each week. Sunday morning we have the worship service, evangelism service on Sunday night, and prayer service on Tuesday night, and Bible study every Thursday.  We have a Caleb group which are the men in the church,.  They meet every Friday from 4 pm to 5 pm, and we also have the woman group that meet every Saturday morning from 8 am to 9:30 am, we have the youth group that meet every Sunday afternoon. We have one more choir in the church; it has 30 people and they meet every Saturday.

This year we did not have a good start with the school because we did face two big Hurricanes “Dean” and “Noel”.   The Christians lost their animals, their livestock and the rain damaged their houses.  Because of those problems they could not send their kids to school this year. We have only 269 students this year and last year we had 400 students.  That is a big difference.

This year we had three conventions for the members.  We had one in Picot, one in Laroche and the last one we had it in Les Rois. I want to inform you that my oldest daughter is going to get married on December 28^th, 2007 and she is going to marry a pastor’s son name Obed Jean Pierre. Now in our church, we are out of electricity because the company that used to provide energy in our area has some problems with their materials.  So our church has no electricity.  Please pray for us so that we can buy a generator for the church. And finally we had two members Desino and Mrs. Fleurimon that were paralyzed who died last month.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2008.

Pastor Calixte Dorval

A letter from your Sister Church

From:  Baradere Church.

To: Creekside Community Church

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Creekside Community Church,

May the grace and the peace of Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!

Today I am very happy today for having this chance to write you this letter. How are you doing?  The activities you have in your church, how is it going for you in Gainesville? I hope you had a good and safe trip back to the US. Even though you had a lot of rain when you were on your way back to Les Cayes, God did take care of you and allowed you to have a good trip. I want to inform you that we had two big Hurricanes in Haiti after you left; it was “Dean” and “Noel”. Even though it was raining we had good worship services where we had two more people accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We had good Sunday school every morning. We also have another brother in the church; he is here to help us with difference activities.

From October 19^th to November 6^th, the village of Baradere was flooded under water. We had many problems here, The Christians lost everything they had, we have 20 houses that were totally destroyed, and 30 in need of repair. We had a lady in the church who died due to the hurricanes. Please pray for the people in this town because now they are in need. We believe by prayer God can do miracles for the people in Baradere. We count on your prayers and we are going to do the same thing for you here.

In the name of all the Christians at Baradere Baptist Church, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year in 2008.

Pastor Leon Bonhomme  

A letter from your Sister Church

From       : Les Irois Baptist Church

To           : Harper EFC Church

Subject    : Greeting and Information

Dear Brothers and Sisters.

I greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am very happy today for the great opportunity that I have to write you and share with you some information about my church here in Les Irois. Before going further, I would like to ask you, how are you doing in your church? I hope you are doing great by the precious name of Jesus Christ. In the name of all the members of Les Irois’s Baptist church I would like to say thank you for the team that you sent here during the summer. It was a blessing for us here in the church, especially for all the people in Les Irois. I want you to keep that in mind that the Les Irois Baptist Church is praying for you every day so that God will bless you and take good care of your family.

Thank you very much for helping us last year with the kids, we are so happy to see how you are care about our kids here in les Irois. This year again we begin the school with 235 students and we still count on your prayer and your help for the year of 2008 and 2009. Also pray for the carnival retreat we will have in February where all of the youth will be in another place to worship, eat and play together.

I want to inform you that, we did face two big Hurricanes for the last two months, “Dean” and “Noel”. The Christians lost all their gardens, their animals, some of them lost their houses. We had 8 houses that were destroyed totally and 20 of them need to be repaired, especially the Pastor’s house in Mandou which was totally destroyed during the hurricanes.  As a big request, please pray for all the people because they are in needed now, they do need your prayer.

We are waiting for your coming next in 2008 for the Seminar and we hope that God will send his blessing upon you and allow you to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2008.

May God bless you and protect you all!

Pastor Jean Sainpreval

A letter from your Sister Church

From:        Lievre Baptist Church

To:            Lakeline Church

Subject:    Information

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May the grace and the peace of God be with you all!  And we greet you in the precious name of Jesus Christ.

I am very happy today to inform you about our activities here in Lievre, and also talk to you about the school. This year we started the school with 200 students and they were very happy to be back in school because this is one of the best place the kids can be to prepare for their future. We are so grateful for the way you helped us last year and we want to let you know that your help was very important for us here.  We are going to pray God for you so that you can be able to help us again this year. May God bless you for that!

About the activities we had during the year, they were successful by the power of the Holy Ghost. We had a convention for the members at the Dolet Church; we also had another convention for our members of Lievre Baptist Church. We will also have some programs at the end of this year. We will have a meeting with all the ladies and we are going to have a week of service in the church just to celebrate the coming of the New Year.

As information, we did face two big hurricanes here in Haiti in the last two months. The Christians lost everything they had, like animals, gardens and houses; we have a side of the church that was destroyed too by the hurricanes.

I will pray God for your church so that He can send His blessing upon you. Also I have to take this advantage of this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

For the committee:  Pastor Philistin Dyedilem.

                              Deacon Michel

                              Director of the school:  Tony Bonifas   

A letter from your Sister Church

From     : Baraderes Baptist Church

    To         : Creekside Community Church

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May the Grace and the peace of God be with you! I greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are very happy to write you this letter just to let you how we were happy to receive the team here in Baraderes. Before going further, I would like to say hello to Pastor Richard, Pastor Toby, and Pastor James and especially to all the members in Creekside Community Church in Florida. I send a lot of greeting from my church here in Baraderes and they say thank you for everything you did for them. Thank you again for the team that your church sent here in October to visit us. We feel blessed by them while they were here in different activities they did such as Dr. Clint and the animal clinic, the evangelism services, and especially the good work that Doctor John did here while he was in Baraderes. Thank you very much for the way your church is motivated to help our kids in the program, because I do realize without you it will be hard for them to attend school.

Thank you very much again for the sound system and new generator that you sent for us. We really appreciate everything that Creekside Church did for us. We do know that we don’t have anything to give you back but we want to let you know that you are in our thoughts and our prayers everyday.

Once again thank you very much for everything that you did for us. May God send his blessings upon each of you abundantly!

Pastor Leon Bonhomme

Rob and Becky's November Slice Available...

See it here.

More Southern Haiti Flooding Info

Dan is in Haiti and sent the following report:  "The palm trees are swaying in the tropical breeze but it's RAINING BUCKETS!  Again!  Southern Haiti has had almost steady rain for more than a month and a half.  Tropical Storm Noel contributed quite a bit of rain and there is more disturbed weather in the Caribbean coming this way.  All this rain has created incredible hardships on a people that are already struggling for their day to day existence.  Most crops have been lost - especially tough since the Les Cayes plain area is the "breadbasket" of Haiti.  Animals have been swept away.  Commerce in the outlaying areas has ground to a halt because supplies cannot be brought from the capital to Cayes and then trucks cannot get out to the areas they service.  Everything people own is soaking wet, water is inside their flimsy homes (some homes have actually been swept away or are covered in water), sickness is increasing and there is much hunger.  Pray for the people!"

Dan went in Wed. Oct. 31 to help prepare for a team from Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church (Chicago area) who were to go in today.  Their Sister Church, Astruc, is very remote.  It is in the mountains in the middle of the southern peninsula.  The Sister Church pastor sent word that the river they must cross to get there is completely impassable.  It's way over people's heads.  Also, the road leading to the river has been washed away in 3 places.   The trip to this church is usually pretty tough in dry conditions.  Rain turns the road to a muddy clay mixture that is truly difficult to get through. 

After consulting with Dan, the US team decided to cancel the trip.  It was clear that they wouldn't be able to get to the church.  We are all very disappointed needless to say, but it is a wise decision.  They have rescheduled their trip for January.  Things should be dried out by then!

Rob was to go in with the team too.  Of course, he is not going now, but may still go to Haiti next week to work on the bookkeeping system.  We'll keep you up to date on that once his plans are clear.

At this point, we have no word from any of the other sister churches.  They will work at that once things dry out and navigation is possible.

Here are some photos that Jenn Rogan (RMI missionary) took 2 weeks ago as they traveled back from a Sister Church.

This is a road!  They had to manually build a new section to get around the boulders!

Well, it WAS a road!

RMI staff checking to see if that part of the road was passable.

 

Jenn, Dan and some RMI staff took these pictures yesterday:

  

The river in Les Cayes, near the mission center, called La Ravine.

Notice the wet high water mark on the house!

  

A couple of missionary friends (not RMI) also sent information and photos.  Where one of them live, at the top of the mountains in the middle of Haiti's southern peninsula, they personally recorded over 19 inches of rain and 70 mph winds.  Here are the pictures they sent:

To go, or not to go, Pray for Haiti...

The flooding persists.  TS Noel has come and gone, but the rain has not.  I may or may not be going to Haiti today as planned.  A decision will be made in the next couple of hours.  So sad if I and the team from Chicago can't go!  Up to this point, the road to the village I would be visiting is impassable due to a raging river that we need to cross (there is no bridge. so the water levels must decrease, and the mud must dry out enough so that our 4 wheel drive vehicles can navigate across).

Here is a picture from 2 days ago with the kind of destruction that is so common due to the rains.  This is not the road I was to take, but it gives you an idea as to what the rains have done.  This is a very, and I mean very typical sight.

Rob

Moving forward...

Yesterday at RMI, we had the opportunity to meet with Dale Janzen.  He is not only a design and marketing expert, but he is an "alumnus" of multiple trips to Haiti to visit his sister church through RMI.  When it comes to RMI, he just gets it.

We recently had the RMI logo redone by Rich Cerrina.  He did a great job.  Thanks Rich.  Now, it is time to take the next step.

Dale is co-founder of the degaje group, a design/marketing group based in the North West suburbs of Chicago (Bartlett). 

He flew down for a few days to chat and collaborate.  We talked at great length about the development of a whole scheme to communicate/promote RMI.  We talked about brochures, displays (see below), video, web, etc.  Pretty much everything you can think of when it comes to communicating RMI.  He is obviously very talented, experienced and aware of the issues.  Very cool. Very exciting indeed.

Display?  You know, one of those things that orgs use to put on a table to sort of draw you in?  There are all kinds of designs.  We need a redo!  Our's doesn't exactly "draw you in".  Not that long ago, I went to a missions conference at a college and got out my "display".  I sort of already knew it didn't really cut it, but it is all we had.  I didn't realize what I was up against!  A few tables down from me was a "display", that included a 50" flat widescreen TV, running this very cool/edgy/hip video that certainly drew people in and drew people away from all the other sub-par displays.  Now I am not saying we need to be wacky crazy edgy, but I am saying we can do better.  We may not have a plasma, but we sure can provide a reputable presentation.

I can't wait.

Rob

A Reciprocal Pat on the Back...

John Peterson, a member of Second Cape May Baptist, in Cape May NJ, writes...

"Just wanted to say hello and let you know that our work group from 2^nd Cape had a productive and enjoyable trip last week in Cayes, Haiti.  We got a lot done at the guest house and when we left the inverter and generator were once again fully operational and there were several new ceiling fans, outlets, toilet paper holders door knobs, screens etc.. It was truly a joy and a privilege to be able to serve in some small way in the ministry there."

He continued...

"I have been reading the web site and blogs and think that they are an excellent tool for information sharing.  Tell whoever is responsible to keep up the good work."

Thanks John, and a "Great Job" back at you and the rest of your team for the work you did at the Guest House in Haiti!

Rob

Baradere visit, wow...

Good Morning,

Just a quick note to let you know that we were out of Baradères and now at the retreat center. It was a bit of a struggle but we made it with the help of God. It started raining sometime in the night and was raining hard from at least 3 am on. We left at 8:20 am with water about 1 to 2 feet on the road coming out of Baradères. It was still raining hard too. I wanted to get going before it was too high. We had to cross 2 high rivers that were running fast and hard but not too wide. We had to move large rocks from the road and build a wall on the downhill side of the road so we could get around bigger rocks that were too big to move. Wow Baby!! That was interesting. We prayed that God would help us to get past this spot before we started building. It took about 3 hours to get that situation taken care of but we all worked together to make it happen. There was singing, dancing and praises to God after we got all the vehicles through. I was told by the RMI staff that it was the first time we ever had to do what we did that morning. After the slide area and the road work we had a large truck on it's side but there was enough room on the side to get by with no problem. Praise God! We stopped by Bon Fin to drop off some things there and to pick up Jenn's new puppy. We heard that we had the road washed away at the bottom of the mountain where the dry (normally) river is with the market. We were told it was not a good situation and if we couldn't pass it we could come back and spend the night there. We decided to go take a look and if we could fix it we would. When we got there a ramp of dirt and road had already been made and so we crossed with no big problem. Just the normal yelling on the behalf of the Haitians that built the ramp. I think they wanted money to cross on their ramp. I let Jules handle that and got back in my truck and we all drove across. So, I just want to give you some information at this time to let you know we are in good shape here. It was a good trip. I think everything went pretty good. The weather here at the retreat center now is much better. The sun is out this morning and the day is looking good. Pray that the rains stop for a little while. Its been raining so hard.

Love You All,

In Christ,

Gary

Flooding hits Southern Haiti

It has been a week of storms and flooding in Southern Haiti.     Monday, Oct. 1, they experienced the most severe flooding with roads, homes and parts of downtown Cayes (Haiti's 3rd largest city) completely under water, however, the rains and thunder / lightening storms have continued all week.  As of today, Oct. 9, it has been raining for 9 straight days.  The mission center (located in the village of Simon, a suburb of Cayes) where RMI's missionaries live is located on 2 hilltops, so their homes were not flooded.  However, here are pictures of the village immediately surrounding the mission center.  That's 2 1/2 ft. of water in the local Christian high school yard!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is downtown Cayes, Haiti.

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Harvest missionary kid Christie Wray for sharing these photos with us!

At this point, due to the flooding, we have heard reports of crop and livestock loss, as well as home, business and road damage.  We have not heard from any "outback" sister churches as to how this has affected them.  When we hear news, we will post it.

 

Debbie Shoemaker

Flooding hits Southern Haiti

It has been a week of storms and flooding in Southern Haiti.     Monday, Oct. 1, they experienced the most severe flooding with roads, homes and parts of downtown Cayes (Haiti's 3rd largest city) completely under water, however, the rains and thunder / lightening storms have continued all week.  As of today, Oct. 9, it has been raining for 9 straight days.  The mission center (located in the village of Simon, a suburb of Cayes) where RMI's missionaries live is located on 2 hilltops, so their homes were not flooded.  However, here are pictures of the village immediately surrounding the mission center.  That's 2 1/2 ft. of water in the local Christian high school yard!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is downtown Cayes, Haiti.

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Harvest missionary kid Christie Wray for sharing these photos with us!

At this point, due to the flooding, we have heard reports of crop and livestock loss, as well as home, business and road damage.  We have not heard from any "outback" sister churches as to how this has affected them.  When we hear news, we will post it.

 

Debbie Shoemaker

Letter from Picot to Trinity Bible

September 14^th, 2007

From       : Picot Baptist Church.

To           : Brothers and Sisters in Louisiana.

My friends, brothers and sisters in Louisiana Church, the committee in Picot Baptist Church greet you in the precious name and savior Jesus Christ. My name is Pastor Calixte Dorval who wants to talk to you in the name of my church and in the name of all the districts. It been a long time I did not write you. Now here I am to share with some information about church. Those information are not only for my church but for the district since you left last February.

How were your activities doing over there in Louisiana? Your family, for us over here in Haiti we are doing well with Jesus Christ. My families and I are doing well and they are doing well in school too. Anne Netty my oldest daughter she just graduate to college, she took science administration. Sthephenson my son, he is in second years in college where he studying Agro forestry, Recameline, she is in a nursing school and Sandia my youngest daughter, she is in Rheto grades in secondary school. Gracieuse my wife’s sister went to Port-au-Prince to study economy. And also Anne Netty was engage with young man and she will get married on December 29^th, 2007. My wife always sick, she always has a pain in her knee, I did visit many doctors with her but I can not find a better solution. For myself, Last May I was in Florida especially in Fort Lauderdale. I was invited there by different pastors who did ask me to preach for them.

Everything is working well in Picot’s church. Our activities are working well, the Christians always come to church for worship, we always meet for Sunday school, we have service Sunday night, prayer service Tuesday night and bible study on Thursday night. Every Wednesday morning from 5am to 6am the ladies in the church always meet for a prayer service. We always have meeting with the deacons and the members meeting every month. Also I would like to inform about one of the Lady in the church who died. She was Mrs. Medes Mother. We did not have a good year of school because there are many parents who did not have their kids sponsored by compassion and they can not pay the tuition. We have some teachers who left us and go to teach in other school for more money. This year we had 51 kids who took the official exam 31 of them pass the exam. We count on God for this year to provide us more funds for the school so that we can have a better year.

We had three conventions for the members in the district where we met with a large amount of people to praise God. We will have another one in December in Mahotière Church. I want to inform you that Pastor la Fleur who was the pastor there is not there because MEBSH transfer him to the Childcare office, now the new pastor is Samson Louis. About the evening service we always have difficulty because we have a problem of electricity there, we do need a generator. Now I have problem in my eye and I already have an appointment with doctor for operation, please pray for me. We had some work we would like to do at the end of this year like finish with platform (pulpit) of the church and some work we would like to do at the church.

Our prayer request are: Pray for Anne Netty as I told you earlier she is going to get married on December, pray for us because we need a Sound System and Generator for the church. Pray for my wife because she is not doing well, prays for all the parents so that they can find money to pay for their children.

Thank you for the money you sent for the district and we want to let you know that we did receive it.

Pastor Calixte Dorval and the deacons of Picot’s Church.

Letter from Morency to Sunrise

                                                                                                  September 10^th, 2006

From         :  Pastor Jean Robert Brunache

To             :  Reciprocal Ministries International.

Object       :  Greeting and Presentation.

Dear brothers and Sisters in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

       May the grace and the peace of God be with you? I would like to inform you that, I am the one who did replace Pastor Daniel Elliassaint since august the 28^th  in Morency Baptist church. I am very happy with the work that you did in Morency while Pastor Daniel was there as your sister church.

Then, I am very happy to continue with the Ministry that God ask me to do. I already visit the Christians of the church, also I had meeting with the members, I had a bible study and prayer service.

Those are the members’ name of my family:

Jemima Brunache                        : 20 years

Roberto Brunache                       : 17 years

Roberta Brunache                       : 15 years

Nephtalie Brunache                    : 11 years

Rood-kelly-Ernst Brunache        : 3 years.

My wife’s name is Ternecia louisaint

Roselore Pierrelouis she leaves with my family

Pastor jean Robert Brunache your collaborator

      We pray for you everyday so that God can use you as he wants to do his work.

May god bless you abundantly?

                    Pastor Jean Robert Brunache

Rain Rain go away...

We have been dealing with a deluge of rain, making travel difficult.  Pray for the rains to subside.

A picture is worth...

"Words once dominated Western culture, but now images are changing everything from our theology and preaching to the way our brains process information."  Shane Hipps, Leadership Summer 2007

"Visualcy?" (credit Andy Crouch)  There are all kinds of pitfalls here I am sure, but I am quite intrigued.  So, here is my sermon for the day...

Rob

Exciting News

Dear Family, Friends & Supporters,

We want to share with you an exciting opportunity!  RMI leadership wants us, as the Haiti Field Director, to have the best resources to better serve the US churches, national church leaders and the RMI missionaries, and to this end, they have requested that we come off the field for 3 months in 2007 and a college semester in 2008 returning to Haiti in late spring.  The goal is to get professional training to provide us with additional tools to enhance our leadership skills.  The RMI leadership is designing a program for our professional and personal enrichment which will include personal mentoring, a series of seminars including spiritual transformation, leadership development, lay counseling training and formal Bible and theology education courses.

We are working with the RMI leadership to put in place a good plan of action to cover the successful operation of the field in our absence.  We have good national and missionary staff that can step into the gap and feel confident that our responsibilities will be able to be fulfilled while we take this hiatus.

There are many details being worked out at this writing. At this point, it looks like we’ll be leaving Haiti on October 3^rd, 2007 to begin this training.  The girls will be coming with us, of course, bringing their school work with them.  It will mean some travel for us, much study, hard work, and a lot of faith.  It’s a new adventure - one that we are very excited about and feel ready for.  It is a huge step of faith as well.  We will need your continued financial support more than ever during these months.  The seminars and Bible college training are costly as well as there will be travel and living expenses to cover.  Equally, we earnestly desire your prayers for us!  We want to make the most of this opportunity.  Pray that the Lord would bring the myriad of details into place, that He would give us peace of mind and clarity of thought as we prepare to leave.

 

Here is our schedule as we see it now:

October 3, 2007 ~ Depart Haiti headed to Florida

October 4, 2007 ~ Leave Florida and head for Texas

October 8, 2007 ~ Arrive in Texas – Savana & McKenna will be staying with family until the end of October. This will give us an opportunity to get the first two weeks of training done and get settled into being “students” again.

October 10, 2007 ~ Billy & Debbie leave Texas and drive to Atlanta, Georgia

October 14-28, 2007 ~ First two weeks of training

October 28 ~ Savana & McKenna fly to Atlanta to join Billy & Deb

October 30 – Nov. 16 ~ Next 3 weeks of training

November 17 - 25 ~ Thanksgiving break we will be with friends in Cape May, New Jersey

November 26 – Dec. 14 ~ Last 3 weeks of training in Georgia

Dec. 18 - ? ~ Travel to Dallas, Texas for Christmas with family

January ? ~ Begin classes at Columbia International University (CIU) in Columbia, South Carolina

Late May ~ Return to Haiti

A note from the RMI Vice President of International Development:

It is respectfully requested that inquiries concerning other communication with Billy and Debbie regarding their response, progress or frustration level be limited to their immediate supervisor and the RMI President. They need to remain isolated from all outside distractions from family (except children), friends, and fellow workers, superiors in mission and church as much as possible for maximum impact to be accomplished. This is especially true from October 14 through December 18, 2007. All must recognize that participants will be fully engaged from morning until night with classes, meetings and home assignments that require full concentration. The week of October 14-20, it is critical that no contacts should transpire from any source or originate from them to the outside unless it is brief regarding their children. They should plan in advance not to be producing blogs,  be responding to email, sending email or receiving incoming calls about work on the field or about anything else, unless from the President of RMI from October 14 through October 29. From October 30-December 18, extremely limited communication to or from Billy and Debbie must be observed.  We do not believe this to be necessary during the semester planned at CIU. They will be able to breathe from November 17 through November 25 for Thanksgiving break and later for a Christmas break. Some assignments will need to be accomplished over these holidays.

This legalistic sounding statement is full of love even though it appears to be written by a hard nosed lawyer sitting on nails. I apologize for legalistic language but believe this is such an important venture for Billy and Debbie and an expensive investment that every care must be taken to assure their success.

Coreano Newsletter available...

Enrique and Chrissie Coreano just sent out their most recent e-newsletter.  If you want to join their mailing list, visit their website at www.coreanofamily.com.

Rob

A final note on our weekend in Columbia, SC...We were also able to visit the Coreano's home church while they were at CIU, North Trenholm Baptist Church.  Dan was able to say a few words and a final prayer for both of their Sunday a.m. services as well as was generously given the whole Sunday School class time to share at the Coreano's Young Couples Sunday School class.  This was followed by a great Mexican meal at a restaurant with most of the folk from NTBC that recently went to Guatemala.  NTBC is a new sister church and they just had their first visit in June!  They shared their experiences, what impressed them the most as well as their photos and some funny stories.  We really enjoyed spending time with them.

Ministry Trip to CIU

Dan and I are back in the office after a 6 day ministry trip.  We attended homecoming at Columbia International University (our alma mater, class of 1980) in Columbia, South Carolina.  It was a fun weekend.  This year they hosted a reunion of the school's singing group, True Life Company, that represented CIU in the 1970's.  Dan sang and played trumpet for TLC for 2 years while he was a student.  True Life Company members sang and provided the worship for all the different meetings and venues that took place this weekend.   It was great as we re-connected with classmates and friends, most of whom we hadn't seen for more than 20 years.  Frank and Kay Fry, RMI's VP of International Development, were there as well.  Frank was TLC's producer in the early 1970's and Kay played violin.  Here, they are chatting with CIU president, Dr. Bill Jones.  We were able to share with quite a few people about RMI and its ministries.  We also made some significant contacts that will help us within the administration of RMI, possibly in the area of providing counseling for missionary staff. 

 

We were surprised to meet 2 CIU alumni from our own area, Ft. Myers!  We plan on getting together in the near future and see how we can enhance each other's ministries.  If nothing else, we will enjoy the fellowship of fellow CIU folks.

 

On a personal note, we were able to spend time with Deb's mom while we were there since that is where we stayed.  We also had a brief time with Deb's sister, Marti and her husband, Frank Bedell (CIU's Director of Development).

 

Dawn is doing well.  She is a junior at Evangelical Christian School in Ft. Myers.  She is having a blast playing varsity volleyball for ECS.  The team is a state championship team and are doing very well.  As a 2A school, they are beating many 5A schools in the area!  Her position is middle blocker (for those of you who are volleyball savvy) and at 5'11", she has a good vertical jump on her that helps her do a fairly good job!

 

Devon is living and working in Dallas.  Dan saw him recently and was able to spend some time with him.  He's doing well and we are proud of him being able to maintain a good Christian witness in his work environment. 

 

Oh, also, be looking for the link to our new personal blog!  We hope to have it up and running soon.  I know, I know, we should have done it quite a while ago, but we are old dogs learning all these new tricks!

Guatemala Pictures: Part 2

   If you didn't see the first post, scroll down!  You can also see all the pictures at www.robandbecky.com/family/pictures.htm (you will need to scroll down to find the Guatemala pictures).

 

Carrie and Susan setting up the army cots in the church.

Julie helped me organize the pharmacy the first day.  The drugs were organized on 2 army cots.  We had more than what you see, I just only put out a few bottles of each thing.

Chrissy, RMI missionary and a nurse, and Carol at the first station of medical clinic doing triage: Checking vital signs and getting the patients chief complaint.

Dr's Susan and Trevor seeing patients.

We made sure to pray or present the gospel to each patient that came thru before they got their medications.  Here Julie and RMI missionary, Brandon, are sharing.

  Here's me counseling a patient on how to take their medications.  I had a Spanish translator, Alexis, but the pastor of our sister church, Javier, was often translating the Spanish into Mam.  many of the people are illiterate, so we had pictures to remind them how to take their medications.  It was important to make sure they understood before they left.

   

Carrie Jumped right in the kitchen as helped some of the ladies prepare meals.  Julia is on the left and Delphina on the right.

All the babies are carried like this on backs!  The ladies just go about their work.  Older siblings often carried their younger siblings like this on their backs as well.

 

There is going to have to be a Part 3!

Becky

Guatemala Pictures: Part 1

I have been busy since I got back from my trip to Guatemala!  Sorry I haven't posted pictures sooner!  You can see all the pictures I took here www.robandbecky.com/family/pictures.htm and go to the Guatemala album.  Here are a few from the first few days of the trip:

Below is a view from the roof balcony of the RMI guesthouse in Xela, about a 5 hours drive from Guatemala City. 

We were relieved to get to such a comfortable place after such a long day of travel.

Saturday we spent at the RMI guesthouse reorganizing our supplies for the trip out to the aldea (village) the next day.  In the afternoon we went to the market in Xela to get some last minute supplies.  We also went to purchase a new skirt and top as a gift for our sister church pastors wife. 

Below is just one picture of the colorful market.

Julie and I had to get a picture taken with the vegetables at market-- look at that head of cauliflower!  Huge! 

All the vegetables in the regions were monstrous! (And all sold in the open air market or off the side of the road)  The large produce is due to the volcanic soil prevalent in the region.

On our way to the Aldea we stopped at a lookout by the side of the road and snapped a group picture!  This over looks Comitancillo and was about 30 minutes from out sister church.

 

Check out this chicken bus! 

The roads from Xela to our sister church in Chipel were steep and mostly dirt roads.

 

We've arrived at our sister church!  The van can't drive the road that leads to the church, so we walk there, about a 1/2 mile?.  A group from the church-- lots of kids-- meets us at the bottom of the road and walks up with us.

A picture of our sister church.  So much ministry happened in that building that week!

Need I say more?

I'll send another batch in the next few days of the rest of the trip!

Becky

Pray for Dan, Debbie, Frank and Kay...

They will be attending homecoming ceremonies at their Alma Mater, Columbia International University (formerly Columbia Bible College) in Columbia, SC.  While enjoying the festivities and catching up with old friends, they will be representing and sharing all about RMI.  They left today, Sept. 9 and return home Sept 17.

Rob

New Receipt..

If you have donated very recently, you may be one of the first to see our newly designed receipt.  We are very excited about all the upgrades and changes around here recently!  If you haven't donated, then I guess you will miss out on seeing the receipt!  Now there is motivation for giving (wink wink)!

Rob

Sweat and Tears...

Kingdom work.  It is why we are here. 

When kingdom work gets tough, my first response is to internalize, stomp my foot and get frustrated.  It is easy for me to forget that we are constantly being refined (as long as we are walking with him).  It is so easy for things to get out of perspective.  Refiner's Fire.  You know the song.  My heart's one desire?  Yes or No.  In the midst of it all, I am being refined to be a purer more able servant.  It is easy to get discouraged.  We are here to see Jesus glorified and his kingdom further established, not ourselves or our own.

God is at work friends.  Are you involved in kingdom work?

Rob

Hurricane Felix in Guatemala?

Here is a quote form our missionary in Guatemala...

"Well, don't worry too much as Felix has been down graded to a tropical depression.  We have received advisories from the US embassy that we should expect heavy rainfall.  So far, it is a beautiful sunny day today.  So, we will wait and see.  The rain is expected to start here sometime tonight through Thursday. 

Thanks for the prayers and we will let you know what else happens.

God Bless,

Chrissie"

Rob

McGregor Baptist Home Safely from Guatemala...

Our team from McGregor Baptist Church visiting their church in Chipel, Guatemala has arrived back home safely.  Here is an excerpt from an email we received...  One of the team members said "God truly blessed us in so many ways as we grew in our love for our Sister Church Members who served us so preciously!"

Praise the Lord.

Rob

Hurricane Dean

As I understand it, the church members at Port a Piment came through the hurricane with no loss of life. They had several gardens that were completely distroyed and there were a few animals that were killed. There were quite a few houses that received damage too.

This is just a quick update on the church at Port a Piment.

Pastor Yvon Vertue

I have gotten some info on the new pastor for the Port a Piment Church.

His name is a Pastor Yvon Vertue. Pastor Vertue is married with 3 children. They have 1 boy and 2 girls. His wife's name is Benita Vertue.

Pastor Vertue studied in Borlosse School in Port-au-Prince and has been working for MEBSH as a pastor for 19 years. He has pastored 5 churches. The last church he pastored was in Bonn Finn where there is a big hospital.

Pastor Vertue sends his greetings and wants you to know that he is eager to work with RMI and the 2nd Cape May Baptist Church in the siter church relationship.

Pastor Letter

I just received this letter from Pastor Daniel Eliassaint. This is his farewell letter as he has left the church to serve in another area of Haiti. As soon as I can, I will post an introductory letter from the new pastor at Morancy.

August 14th, 2007


From : Pastor Daniel Eliassaint.
To : RMI’s Director and Staff.


Dear brothers.

I greet you in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The reason I write this letter to you is to inform you that I am not serving as Pastor of the Morency church at all because the Committees of MEBLH sent me to another church in Anse-dhainault. I will leave Morency at the end of August.

I would like to say thank you to all the RMI staff for the good work they did in Morency while I was there as Pastor. A special thank to the Director of RMI Mr. Billy Moses for his work and the way he took care of me as Director of RMI. I hope that God will protect you in the work that he gives you to do.

I will pray for you and I hope you’ll do the same for me.

May the Lord who has all the power send his blessing upon you?

Pastor Daniel Eliassaint