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!

Estero UMC “gets it”!

Even though their partnership is only 2 years old and they’ve only made 2 visits to their Sister Church, Cherette, Estero United Methodist of Estero, FL, “gets it”. They understand what the partnership is all about. Pastor David Harris shares that the partnership is getting to know each other, overcoming their natural differences, relationships deepen in their worshipping, witnessing and in their working together, ministering to one another and ministering together into the community. “This ultimately results in the spiritual enrichment of ALL to the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Their video (hot off the press) is a great testimony and example of this partnership, what it means to them and the effect that it’s had on the church.

Not necessarily good news

A previously unmapped fault was responsible for the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, not the fault originally blamed for the temblor, scientists announced Tuesday.

A 25-mile-long fault segment ruptured during the quake.

Read the whole article HERE.

(This an “old” map, without the newly discovered fault.)

Wow! A new, unmapped fault. Put together with the previously known fault, which runs right through Port-au-Prince and right down the middle of the southern peninsula, makes for double trouble for Haiti. We pray that the earth stays still for a long time to come (like a couple of generations)!

$25 to Feed a Family for a Month!

It’s here and available. Let’s get this food to earthquake refugees!

1 case is $25.

Or…Sister Churches can provide food for their Sister Church district in lots of 50 cases for $1,250.

Simple ministry that has tangible effects to a large amount of people.

Donations made simple HERE. Deliveries begin the first week of September, so don’t delay!

Food Has Arrived!

Being healthy enables people, especially children, to withstand such things as malaria, typhoid, dengue fever and the #1 killer of children in 3^rd world countries, diarrhea. How can you stay healthy without good, nutritional food? How about now, after the earthquake when food is scarce?

RMI is able to help. We have just obtained several hundred cases of food aid! This food is undesignated and RMI would like to see it be used for needy, earthquake affected families. Each case contains 216 meals which would provide 1 hot, nourishing meal a day for a family of 6 for a whole month! These nutritious meals contain all of the nutrients and vitamins a child needs to grow strong and healthy, and has been scientifically created to help those suffering from scabies, malnutrition and other life threatening illnesses.

RMI would like to be able to distribute this food beginning the 1^st week of September. However, we need help to cover our costs of shipping, customs, distribution, etc.! We need your help to make this possible. Each case is $25. (That is less than .12 cents a meal!) This is a great project with which to challenge your family, prayer group, Bible study, your deacons, pastoral staff, Sunday School class or church. How about your workplace? Can you get your favorite restaurant to put out a collection jar? Do you spend that much on Starbucks coffee in a month? How about feeding an entire family for a month instead? Your local Christian school can take on this challenge…kids helping to feed other kids!

Your contribution will enable RMI to provide this food to needy refugees in earthquake ravaged areas.

If you are a member of an RMI Sister Church, your church can provide food specifically for your own Haiti Sister Church district in lots of 50 cases for only $1,250. This is an enormous, tangible ministry into your Sister Church’s life, one that demonstrates that you know they are hurting and you are sending help that meets them where they are.

To provide these meals for a hungry family click HERE. Help make this food distribution happen!

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!

What does the Sister Church Program mean to you? (#2)

I asked John and Joanne Miner, from Florida Bible church, in Miramar, FL, to share with me what the Sister Church Program through Reciprocal Ministries International has meant to them. Here is their answer. For more information, visit http://www.rminet.org.

What does the Sister Church Program mean to you?

I asked Pete Prados, from Trinity Bible Church, in Lafayette, Louisiana, what the Sister Church Program with Reciprocal Ministries International has meant to him and his church. Here is his answer. For more info, visit http://www.rminet.org.

What’s the difference?

What is the difference between a temporary shelter and a transitional home?

Temporary shelters are just that, temporary…very, very temporary. Tarps and tents are what we here in North America use for a weekend or week long camping trip. These things are not meant for full time, long term, 10 person families LIVING in them. AND they were not meant for tropical rainy seasons. Thousands of tents and tarps were handed out in Haiti over the past months. They are not holding up! Holes get ripped in them, seams come apart, zippers quit zipping and waterproofing is nonexistent. AOL reporter Emily Troutman found this out when she recently visited Haiti to check up on the situation. Her article can be found here. Situations like this do nothing to help families get out of the endless cycle of barely existing day to day.

RMI’s Homes for Haiti homes are not temporary shelters. They are meant to last. The homes are transitional homes. They are meant to get families started on the road to rebuilding their lives. This is a huge difference! A life changing difference!

We have homes in Haiti waiting for sponsors, waiting for you! For $4,400 you can make a life changing difference in a displaced family’s life. Where else can you effect such a dramatic change in not only 1 person’s life, but 6, 8 or maybe 10 people’s life?!

Act now! The need is urgent! Visit RMI’s website to donate online or get details about where to send a check.

One Minute House

You didn’t know that it could be done – but here’s proof that a house can be built in one minute.

Thank you, Fred Feiertag, from Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, WA, for putting this together. Their team was in Haiti last week and put together this model home in the RMI depot yard.

Fred was so excited when he heard about Homes for Haiti, that he took the artist’s drawing of the home and made a 1/12th scale model of it, complete with a goat on the porch. (It’s priceless, isn’t it?!)

Here is the real life picture, complete with a goat, taken last week!

The windows and doors are on another container that is in customs. The guys did a great job!

It’s so exciting to see these Homes take shape. We need more homes sponsored! Help us get these homes in the hands of displaced Haitian families!! Details on how to do that are at www.rminet.org.

RMI Container Arrives, A Sister Church Goes Outback & RMI Board Meetings Take Place

RMI container arrives at the mission center

Many hands like light work!

“A cheerful heart is good medicine” Proverbs 17:22

Some of the RMI national staff and an empty container!

Florida Bible Church heads outback

RMI Intern, Dawn Shoemaker, is on the front row, first one on the right.

A prayer before hitting the road, asking for God’s hands to be on them as they minister to their Sister Church, Maniche. They left Saturday, June 12 and will return to the mission center Wednesday, June 16. Pray for them…that they will affect lives and their lives will be affected for eternity.

RMI Board Meetings Took June 10 & 11

11 men and women met together here in Ft. Myers, FL Thursday and Friday. God has blessed us with a great group of men and women who not only love and care for RMI but they are willing to ask the hard questions and hold us accountable. We appreciate their wisdom and insight. Even though the meetings were long, they were good!

Calling Levi Video

Calling Levi band members Rob Leicher and Mark Lashay were invited to join a work team from Second Cape May Baptist Church (Marmora, NJ) who went to Haiti with RMI May 28 – June 4. This was the first work team for RMI’s Homes for Haiti Program. They were able to unload the first housing container and begin to build the model home in preparation for making the jigs for the other 29 homes.

Rob and Mark were touched by what they saw and experienced in Haiti and have put together this 5 minute video.

You’ll see the team and a little bit of the house work at the 2:30 mark. The song on the video, "More than Moved", is performed by Calling Levi.

Thanks for the video guys!!

RMI Board meetings today and tomorrow!

RMI Board meetings are today and tomorrow. We have a great group of men and women who love and care for RMI and God uses them to make decisions and guide us into the future. Pray for all of us as reports are given, finances are discussed and decisions are made. Pray for clarity, wisdom and vision.

Update from an intern and a prayer request

RMI intern, Dawn Shoemaker, has posted 2 new blog entries. You can find her blog here.

Some excerpts: “Wow what an amazing week. I went out with a team to a town called Cherette. It's a little north of Les Cayes. It wasn't a long drive but it sure gave my heart a leap when we drove through the very crowded streets of the small market. The trucks barely made it through. When we arrived at the church we were greeted with a huge group of kids singing with the pastor, his wife, and church members. They welcomed us with such gratitude, love, and happiness. I can't even express the overwhelming feeling I had to be already loved by people who had no idea who I was.”

"Sunday was so much fun. There was clapping, joyous singing, and love all around. The Haitians sing so beautifully. Just one night and morning and I could already see God in the peoples’ eyes and hearts. We had a service that night also. It was so much fun. We sang and danced! Out of the whole trip the singing and dancing, praising the Lord was my favorite.”

She spent her first week out in the country with a Sister Church team from Estero, FL. This week she is in Cayes helping Marilyn McLaughlin with the Hope For Kidz Program.

Pray for the wife of Samuel Moise, one of RMI’s national staff. Last week she was in a motorcycle accident and broke her leg above the knee. Since there was no orthopedic doctor in Cayes, she was transported in an ambulance all the way to Port-au-Prince. She is in a hospital there awaiting an operation. Thankfully the company she works for is taking care of most of the expenses. Pray for wisdom for the doctors and patience & strength for Sam & his wife, Isman.

The House is Taking Shape

Noon update from Haiti: The house is taking shape.

3 sides up and installing the rafters.

How many people does it take to lift a roof panel?

This gives a new meaning to “raising the roof”!

Moving the panel into place.

Hold it right there!

Give those guys a hand! It’s up! Next thing is to secure it.

Dan checking on the progress. What we see so far is impressive!

To view the rest of the pictures, click here.

Stay tuned. More pictures are to follow with a finished house!!

Another prayer request: The RMI container may arrive at the mission center tonight or tomorrow. It would be wonderful for it to arrive before Dan, Kim and the team leaves on Friday. Pray for it’s swift arrival.

Also, the Estero, FL Sister Church team is back at Zanglais. Because the Guest House is full with another group’s team, both of our groups are staying at Zanglais (I know, it’s hardship duty…staying right on the Caribbean, but nobody said missions was a bed of roses!). That’s 27 people out there!! RMI missionary, Amy Long, is doing a “fantabulous” job feeding everyone.

Did we ask for prayer for our stretched thin missionaries?!

1st Day of Assembly

Kim Rose, RMI’s VP, and the team first set up the jigs. They then began assembling the first house. This house is being set up temporarily in the RMI storage yard to make sure that everyone understands how it should be done, especially RMI’s Haitian contractor, Wilfred, who will be supervising the construction.

Wilfred, in the blue hat, and Kim Rose.

With all the various parts precut, it was kind of like putting together a giant puzzle or erector set: part A fits into part B which then fits part C. Once D and E are together, attach them to C – you get the idea! It’s not as easy as it looks.

It’s coming along!

Raising the first finished wall.

A job well done!

Moving the first wall out of the way and bringing in the frame of the 2nd 20’ wall panel.

You can see the rest of the first day of assembly pictures here.

Today they will finish the assembly and be able to see what a finished home looks like. Stay tuned for more pictures and an update.

Seeing is believing

Pictures tell a thousand words, so here are some!

Here it comes! It arrived at 5 p.m. from Port-au-Prince after having cleared customs in record time…God’s timing!

Maneuvering into the RMI work & storage yard is a bit tricky.

Getting ready to cut the security seal. The workteam from 2nd Cape May Baptist Church, Marmora, NJ were anxious to get to work unloading the container. Drew Thompson is there in the back making sure they do it right.

A little load shift in route, but after stabilizing it, everything was fine.

RMI president, Dan Shoemaker.

This 20 ft. container holds the parts, pieces & components for 30 homes!

Many hands make light work – and did they need a lot of hands!

These things were not light!

They worked into the night. All of these components will make storm worthy homes, up to International Hurricane and Earthquake Codes.

Finally finished. What a job!!

To see all of the pictures, click here. The first pictures in the file show the team putting a tin covering over the 3 storage containers in the RMI yard. They were working hard on that all day while they waited for the container to arrive.