Val Marie Paper

In 2016, Valerie Woerner committed to tithe 10% of the sales from their company, Val Marie Paper, an internet company that designs and produces various kinds of personal prayer journals, to RMI to feed school children through the Hope for Kidz Hot Lunch Program. God has honored that commitment and in the last three years Val Marie Paper has been able to give over $82,000 to feed 760 school kids each school day as well as help with some school projects. Each journal that is purchased provides meals for 6 kids.

These meals will probably be the only meal they receive all day. Kids who are well nourished learn better. They are not preoccupied with being hungry. They are able to stay awake in class, concentrate on their lessons and thus are able to receive better grades. They are healthier and have more energy.  Being healthier also boosts their immune system resulting in less illnesses and better attendance in school. The meals are chicken flavored rice-based (a staple of a typical Haitian diet) and are packed with the vitamins, protein, and minerals needed for optimal nutrition. In short, having these meals are life changing!

Valerie is not shy about sharing her giving vision, stating, “It’s not worth having a business if giving isn’t built into it. It shouldn’t be something that is just focused on yourself. We should be able to use our resources and steward them the way God is calling us to. It’s our daily obedience to Him.”

Valerie and Tyler Woerner

She has built giving as a part of the DNA of her business. Valerie developed unique, quality prayer journals (www.valmariepaper.com) after she became pregnant with her first child. She realized that she’d only be able to get through it if she prayed quite a bit, but she couldn’t get her thoughts organized. At the time she owned a wedding invitation company and the printer, who printed the invitations, told her that he could print something for her to make it easier, but she’d have to order at least 50. By the time she got a design put together and all the pages the way she wanted and had her first prayer journal printed, it was 2 weeks before her daughter was born. She realized that it made sense that if she struggled with prayer then there were probably other people who struggled in the same way. She shared it with her previous clientele, brides, friends, and family and sold about 100. That first shipment was shipped out 2 weeks after her daughter was born. The orders for the prayer journals kept coming as more people found out about them. It was such a novel, unique idea at the time and people really responded to it. Val Marie Paper was born and has grown exponentially in the last 4 or so years.

She had been giving to a different charity each month but as the business grew, she felt like she could make a bigger impact by giving to a charity that she knew personally and trusted. That is when she turned to RMI, an organization that Valerie had intimate, long-term knowledge of and trusted. RMI is a ministry that had been a part of Valerie’s life since she was a little girl. Her church, Trinity Bible Church (Lafayette, LA), has been partnering with RMI for decades. Her family has sponsored lots of kids over the years and she and her husband, Tyler, have continued this in their own family.  Valerie’s mom, dad, and sister have all visited their Sister Church in Picot, Haiti on mission trips. You can read more about her giving commitment at www.valmariepaper.com/about/giving-fund. Valerie and Tyler hope to visit Haiti soon to see the Hot Lunch Program in action and meet their sponsored children.
What Valerie has done is so inspiring and challenging!

The idea of giving a percentage of sales or profits to support a particular charity is a growing phenomena and businesses are finding it’s a blessing on multiple fronts as it stretches your faith and expands your borders. Have you built charitable giving into the DNA of your company or business? How about consolidating your giving into one place so that you can make a bigger impact? RMI is a ministry that has boots on the ground that you know and trust.

Help us make a bigger impact in Southern Haiti.  What can your business do?

Benjamin Altema: A Promotion to be Celebrated!

Benjamin Altema
Director of Field Operations

We are proud to share with RMI's followers and supporters that Benjamin Altema has been promoted from Field Administrator in Haiti, to the position of Director of Field Operations. Benjamin will directly report to Rob Thompson, Field Director, and the rest of the team (missionaries and Haitian staff) will now report directly to Benjamin.

Benjamin came to work with RMI as an administrative assistant in 2006 and his gifts of leadership and administration were evident in a very short time. Anyone who knows Benjamin and has worked with him over the years, knows that he is a Godly man of integrity and leadership. He has been a blessing to our American missionaries, Haitian staff, and our team members who have had opportunity to work with him over the last twelve years.

Benjamin has been married to his beautiful wife, Lucette, for seven years and they have four handsome sons; Jason and Jaden are six years old, Alan is five years old, and Ezechias is two years old.

Benjamin is thankful to be working in the environment of a great team here at RMI. He says, "My team makes me look good." He has stated that his position with RMI gives him "opportunity to influence the people I'm working with, and to transform more lives and build God's Kingdom through them."

We would ask you to keep Benjamin and his family in prayer as he transitions to this new position of leadership on the RMI team.  

eleve8: A Story That Tells Why (5 of 5)

A simple story that communicates the spirit of eleve8...

A couple of years ago, one of the RMI pickup trucks pulled into the parking lot at the office.  As the driver exited the vehicle, he started talking with another team member there by the side of the truck.  That other team member immediately noticed a wet rope that was left in the bed of the pickup overnight.  It had gotten wet from the rain the previous night as it laid disheveled in it's place.  Here in RMI, we value order and stewarding what God has given us.  The rope should've been wrapped up and put in the back of the truck so it was ready for it's next use.  Once he noticed the rope, he reached in and grabbed the rope to put it away. The driver who was ultimately responsible for that rope, asked, "Wow, why can't I see what you see?".

Why can't I see what you see?  What a great question!  It's about training.  The one team member had been trained to have open eyes, to take initiative, to look for opportunities to change things and to have an impact where God put him.  The other team member had simply not been taught to have open eyes.  We want all of our team to have open eyes.  We want to have a "take initiative" kind of culture.

Today, that team member who asked the simple question, "Why can't I see what you see?", is now the one with open eyes.  He is now the one teaching and leading others.  He is now the one taking great initiative to change things.

This is the spirit of eleve8.  It's about multiplication.  We all need to be passing on what we've learned along the way, as well as learning more from the others God puts around us.

Keep watch as we roll this out in an 5 post series...  Next up...  

1. ANNOUNCING: eleve8
2. Vision and Mission
3. 8 Core Values and Proficiencies
4. This is NEW, but not really!
5. A Story That Tells Why

eleve8: This is NEW, but not really. (4 of 5)

Is our eleve8 initiative new?  Definitely yes, but not really...

Why isn't this new?  For a long time, our desire has been to have a multiplication culture.  We've talked about empowering the team, raising them up, releasing them with authority to changes lives.  On a regular basis some of us have used the language "we are a teaching mission".  We truly value our team members and believe in their potential.  Frankly, we've at times purposefully, strategically and patiently sacrificed short term excellence and expediency in order to generate long term personal and professional development and impact by our team members.  We've provided tools and some training to our team members, even if they've had little experience using these tools because we respect everyone's ability to learn and grow into their roles.  We've started a learning resource library. We often choose to use the inexperienced because we believe in their God given future potential. We see equality between our national and international team members.  We believe in our people and we believe in each person's ability to do great things for the kingdom.

Why is this new?  It's time to double-down on our effort.  It's one thing to talk about it and believe, but it's another thing to actively implement.  We want that this language will more regularly be a part of our dialogue and lead us in every decision.  We'll not simply consider how we can develop others, but we will also consider how we ourselves need further development.  What will be do differently? We expect we will have an increased volume of strategic learning events.   We expect that we will bring in experts (local and international) to help us all learn (Interested in coming to teach us your skill?).  We plan to establish an eleve8 learning forum online.  Our library will continue to grow with strategic titles. We can claim we teach/develop people, but we want to be more aggressive in doing so.  We will push harder to expect and demand the development and the empowerment of our people.  There will be suggested books, suggested blogs to follow and articles to read.  There will be an increased volume of encouragement to lead and learn.

RMI Haiti Team - Full Time (Oct 2017)

Keep watch as we roll this out in an 5 post series...  Next up...  

1. ANNOUNCING: eleve8
2. Vision and Mission
3. 8 Core Values and Proficiencies
4. This is NEW, but not really!
5. A Story That Tells Why

eleve8: 8 Core Values and Proficiencies (3 of 5)

What are the 8 major areas of life and leadership that we will focus on in our eleve8 initiative?

8 Core Values and Proficiencies…  

1. Everyone can be a learner and developer (of self and others) - Skills 
2. Everyone can be a student of the Bible - Know the Bible 
3. Everyone can be of good character - Character and Values 
4. Everyone can be disciplined - Personal Discipline 
5. Everyone can be socially intelligent - Understanding People 
6. Everyone can be an initiator - Independent and Creative Thinking 
7. Everyone can be a manager - Self and Others 
8. Everyone can be a server - Service

Keep watch as we roll this out in a 5 post series... Next up... #4

1. ANNOUNCING: eleve8
2. Vision and Mission
3. 8 Core Values and Proficiencies
4. This is NEW, but not really!
5. A Story That Tells Why

eleve8: Vision and Mission (2 of 5)

What is the vision and mission of the eleve8 leadership development initiative?

eleve8 exists to "Develop a Workplace Culture of Constant Leading and Learning" (Vision) in order to "Increase Personal and Professional Capacities to Transform Lives in Christ" (Mission).

Keep watch as we roll this out in an 5 post series.  Next up...

1. ANNOUNCING: eleve8
2. Vision and Mission (Done)
3. 8 Core Values and Proficiencies
4. This is NEW, but not really!
5. A Story That Tells Why

ANNOUNCING: eleve8 (1 of 5)

What is This?

RMI desires to be all in on further developing our team of "learning leaders".  We're doubling-down on our efforts to create a vibrant fellowship of leaders who are constantly learning.  EVERYONE on the RMI team must know that they are in development mode.  We are all in process.  If we are going to transform lives, we must be in transformation ourselves. Out of our own constant development, we will more effectively lead others within our own sphere of influence to new places.

This is why we are launching our eleve8 initiative.

Notes on the Logo...

• "e" is for "everyone". Everyone can/should be a learning leader. 
• "leve" is a Haitian Creole word which means "to lift up". "lev" is the latin root word of the English word elevate, which indicates being "lightweight" and therefore able to be moved, raised up or lifted higher. 
• "8" refers to our 8 unique core values, proficiences or competencies. 
• "8" is elevated off the baseline to illustrate our own movement from who we are today to who we can become tomorrow. The shadow under the 8 refers back to who we used to be. 
• "green" and "blue" refer back to the RMI logo, but yet unique. 
• "green" is used to signify growth and "blue" is used to signify the sky, or the unlimited leadership potential for each of us learning leaders.

Keep watch as we roll this out in an 5 post series...  Next up...  

1. ANNOUNCING: eleve8
2. Vision and Mission
3. 8 Core Values and Proficiencies
4. This is NEW, but not really!
5. A Story That Tells Why