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We do have food available! Despite the gangs’ stranglehold on Port-au-Prince, we have found a way to get our containers of food to our depot in Cayes. This involves shipping them on a barge to a closer port and trucking them the rest of the way. It increases our costs quite a bit, but it gets the food to us. We’ve supplied the Hot Lunch Program with the food it needs and have food available for our fall food fundraiser. Haiti’s food crisis is worse than it has ever been.  Your brothers and sisters need your help!  Please consider how you, your family, and your church can be involved. Here are the price breakdowns: Each case is $45 and comes with one bottle of cooking oil. Buy 25 cases,  get 1 case free. Buy 110 cases, get 10 free. Scan the QR code to be taken right to the donation

Three C3 partner churches from the Gainesville, FL, area visited Haiti last month.  The trip enabled 2 churches to check on major projects they are involved in.  The third church attended the dedication of their new church building and school, which was just finished – and the dedication of the new cistern under the sanctuary!  We shared about this in the August 2023 issue of the Ministry Highlights.  They built the church on top of a 13,000-gallon cistern.  The water would be accessed by a solar pump. RMI President, Dan Shoemaker, joined the team.  They met the RMI Haiti staff, several pastors from the district, and the president of MEBSH at the new sanctuary to cut the ribbon and for a service of dedication.   What a celebration! Many dignitaries delivered special messages and prayers, and different choirs sang special songs. After the service, they shared a meal together. The church

 Dominican Republic Update: The Starkey family has been in Santiago, Dominican Republic, for a month. They are officially all moved into their home except for one last shipment from their house in Haiti, which will arrive shortly. They have been working hard on moving in, getting all their accounts set up, phone numbers, and such there in the DR and starting to learn the area. They found a car and will be able to purchase it this week.  Now that they have moved into their home and are settled, Jim and April spend a few hours each day working on their language lessons. April has also started homeschooling the three oldest boys. Zeke’s school situation is still uncertain and a cause for much prayer. Please also pray for them as they focus on this part of the ministry now, learning the language to be more effective in ministry there.  In

It is our pleasure to announce that we have a new RMI Team Member. We want to welcome Rob Thompson! It’s great to welcome a new team member who already means so much to each of us and to RMI. As a bonus, he won’t need a lot of training. Rob is joining RMI as the Director of Ministry Development.  He will be working with our existing C3 partners to encourage them to stay engaged even with the issues in Haiti and will be encouraging them to continue with projects and even to begin planning team trips.  He’ll also be working on growing our C3 partnerships in Haiti and our new field, the Dominican Republic.  He will also be working on fundraising and possibly using his field knowledge to assist with development in both Haiti and the DR. He has his work cut out for him, but we know he is up for

The Ezra Institute School of Leadership is RMI’s newest initiative.  We have been committed to child education for years through our Hope for Kidz Child Sponsorship Program.  The Ezra Institute is aimed at high school graduates who have demonstrated leadership potential and been vetted by their spiritual leadership.  The goal is to equip and empower students to lead in their church, workplace, and community through a Biblical worldview. The Ezra Institute desires for students to Learn It, Live It, and Lead It (Ezra 7:10). First (Learn It), they will get a relevant and quality education that elevates their walk with Christ, leadership skills, and vocational skills. Secondly (Live It), students will be mentored by mature local leaders. This will provide the opportunity to practice what they are learning as they engage with their local communities.  Finally (Lead It), after completing the program, students will be equipped to be godly disciple-makers,

*Important Information* RMI is NOT leaving Haiti; however, we are expanding into the Dominican Republic (DR).  This means that RMI will be in both countries, covering the island of Hispaniola.  We’ve received word of some confusion on this, so we wanted to ensure everyone understands what is happening.  The Starkeys were ministering in Haiti, but RMI has asked them to move to the DR to pioneer RMI’s work there.  They have embraced this move and are very excited about this new opportunity.  Ministry in the DR will be unique.  Over 1 million Haitians live there, providing opportunities to minister to Haitians and Dominican Christians. Dominican Republic Update Last month’s Ministry Highlights shared many of the steps the Starkeys are going through to move from Haiti and the US to the DR.  God has gone before them, and things are coming together in a timely manner. Pioneering a new work is

 Hope for Kidz Haiti Update Frantz Desire, RMI’s Hope for Kidz Supervisor, writes, “We thank God for His grace and mercy upon the HFKz ministry. It is great because God allowed us to help many kids go to a hospital and get medical care this year.” Frantz shared, “There have been a lot of testimonies and gratefulness that have been received from the parents of the kids that we were helping. For example, I will pick up some names in the list to share some details with you. First, we have Marvens Joseph, this child is in Picot. The situation was very difficult for him and his family. He was hit by a car while he was going to school. His family was not able to take him to hospital. We sat down with his mother and arranged to send him to the hospital.  It took about three months for

  Haiti Update Haiti’s capital has been mired in gang-fueled violence, kidnappings, and instability for several months.  Right now, there is cautious optimism for the country as they have actually been able to install a presidential commission to begin to try to bring order back to this chaotic situation. The task ahead of this 9-person commission is huge. They have to somehow curb the power of the gangs in the capital, help usher in an international security force to bring back long-term law and order so that they can organize elections to elect a new government which then would take over as the official government of Haiti.  They need our prayers. RMI, in the midst of these things, continues to function normally for which we are very thankful. The south continues to enjoy overall peace and security. Our team is out every day going all over the peninsula as they

RMI is pleased to announce that we are opening the Dominican Republic as our new field!  For a few years, the Lord has laid the Dominican Republic (DR) on our hearts.  Not only is ministry available to the Dominican people but also to the over one million Haitians that live there.   Last year we began the process of inquiry as to the opportunities there for our C3 Partnership Program as well as our style of ministry. We found that working in the DR would be a natural extension of our ministry in Haiti due to the many Haitians living in the DR. We met with Haitian church leaders to see what the real needs were and whether RMI would be able to have a part in helping meet those needs. The needs shared were heartbreaking and varied. We came away knowing that RMI has great potential to bring hope and

On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian hit just north of the barrier island of Sanibel, off the coast of Fort Myers, Florida.  One of the worst storms in Florida’s history, it packed winds of 155 miles per hour, just shy of Category 5 speeds, and propelled an 8–15-foot storm surge that “overwashed” Sanibel – that is, submerged it in seawater. Many homes and businesses were washed away while many others were heavily damaged.  The road to the island was even washed out. Nothing escaped unscathed, not even Sanibel Community Church.  The church campus was heavily damaged.  Even though their homes were destroyed or heavily damaged too, the congregation came together to rip out the flooring, take out damaged pews and equipment, and sheetrock all over the campus.  Their property was used as a staging area for relief efforts on the island.   They didn’t feel their pain alone, though.  Their Haitian

Hope for Kidz is a program that has had a dramatic impact on the lives of not just kids by providing them hope through education but also their families, their churches, their communities, and their schools. It is a huge help in this time of unprecedented inflation and runaway costs in Haiti. However, because of the extreme situation RMI is facing, we must raise the cost of sponsorship by $5, from $35 to $40 a month. This decision was made after much deliberation, discussion, and prayer, and with the blessing of the RMI Board.  Here is why.  Since the beginning of last year, RMI has recognized that we were facing an issue that needed a solution or we would have a serious financial deficit in the Haiti operations budget. RMI has been having to draw out of our very limited reserves thousands of dollars every month to subsidize their budget