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Raising support to go to the field is a challenging time for missionaries.  They must continue with their full-time jobs as well as travel, share their ministry, and work hard at cultivating contacts and supporters that will  be on their ministry team.  That in and of itself is often a full-time job.  It also involves a lot of prayer! Jim and April Starkey are in that phase of raising their support.  They have been working hard at contacting churches, Bible studies, family, friends and acquaintances.  It has been slow-going but their enthusiasm has not waned.  The boys, Isaac, Micaiah and Ezekiel, are equally excited and anticipating the move to Haiti.  Jim has already finished one online Creole learning language study and he speaks Creole only with their youngest, Ezekiel, who is quickly picking it up.  They are in need of additional contacts. Do you know of churches and/or Bible studies

Raising support to go to the field is a challenging time for missionaries.  They must continue with their full-time jobs as well as travel, share their ministry, and work hard at cultivating contacts and supporters that will  be on their ministry team.  That in and of itself is often a full-time job.  It also involves a lot of prayer! Jim and April Starkey are in that phase of raising their support.  They have been working hard at contacting churches, Bible studies, family, friends and acquaintances.  It has been slow-going but their enthusiasm has not waned.  The boys, Isaac, Micaiah and Ezekiel, are equally excited and anticipating the move to Haiti.  Jim has already finished one online Creole learning language study and he speaks Creole only with their youngest, Ezekiel, who is quickly picking it up.  They are in need of additional contacts. Do you know of churches and/or Bible studies

“On our trip in February 2016, the team from The Bayou Church visited our Sister Church in Petit-Trou, Haiti. During home visits, we split up into three groups, and one group was able to deliver a food box to a woman who had lost her home to a fire that year. We wrote down her name “Sally Ma” because that’s what it sounded like to us. At that time she had been living under an A-framed tarp. On that trip, after talking with Pastor Solvat, we assessed that the biggest needs of the church were to finish building the parsonage and to rebuild a home for Sally Ma (Salimene, Selèmen or Selìmen – we have gotten different spellings each time we go). Our church raised $30,000 that June to rebuild the parsonage (each year our church does a “Big Give” now called the “Make a Difference” fund and that year,

“On our trip in February 2016, the team from The Bayou Church visited our Sister Church in Petit-Trou, Haiti. During home visits, we split up into three groups, and one group was able to deliver a food box to a woman who had lost her home to a fire that year. We wrote down her name “Sally Ma” because that’s what it sounded like to us. At that time she had been living under an A-framed tarp. On that trip, after talking with Pastor Solvat, we assessed that the biggest needs of the church were to finish building the parsonage and to rebuild a home for Sally Ma (Salimene, Selèmen or Selìmen – we have gotten different spellings each time we go). Our church raised $30,000 that June to rebuild the parsonage (each year our church does a “Big Give” now called the “Make a Difference” fund and that year,

Joel and Laura Sutton arrived on the field in September of 2014.  Joel was an invaluable help in many areas.  He pretty much did any maintenance that needed done, not only on RMI facilities, but often on missionary homes as needed as well. He spent a lot of time at Zanglais with projects such as the desalinization unit.  He also was a driver for many of our teams and was either the missionary host or additional RMI staff on teams.  He even used his experience in tree removal after Hurricane Matthew in 2016.  He worked tirelessly opening the roads around their village and on the mission center as well as taking trees off homes in many areas.  His willingness to help in any way has been so appreciated.  Laura’s role of facilitating all the teams and their details was an integral part of RMI’s ministry.  She helped them in coordinating

Joel and Laura Sutton arrived on the field in September of 2014.  Joel was an invaluable help in many areas.  He pretty much did any maintenance that needed done, not only on RMI facilities, but often on missionary homes as needed as well. He spent a lot of time at Zanglais with projects such as the desalinization unit.  He also was a driver for many of our teams and was either the missionary host or additional RMI staff on teams.  He even used his experience in tree removal after Hurricane Matthew in 2016.  He worked tirelessly opening the roads around their village and on the mission center as well as taking trees off homes in many areas.  His willingness to help in any way has been so appreciated.  Laura’s role of facilitating all the teams and their details was an integral part of RMI’s ministry.  She helped them in coordinating

Even though her family protested, Madame Emil took off her voodoo amulet and trusted Christ as her savior.  She was 8 months pregnant at the time and her family insisted that this decision and the taking off of her amulet would result in harm to her unborn baby.  But she was firm in her decision.  It was a moving time for the team from Nebraska who had come to her home with their Haitian C3 pastor and an RMI translator to share the Gospel with the family.  The angels rejoiced when she joined the family of God.  The pastor made a point to follow up with her to support her in this life transforming decision.  The local Haitian church did the same thing as they took her in. Recently the RMI staff heard that the baby had been born, so they made a visit and brought a box of food

Even though her family protested, Madame Emil took off her voodoo amulet and trusted Christ as her savior.  She was 8 months pregnant at the time and her family insisted that this decision and the taking off of her amulet would result in harm to her unborn baby.  But she was firm in her decision.  It was a moving time for the team from Nebraska who had come to her home with their Haitian C3 pastor and an RMI translator to share the Gospel with the family.  The angels rejoiced when she joined the family of God.  The pastor made a point to follow up with her to support her in this life transforming decision.  The local Haitian church did the same thing as they took her in. Recently the RMI staff heard that the baby had been born, so they made a visit and brought a box of food

Longtime C3 church, Creekside Community Church (Gainesville, FL) has felt burdened to build up basic educational opportunities in their C3 church, Baraderes, and its district churches for quite awhile.  Many of the district churches are very remote, from small gatherings on nearby islands to the mountains above Baraderes.  In order to do that they needed to strengthen and resource those churches.  Before a school building could be built, they had to build proper church buildings.  So this is what they have done.  Over the past several years they’ve built 3 church buildings and have committed to building a 4th one.  They’ve also built 1 school, committed to building another one and added one room onto a school to store the food for the Hot Lunch Program.   All of this has been done using local labor and under the supervision of RMI’s construction crew.  Way to go Creekside! These efforts will

Longtime C3 church, Creekside Community Church (Gainesville, FL) has felt burdened to build up basic educational opportunities in their C3 church, Baraderes, and its district churches for quite awhile.  Many of the district churches are very remote, from small gatherings on nearby islands to the mountains above Baraderes.  In order to do that they needed to strengthen and resource those churches.  Before a school building could be built, they had to build proper church buildings.  So this is what they have done.  Over the past several years they’ve built 3 church buildings and have committed to building a 4th one.  They’ve also built 1 school, committed to building another one and added one room onto a school to store the food for the Hot Lunch Program.   All of this has been done using local labor and under the supervision of RMI’s construction crew.  Way to go Creekside! These efforts will

Meet Nedchaida, a sweet, 7-year-old girl who lives in the Anse a Veau area.  She is in the second grade and receives a school sponsorship through our Hope for Kidz Child Sponsorship Program. Nedchaida lives out in the country, not in Anse a Veau town proper.  It takes her 45 minutes to walk to school each day (one way).  She usually meets up with other school-mates on the way.  There are 45 children in her 2nd grade class.  Her coursework includes Haitian history and geography, math,  Bible, reading/writing/spelling in Creole,  and French.  Except for her Creole reading books, the books for most subjects are in French (the official educational language of Haiti)  but the students are taught by the teacher in Creole so that they understand.  She is learning to read in Creole from a book called “Reading with a Happy Heart.”  Her class is currently learning addition.  She is very involved in the

Meet Nedchaida, a sweet, 7-year-old girl who lives in the Anse a Veau area.  She is in the second grade and receives a school sponsorship through our Hope for Kidz Child Sponsorship Program. Nedchaida lives out in the country, not in Anse a Veau town proper.  It takes her 45 minutes to walk to school each day (one way).  She usually meets up with other school-mates on the way.  There are 45 children in her 2nd grade class.  Her coursework includes Haitian history and geography, math,  Bible, reading/writing/spelling in Creole,  and French.  Except for her Creole reading books, the books for most subjects are in French (the official educational language of Haiti)  but the students are taught by the teacher in Creole so that they understand.  She is learning to read in Creole from a book called “Reading with a Happy Heart.”  Her class is currently learning addition.  She is very involved in the

Yep, that’s right.  RMI is 30 years old.  God has done amazing things in and through RMI and our C3 Partnership Program these past 30 years.  Our foundational program, C3 Partnerships, was a vision that started as a seed in the hearts of Herb and Shirley Shoemaker and Dan and Debbie Shoemaker and finally became Reciprocal Ministries International (RMI) in April 1988.  Herb and Shirley ran the stateside administration and Dan and Debbie, along with a handful of Haitian staff, ran the Haiti side.  From that simple beginning of desiring to see the US Church and Haitian Church experience the unity of the Holy Spirit and minister to one another reciprocally, God has raised up RMI as one of the largest missions working in South Haiti with 35 ongoing partnerships, some that are 30 plus years old.  What an amazing tribute to our Lord as we see His faithfulness demonstrated