Hope For Kidz - It's that time again!

September is upon us with kids groaning and parents giving a sigh of relief.  School is gearing up for the Fall.  Yes, even though they speak a different language and have their own unique culture, Haitian parents are the same as parents the world over.  It is good to get the kids in school again and out from under our feet! 

However, for many of those parents, that struggle that so many parents face has been relieved by our Hope For Kidz sponsors.  Do you know what it is like when a huge financial burden is lifted from your shoulders by others?  What a blessing!  What a relief!  What joy!  Well, this is the type of reaction we get from the parents in Haiti as they learn that their child has been sponsored by a caring and loving brother or sister in Christ, here in the States. 

The Hope For Kidz Coordinators in your church are working hard to see all the kids they have in hand get sponsored.  What a way to impact kids, families, schools, churches, and indeed whole communities.  As these kids get a Godly education, the long-term impact on their community can only be seen from a Heavenly perspective.  Talk about a great return for a small investment in lives!  Would you consider how you can help your Hope For Kidz coordinator spread this good news around?  By sponsoring a child, and encouraging others to do so, you can not only impact a life, but a whole village. 

Dan Shoemaker

Gustav Update...

Here is the latest from Billy Moses in Haiti...

"We have boarded up, tied things down, stocked our houses and are ready....but nothing is happening. It seems that maybe we have been spared at least here in our area. We are seeing reports of flooding but only from the Dominican Republic. We haven't heard anything about Haiti at all. The Weather Channel shows the storm to be right on top of us, but it is cloudy and calm outside, actually very nice weather. Stormpulse.com shows the eye to be 38 miles to the east of us moving NW at 7mph. So, who knows if we are going to get anything at all. We have had a few showers this afternoon, but only short ones and just enough rain to get things wet. There has been very little wind, not enough to really even mention it. So, we wait and pray that there has been little flooding and that we will be spared. We will blog as more develops but there just isn't much to tell you at this point.

Waiting for Gustav to pass!"

Hurricane Gustav Bearing Down on Haiti.

RMI Sister Church Partnership Coordinators, Pastors, Friends,

As you may have already heard, or have seen in the news, a major hurricane is bearing down on Haiti as I write. The Hurricane is projected to cross the southern peninsula of Haiti where our missionaries and our Sister Churches are. Please be in prayer for our RMI missionaries, our Sister Churches, as well as the Haitian people. As information becomes available, we will post updates on our Haiti blog at http://rminethaiti.blogspot.com/. Updates will either be posted by our office here in FL or directly from the Haiti field.

You can track the Hurricane at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml#GUSTAV

Building His Church,

Rob Thompson

VP of Operations

Reciprocal Ministries International

Tropical Storm Gustav coming to Haiti...

I just received this email from RMI Haiti Missionary Billy Moses...

"This is just a quick note to let y’all know that Tropical Depression #7 is now Tropical Storm Gustav. It has 60mph winds and is approximately

287 miles from us at 1pm. It is scheduled to be a hurricane around 7pm tonight. It shows to be off the coast of Les Cayes about 121 miles tomorrow morning at 7am with 75 mph winds. The track shows it passing over Haiti between Cayes & Port au Prince sometime in the late morning."

Rob

Tropical Storm Fay was kind to RMI!

Tropical Storm Fay made landfall much earlier and further south than had been predicted, putting Ft. Myers and Lehigh Acres where the RMI office, Dan Shoemaker's home and Rob Thompson's home is located on the "tame" left side of the storm.  The same was true for Herb and Shirley Shoemaker's home in Naples.  There was flooding (over 5" of rain!) and some fierce winds, but no damage to the office nor any of our homes.  The wind did set off the office alarm.  The police responded within about 5 minutes and found nothing amiss.

 

  Hurricane Andrew, 14 years ago (August 24, 2002) is still fresh in our minds, so we are all very thankful for God's mercy and protection during TS Fay!

 

Here is a picture of Dan & Debbie's neighbor's yard just to give you an idea of the rainfall.

The Leadership Summit

August 7 and 8 I had the opportunity to attend the Willow Creek Association "The Leadership Summit" they produce every year.  It is beamed via satellite into more than 100 locations in the US.  What a great opportunity to be immersed in awesome teaching. As speaker after speaker shared from their hearts about leaders and spiritual as well as practical principles of leadership, I was challenged and re-vitalized. 

It was a great time of input into my life personally and as a leader.  I have some good input that will help me as an RMI leader.  I was also able to make some good contacts for possible future sister churches.

But mostly I appreciated the emphasis from all the speakers on the need as leaders for spiritual holiness, freshness, and devotion to Christ.  No matter the ministry, organization, or company, the first order of business is your own personal pursuit of holiness.  Funny how that sounds so biblical!  However, in the pursuit of providing good leadership it is so easy to forget the foundation. 

I needed to hear those words.  I was challenged in my own faith to verify my continual pursuit of Christ.  How close am I to my Lord?  How sold out am I for Him?  Can I say as one speaker said, "Bring it on God! Whatever you want, I am yours". 

How about you?  Are you pursuing God?  What is your first order of business?  Can you say to God, "Bring it on God! "? 

Dan Shoemaker

Update: the cast if off, the boot is on!

Jenn's x-rays were reviewed by Dr. Bill (the US doctor who is the director of the clinic) and he was able to determine that there were no broken bones as was thought.  She does has a torn ligament.  The cast was taken off today and she is now in a boot.  She'll have to wear it for a while until her foot is healed.

She shares that she is so happy to be able to bath normally now, not to mention drive more easily!

Jenn has broken her foot

Haiti missionary Jenn Rogan fell on her motorcycle yesterday afternoon.  She injured her right foot just a bit.  She knew her foot hurt, but it wasn’t until later that it started swelling.  They put ice on it throughout the evening.  This morning she went to the clinic for x-rays and it showed a small fracture in a small bone just below her ankle, in her foot.  She is in a cast and finding it very frustrating to be on crutches.  She’s unable to drive anything (motorcycle or car).  Dr. Bill, the director of the clinic (who comes in once a month for a week), is coming tomorrow, so she is going to ask him to look at the x-ray and see if he’ll approve of her being in a boot instead of a full cast.

Pray for her patience during this time.  She has a lot on her plate, plus the summer heat is stifling as usual – not the time to have to have a heavy cast.