Cite Lumiere Missionary Child Killed in Accident

Urgent prayers are needed for the Reinhard (Apostolic missionary family (NOT RMI missionaries) living at Cite Lumiere in Cayes (where we lived for 25 years).  The dad, Tim, 16 year old Sarah and 5 year old Gabriel were in a serious motorcycle accident on the way to church yesterday morning.  Another motorcycle pulled out in front of them, causing them to collide and wreck.  Details are sketchy but it seems that Tim has a concussion and was fairly battered up (the US hospital report was no broken bones, but lots of soft tissue damage).  Sarah has a badly hurt knee.  Gabriel suffered severe head trauma and a punctured lung.  They were taken to the mission hospital a short distance away where doctors worked on Gabriel for a couple of hours.  His injuries were too extensive and they were not able to save him.  He died yesterday morning.

The US embassy expedited the paperwork during the afternoon to take Gabriel back to the US with the family immediately and a local funeral home in Cayes was able to properly prepare him for transportation.  One of the missionary men made a simple wood coffin for Gabriel.  In the afternoon, a charter plane came and got the family in Cayes and took them to Port-au-Prince where they were evacuated by Missionary Flights International.  MFI took them to West Palm Beach where Tim and Sarah were taken to the hospital.  A sister of either Tim or Joan (not sure) met them there as well a friend to help them get to the hospital. 

This is quite a blow to the missionary body as you can imagine.  Pray for Tim & Joan and the 4 girls, Sarah, Bethany, Hannah & Faith.  RMI missionary, Gary McLaughlin, as well as the entire missionary body gathered around them and were right there with them at the mission hospital, helping them make decisions and arrangements, then helping them get on the plane in Cayes.  It was reported that a large crowd of Haitians from the local community gathered outside the hospital to show their love and concern for the family as well.

As of this morning, Tim has been released from the hospital and they are hoping Sarah will be released soon (They both may need operations on their knees at a later date.) so they can return to their home area of Peoria, IL today.

Blog Change...

We are changing the way we blog here at RMI.  You may  need to update your bookmarks and feeds to receive future posts.

For now on, this blog will not be used.

All posts will be posted at http://rminethaiti.bogspot.com

Rob

Hindered by Hanna!

My phone rang at 3:30 AM this morning. As I groggily answered it, Rob's voice was on the other end stating that our flight had been cancelled due to Hanna hovering just north of Haiti. Rob and I were to be on a 8:50 AM plane to Haiti to be able to have some time with our missionaries and staff. We are in the process of working on some strategic planning and re-structuring for the field. So we are disappointed by this temporary setback time wise. We hope things will calm down weather wise enough that we can go back in a couple of weeks.

However, I do want to remind you to pray for our brothers and sister in Haiti. Even though there wasn't tremendous damage to homes, etc. there has been lots of damage to crops and livestock. Hurricances Fay, Gustave, and now Hanna have dumped a lot of rain over the southern pennisula these past 3 weeks causing much flooding. Due to the increased price of goods in Haiti, the crops they are raising take on new meaning for them for needed income. The loss at this time of crops that they were hoping to be able to harvest in October and November can be overwhelming for a family. It is this income they hope to pay for schooling for their kids, provide food, clothing, and other necessities for their family for the next several months. If they lose this, they are left with little hope of much provision for the next 4 or 5 months.

As Billy and Gary reported below, there is much damage to the roads. This will cause prices to rise even farther as it will be harder for trucks to get to and fro. It will also make it harder for us to get our teams to some of their sister churches! So pray for a quick response as Billy said from the government in getting the roads back into passable shape.

We are counting on your prayers!

Dan Shoemaker

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