October 2018 Newsletter - Home

Our first month in Haiti. This at Morency Church

It is hard to believe that it has been nine months since we last sent a letter.  A lot has happened in those months that leads us to say that this is our last newsletter as part of the RMI organization.

As usual, we had a very busy spring with RMI hosting church teams and visiting churches. However, we knew that it was time to make a decision about staying in Haiti longer than our four year commitment ending the beginning of September 2018 or leaving and going back to the United States.  It was hard to believe that the time had passed by so quickly.  So much happened during that time both as an organization ministering in Haiti and to us personally.

We made the decision soon after Christmas that it was time to return to the United States.  We definitely were not getting younger and Laura continued to deal with worsening sciatica in her left hip and leg. This caused her to work at the computer helping teams to come to Haiti from home, often lying in bed.  We also felt that we needed to be closer to our children, grandchildren, and new great-grandchild.  Therefore, we made the decision to leave the end of June so we could visit family, supporters and churches in July and August as well as find a home and settle-in.  Even after a trip to Gainesville, FL and six weeks of physical therapy in April and May, Laura's pain only grew worse.  All the plans we had to travel were cancelled and has yet to happen!  Laura is now scheduled for surgery on October 29 for a total hip replacement.

Our home in Gainesville, FL

We purchased a small home in Gainesville, Florida and were able to quickly furnish it using living room and bedroom furniture stored after Laura's parents died in 2016, receiving generous gifts (like a
flat-screen TV) from friends, visiting several "second-hand" furniture places and watching Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for additional things we needed.  We were SO thankful that we were able to totally furnish our home with the money we received from selling everything in Haiti and monetary gifts from supporters.
God has been so good to us!

Joel is so excited that he was able to return to Littlewood Elementary School as an ESE Aid with the same teacher he worked with for years before we left.  He's also very involved with a ministry called International Friendship.  They teach English to international students and scholars using the Bible. Most often they are Chinese. However, this fall, Joel's group include a Japanese young man and a Brazilian young lady. He is also working with two young Haitian men who challenge us to speak Creole!  Exciting!

(Pictured is Denis, one of the two young men from the Simon village that we support in school. He is
one of triplets!)

Most of the time, Laura is at home with trips out for the weekly women's Bible study, church, and small group weekly meetings.  Constant pain is now affecting both hips and legs which limit her activities. Knowing she will be "grounded" for a couple months after surgery,  she did fly to Charlottesville, VA to visit with her son and family and her daughter and family even with the discomfort.  Her son just retired after 20 years in the Air Force with the last four years in Germany. Laura had not see her son and his family for almost five years. However, there are many other children to see as soon as possible!

For now, Gainesville, FL is our mission field although we really miss Haiti and the wonderful missionary and Haitian family there.  There is no way we can thank each of you enough for your thoughts, prayers, and financial support over the past years.  We ask for your continued prayers as continue our ministry here in the United States.


We do urge you to consider supporting RMI, especially the Hope for Kidz program (https://www.rmibridge.org/) and the Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society (www.SDBMissions.org).


God bless you! (Bondye beni nou!)

Joel and Laura

Address: 4133 NW 19th Drive
               Gainesville, FL 32605

Email:  joelsutman11@yahoo.com
            suttonlb@gmail.com

The End of 2017 and New Beginnings in 2018

We were blessed this fall, 2017, with an increase of teams coming here. The fall is usually our slow time after a total break in August. Most teams are sister church teams who came to help and visit with their sister churches. A few had not been to Haiti for two to four years. AND, we had two new prospective teams.  God is great!

Praise God!  In 2017, 540 people accepted Christ, more than 16,500 children received deworming medicine, 40 teams visited RMI/Haiti, and thousands of food boxes were distributed in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.  By the way, RMI at Cite Lumiere is a major distributor of food for "Feed My Starving Children." If you want to see our own Benjamin Altema, Haitian Administrator of the RMI Haiti office, click on this link: https://youtu.be/BmlY07nMgNY

RMI Team in Haiti Fall 2017

Our RMI team on the ground has expanded to 41 Haitian administrators, staff at the Zanglais Ministry Center and the Cite Lumiere office/depot, three missionary teachers at the Cite Lumiere Christian School, and missionary families of Thompsons, Nunemakers, and Suttons.  Even with all these folks, we find ourselves short of people and resources with the many teams now coming to help RMI and their sister churches.

We're excited that Rob and Becky Thompson with family are back on the field. We are also anticipating the arrival of Dawn Shoemaker, the Speel and Starkey families soon.

Andrew enjoying Giant Jinga

We enjoyed the month of August in the States, primarily Gainesville, FL (annual checkups), D.C. area, PA, and the farm in WV.  Rather than travel everywhere in a short time, we asked family to join us at the farm. We were excited to see 5 of our 8 children with their families and both our siblings.

We were very happy to have our FIRST family visitors in 3 1/2 years, our nephew Perry Barbee and son Andrew.  Andrew fit right in with the missionary community and wants to return.

Finally, we were blessed with some time with family in the States for Christmas. However, we found that we are very "climatized" to warm weather in Florida and Haiti, so hugged close to the fire while in the D.C. area.

We see one of the greatest needs here as education.  So, we are using ministry funds to support six children and a young adult in school. It is exciting to see Saed, 25 years old, doing well in 4th grade. He didn't have the opportunity nor funds to attend school. He's doing well now. He's not an unusual case. No one goes to school anywhere, even public schools, without money for tuition, uniforms, and books.  Pray for him and the others here.

We are back and Haiti and ready to welcome many more teams as the holidays end.  We continue to welcome your prayers and financial support. 

Bondye beni nou!

Joel and Laura

A few months later - July 2017

It's hard to believe that September 5 will mark the end of our third year in Haiti!  Looking back, these almost three years have been a blessing scattered with hardships.  But, isn't life the same wherever you are? We are getting ready to go to the "States" for a month.  It's been a busy summer with teams in June and July along with the absence of other RMI American missionaries on the field since the middle of June. However, we are so blessed with our Haitian staff/missionaries, especially administrators Benjamin Altema and Benson Joseph. We couldn't function without them. Personally, I miss Becky Thompson, Tina Nunemaker, and Star Harvie since I assumed the role of hospitality coordinator for the teams in their absence. This is in addition to my other role of helping teams get ready  to come to Haiti. Joel picked up the slack of the other American RMI missionaries by going out with teams to the far reaches of island! Two sister church teams required more than eight hours of tough driving one way! He continues to do maintenance at the five RMI facilities but he greatly misses Daniel Nunemaker who was always with him and helping him with maintenance.  Sadly, Daniel will not be returning to Haiti in the near future. A new home by RMI with funds from a RI church In many ways, Haiti is showing some recovery where the hurricane hit in our area on the southwest end of the island. Remaining trees sprouted leaves and banana or plantain trees were almost fully grown within a few weeks.  We often ask ourselves whether it is so much better than right after Hurricane Matthew or have we become accustomed to the devastation!  People are going around doing their daily business as if nothing happened. Yet, there are still many in the mountains starving, many are without shelter, and many are without clean water after 10 months.  Please continue to pray for this place. Roofing a school by their sister church Recovery means more goats are now available for the children as are seeds for the farmers. We thank the many who have donated funds for food, water filters, construction projects, goats, and seeds the people here can never afford. We're thankful to those who gave of themselves and time to help here. Many work teams and several individuals came to help sister churches, RMI, and others here. One special young woman is Kendall Kehres, a student at Wheaton College, who gave six weeks as a summer intern.  This is her second summer in Haiti. She was joined by Lauren Nagy, a church friend, who was here for three weeks.  Both helped with teams, the MEBSH Home for the Elderly, around the office, and Hope for Kidz. Kendall Kehres Lauren Nagy Change is constant on the mission field.  The Clemm family, who lived below us, left for Germany.  RMI Missionaries Greg and Star Harvie as well as Daniel Nunemaker are no longer here as part of the Haiti team.  Our missionary community also lost a beautiful young mother, Janella Zimmerman from Bonne Fin, in a tragic car accident.  As missionaries, change is constant, but we miss each of them. On the up side, Rob and Becky Thompson and their family will be returning to Haiti in just a few weeks. Courtney Westcott, Janae Stork and Joslynn Stakes are now RMI missionaries teaching at the school. There are two other young families in process of joining us. We are really blessed by such a great team. We continue to ask for prayers and support as we begin the next year in Haiti. It will be a time of decision making and prayer for us as we seek His will for our future. Bondye beni nou (God bless you), Joel and Laura

What else can happen in a few months, well a year?

Every time I post something on the blog, I am in New Year's resolution mode.  Yet, here I am over a year since I last posted on the blog.  I'm active on Facebook, as is Joel, and often talk about the events of our daily lives.  We send out a newsletter online through Mail Chimp, but neglect the blog! If you are NOT on our newsletter list and want to be just send an email to laura.sutton@rmibridge.org.

With that being said, the year 2016 was one of joy seeing many American sister church teams and other individuals come to Haiti to visit their sister church or to help RMI.  It was also one of enjoying the fellowship of family and friends in the "States" during our two month home visit, the fellowship of seeing old friends and meeting new ones at the church conference at Houghton, New York, and the relaxation of time at the farm in W.Va. where Joel grew up.

The two months in the States were very busy with trips to visit family and friends in Lost Creek, WV, Salemville, PA, Aurora, OH, Wheeling, WV (St. Clairsville, OH), the Washington, DC area, and finally Gainesville, FL.  We also were excited to spend time with cousins in the Columbus, OH area and fellowship with the church there.  Needless to say, we ended up pretty tired by the time reached Gainesville, FL on our way back to Haiti.  Gainesville was where things didn't quite go as planned.  I (Laura) had all my annual check-ups and Joel and I had our dental check-up.  To our surprise, I needed minor surgery and so we added that to our schedule and were thankful the George and Mary Lebo home opened their home to us for an extra week.

My mom and dad - Leland and Lettie Bond

But 2016 was also one of loss of much beauty and many homes here in southwest Haiti during Hurricane Matthew and the loss of both of my parents and Joel's younger brother.  Jim died in March, Dad died April 3, and Mom on December 14.  As a result, we made several unscheduled trips back to the States. I was glad to spend a week with Dad before he died and extra time with Mom. She had a series of health problems in October necessitating a return to Pennsylvania.  I was thankful for the extra time with her since my last trip was when I arrived an hour before her death.  

From our roof

Although we were in the primary target zone of landfall for Category 4 Hurricane Matthew, our home did not sustain a lot of damage.  We had only a piece of roofing come off,  exposing our home to the rain and wind, plus extensive water coming in through walls, ceiling, and windows.  What else would you expect from 140 mph winds and torrential rain?!!!!  Although we pushed water out for at least 12 hours, we were thankful for minimal damage, especially when we looked around our neighborhood and listened and saw the damage elsewhere.  Some nearby towns and villages were almost totally destroyed, especially those near the oceans. Many of the Haitian churches we serve lost churches, schools, the parsonages, and many homes. Praise God, there was little loss of human life in those churches. However, much of the crops, livestock and safe water supply was destroyed.  We are thankful for all the help we received and are still receiving here.

Flooding weeks after hurricane from the RMI Office

What followed was almost 6 weeks with limited or no power and internet as well as a 100 year flood two weeks after the hurricane.  This flood destroyed much of what was left after the hurricane for many people.  Cholera also struck in areas where water supplies were contaminated by waste and dead animals.

Desriveaux Church

Port Salut - Favorite Beach and Restaurant spot

As Joel and I look back, only God's strength sustained us during this time.  We ask for your prayers as there is much to be done and our resources at RMI are stretched.  But, God is GREAT!  He has plans for us and they are plans for the good (Jeremiah 29:11)

Wrapping Up 2015, and Looking Ahead

As we are approaching the end of this amazing year of adventure here in Haiti, we are feeling truly blessed by God. The last year or so has had its ups and downs, but as many Haitians say, “Se la vi” from the French saying that means “That’s life”.   And isn’t that the way life is and has been from the beginning?  No matter who you are, where you are from, or your financial status, there will be good days and bad days. However, as Christians, we have the hope of eternal life that we believe has come to us by the birth, death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ that raises us above the highs and lows of life. Looking forward to celebrating another of many Christmases that help us focus on the sacrificial coming of the King of Kings in the humble form of a baby boy in a lowly manger. Thank God He came to us, because there was no way we could ever work, or scheme, or connive our way to Him!! In John 5:24, Jesus himself says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has passed over from death to life.” What a perfectly powerful, but simple promise!!

Another promise that I love, is “And we know all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” ( Romans 8:28 KJV ).  Notice that it doesn’t say “all things will be good”, but this promise has a good ending. It is what we look forward to and it is why we can continue to work even when things are not going as we planned or hoped!!!  We both love where we are in the village of Simon with all the crazy Haitian life going on around us; but, honestly, some days it is too much. We know, however, as we go from day to day learning more about the people with their culture and language, we will appreciate this time even more when we are able to communicate well and interact naturally. The “old timers” keep telling us to “Hang in there. It will come and it will be so much fun when it does!” I truly believe God has called us to live here; I also believe the promises of the “old timers”; and, I realize that if we keep our focus on what God wants us to do, taking it one day at a time, we will find our way here in Haiti.

Children, many of them, walking to and from school!

Amidst all this pondering thought about how blessed we are to be here, I have the strong realization that a huge portion of that blessing comes by way of so many of our family, friends, and coworkers for the Kingdom of God in the US and around the world. We are so thankful for all the consistent prayers offered in our behalf before the Throne of God!! We know we could not survive here without that! We are also amazed and thankful for the financial support that has grown by God’s urging folks to see our needs (almost without our asking), and that is, in and of itself, a huge blessing! Please continue to be as faithful as we finish 2015 and look forward to the opportunities and challenges of the coming new year.

Speaking of opportunities, God has given us the time to travel back to the States the last two weeks of this year. We will spend a few days in Gainesville, Florida to take care of some routine medical appointments, and to catch up with some of our friends and supporters there. Then, we will go north to the D.C. area and to Pennsylvania to spend the Christmas with family and check on Laura’s mom and dad. They have been struggling with many health issues over recent months. We will return to Haiti in early January and hit the ground running. Joel will go out with the first church team that will come shortly after we get back, and Laura will jump right back in there too.  In fact, there will only be a couple of weeks in the time up to early July that will not be devoted to church teams coming to relate to their sister churches. Then, we will be on “home assignment” during the months of July and August. This will  give us some time to recharge our spiritual and physical “batteries”. We are looking ahead to more time for reconnecting with family, friends, and churches that have been so instrumental in helping us to serve our Lord here in Haiti.

Once again, we say “thank you so much” to all of you who are supporting us in prayer and financially! We also want to wish everyone a very “Blessed Christmas, and a Spirit-filled New Year”! In the words of Tiny Tim from the classic, A Christmas Carol, “God bless us everyone”.

Bon Fèt Nwèl ak Bondye beni nou!

(Merry Christmas and God bless you!)

Joel and Laura Sutton

Missionaries

Reciprocal Ministries International

Haiti

It's a year and another season!

September 5 meant that we've lived in Haiti a full year! It's hard to believe that much time has passed and yet we've experienced and learned so much.  Joel is now driving in Haiti and sometimes drives teams here and there.  I haven't driven anything except our four-wheeler and the truck on the mission center.  We both can speak SOME Creole and can understand a little, as long as people aren't talking too fast.  Pray for us because the ability to communicate in Creole is key to our ministry here.  We can negotiate the stores and even talk and greet our neighbors some.

Surprising Leah in Aurora, OH

When we signed our contract with RMI, we asked that we could go to the US (the States) about every six months to see my parents, Leland and Lettie Bond. They are now 90 years old and want to see us and know that we aren't on the other side of the world. So, this summer, we took our two weeks vacation to make a whirlwind trip to the States, visiting children and family we missed on our December trip.  It was important to visit Joel's two brothers who are in poor health.  It was important to see Mom and Dad and it was important to visit our children in Ohio and family in Pennsylvania and the DC area.  Along the way, we were blessed with the opportunity to visit friends and family in supporting churches and to be at the worship service in the retirement home where Mom and Dad live.

The happy couple before the wedding vows

As soon as we returned to Haiti, we plunged into team activities and lots of work at RMI.
But, the highlight was attending the wedding of Perguens and Xphania Hyppolite.  What a beautiful wedding at the RMI Retreat Center! And, the different wedding traditions were a blessing to see.

Water filter dedication

So, what has been going on in the ministry.  Where can we start?  Only two sister church teams have been here since we last wrote, but this is the slower time of the year.  We've also had three special project teams during that
period.  Joel and I were actively involved in all but two of these teams.  Joel continues to work hard with maintenance, thankful for the help of Daniel Nunemaker and others. Daniel is the oldest son of our new missionary family.

Home that was replaced

One team built a home while another member of the team worked with our Haitian staff, teaching English grammar.  She teaches English as a second language at a college in the US.  A member of their church in the United States donated a goat to a young Haitian child to provide future income. Another team financed and installed a water filter system at a sister church here. This water system  provides 5000 gallons of fresh, drinkable water daily to the church and to neighbors in the community.

Creekside team ready to fly back to Florid

Practicing chest compressions in CPR

The special projects team from our Florida church flew into our local airport on a private plane. Their purpose was to interview sponsored children, their families, their teachers, the church pastor and deacons and to understand the life of the sponsored children. Two members of the team hiked two hours one-way up a mountain to visit a sponsored child with his family. The highlight for me was to see sponsored children talk with their sponsors back in the United States using an international phone call.  Another purpose of the trip was to discuss the specifics of the new school/church building project at the church and to determine the extent to which they could help.

I had the opportunity to plan and teach a first aid and health information class for our Haiti office. I felt back at home talking about high blood pressure, heart attacks, bandaging, and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR).  I was so thankful for a colleague, Janella Zimmerman, from the Bonne Fin hospital community who taught the majority of the course.

Les Cayes Botanical Gardens

We have time to relax at beautiful locations like the Les Cayes Botanical Gardens and the ocean at Port Salut!

The roar of the waves on the tail of Hurricane Joaquin

It has continued to be hot and humid, but we are thankful for rain that is almost falling an hour or two every day.  Of course, rain brings mosquitos and bugs, as well as increased humidity.  But, we need the rain and we are thankful that bites have not been a major problem.  We are also thankful for our missionary community, our wonderful Haitian neighbors, and for good health!  God is great!

And now it's summer.....

  It is so much quieter now at Citi Lumiere.  Many of the missionaries have left for the summer.  They've gone for vacation, to visit family and friends, and to gain further support for themselves and their organizations.  True!  They are missing the humid and hot summer, but it is also a time when activities slow down for all organizations.  It is our first summer here in Haiti and we're glad to be here even in the heat!

Arne, Priscilla, Olivia, and Lilia Clemm

In June, we finally moved into our new home in Simon.  We live on the second floor and another missionary family from Germany live on the first floor.  We are so thankful for the US Church work teams, some of our own RMI staff, an electrician and plumber who helped us get the house ready for us.  Several volunteers helped Joel with the painting.  A big thanks to everyone!

Batteries for backup to city power

We are learning how to adjust to differences in everyday life like using generators, monitoring inverters with batteries,  having inconsistent city power, and chlorinating our drinking water. One day, I came home to the batteries boiling! It's a challenge, but we're learning!  Compared to missionaries in other countries and early missionaries in Haiti, our life is easy!

We are amazed at the differences in the culture of the mission center and the village where we now live.  It's much noisier, but there is varied and beautiful music along with many interesting people.  We experience beautiful smiles each time we smile and greet with a "Bon jou. Koman ou ye? (Good day.  How are you?).  Blessed experiences like our older neighbor who thinks it's her responsibility to take care of me.  She covered my four-wheeler with a sheet so I wouldn't get burned by the hot seat from the sun and walked me across the street (one lane dirt) so I wouldn't get hit by a motorcycle.  Joel had a lady stop him twice to quote scripture and to pray with him. He calls her his "angel." A merchant in the street market GAVE me 10 bananas and said it was a gift.  These people are blessing us daily!

Building a home in a very mountainous place.

Several work teams that have been an invaluable help to Joel and to RMI.  Their projects have included building homes and doing projects at our Simon house and at the RMI retreat center at Zanglais.

Work team helping at the retreat center

I've transitioned into responsibilities more in line with my educational and experience background.  I'm developing an education program for our staff than has health care, cultural knowledge and awareness, computer and language skills, basic driving and auto maintenance, leadership, and spiritual growth.  NO!  I'm not teaching all of the modules! I'm also involved in a directing a small research study with the purpose of  measuring outcomes of our child sponsorship program, Hope for Kids.  Who would believe that I would come to Haiti to do research?

Our field director, his two children and the Nunemaker family

  We just welcomed our new RMI missionary family, Lee and Tina Nunemaker with their four boys, to our Haiti RMI family.  It's really exciting as they bring even more talents to the mission here.  They are living in our "old" home.  Pray for them, too, as they transition into Haitian culture.

  Joel and I are so thankful to be here and to experience daily what God has in store for us.  We still are struggling with our Creole, but are much better than nine months ago!  At least, we can talk with our Haitian neighbors and staff in Creole, however slow and incorrect it is!  Creole is the key to our work here with the Haitian community.  Real knowledge of the love of Christ and His saving power is limited even though there is a lot of "church."



  We need your continued prayers and support for our work here.  We are supported at a little over 50%.  We need your help!  Please consider donating toward our mission here by clicking on the button at the side of this page or writing a check to either Reciprocal Ministries International or The Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society.