Christmas 2019 Greetings

One can never say that life is boring in our household.  Our yearly updates just skim the surface but we’ll do our best to fill you in.

Dan’s year has been a little like “Where’s Waldo?”.  This year he’s been to Jacksonville and Ft. Lauderdale, FL several times, Savannah, GA, Orlando, Lafayette, LA, Nebraska and Ft. Worth, TX.  There were conferences he attended and conferences he spoke at.  In addition, there were many opportunities to speak at Sister Churches, connect with people who’ve gone to Haiti and update them on the latest of what is happening there. 

He and Debbie were involved in new missionary training for a new missionary appointee as well as led pre-field training for RMI’s newest missionaries.  Jim and April Starkey (and 3 boys) were here for several days to get those final bits of info and instructions before they left for the field.  The whole RMI office pitched in together to help them in loading a container with their household goods and items for RMI ministries, as well.  (No small task in this Florida heat and humidity!)

They also hosted a large local Farewell Celebration for RMI’s former Haiti Field Leader, Rob Thompson.  It was a great time to send the Thompsons off on their next step of ministry in New Jersey.

In the spring, Dan was interviewed by a local TV station when he spoke at the opening of a Feed My Starving Children packing event held at an area church.  FMSC is our key food partner in Haiti.  They are the ones who provide the food packets for RMI’s Hot Lunch Program, which is feeding 10,000+ kids each school day this year.

Another significant event was that Dan participated in the founding of a local chapter of the Haitian American Chamber of Commerce.  It took many months, many hours of working with a core group of local Haitian businessmen and women, and some guidance from the Miami Haitian American Chamber of Commerce.  They held a public ribbon-cutting that was attended by the Ft. Myers mayor and police chief as well as other dignitaries.  He is currently Chairman of the Board, but intends to step down once they are firmly established. 

On a fun note, he took a motorcycle ride to the Florida keys with some of the RMI staff and Board members after their spring meeting.  Just he, the guys and the open road!  They had a great time!

Debbie’s year has been filled with 3 main things...
1.  Ministry with RMI.  There was the everyday work as Director of Communications (branding documents, creating new brochures and flyers, working with new appointees and missionaries on their prayer cards and newsletters and much more) as well as working with Dan in the above-mentioned missionary training.

2.  Health issues.  This year she had to have double root canals in neighboring teeth - and both were under crowns.  She tried to get it done in 1 visit, but the issues were too complicated, resulting in 2 visits.

In October she tore her left Achilles’ tendon (no accident, just walking around the house when it snapped).  October 23 she underwent surgery to repair it and was in non-weight bearing casts (read that “house arrest”!) for 7 weeks before graduating to a walking boot.  [The left was her “good” foot!  The Charcot is in her right foot.  Hopefully having to put all her weight on that foot for these weeks hasn’t harmed it too much.]  She’s now in the midst of what promises to be weeks of physical therapy. 

We are very thankful that RMI helped us out with in-home care for Debbie by re-assigning Dawn to here in Ft. Myers.  She came in during the first week of November and will return home right after Christmas.  Haiti’s unsettled political situation resulted in RMI having to cancel the rest of the year’s teams.  Since Dawn was able to do a good portion of her ministry online and via phone, this was the perfect time for her to come help out.  This freed Dan up to return to the office as well as make 3 significant ministry trips of 5 days each. 

She was the perfect in-home caregiver and when Dan got stuck in Nebraska in a blizzard right before Thanksgiving, she ended up being in charge of hosting our family Thanksgiving for 17 people (Dan made it home late the night before!).  We had a typical Shoemaker Thanksgiving with a meal of blue claw crabs.  Yum!!

3.  Family.  For the first time, Debbie’s sisters’ weekend took place in the summer and included all the “girl cousins”.  Since one cousin couldn’t come, it ended up being Dawn and Rachel (Debbie’s niece).  The sisters stayed in an Airbnb and the cousins stayed at Rachel’s house since the “event” was taking place in Chattanooga, TN where she lives.  What was once “a day in the mountains” turned into 5 days in the mountains.  We had fun prowling quaint shops and thrift stores, experiencing some great food and spending time together away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives.  Since Dawn was on furlough we took advantage of being in the neighborhood and visited her grandmother as well whom she hadn’t seen in several years.  We all had a wonderful time together.

After Thanksgiving, we had “First Christmas” early in December with Devon and his family.  They couldn’t get off work near the 25th, so they came back and stayed for a couple of days.  We filled the days and nights with fun things plus a Christmas morning.  We’ll have “Second Christmas” with Dan’s family later in the month.

Devon and Kristen have their hands full with their 2 little ones.  Riley turns 4 in January.  She excels in gymnastics and has just started soccer. She started Pre-K in the fall.   Her social schedule is becoming quite busy.  Everly just turned 1.  She is toddling all over the place and she excels in smiling!  We were able to attend her dedication in March.    Kristen continues to work at Starbucks and does a great job being a mommy.  Devon is honing his skills as a high-end re-modeler, cabinet installer and finish carpentry.  He enjoys working with his hands, so it’s perfect for him.  He also enjoys mountain biking.  Florida may be flat but he actually finds some tough courses to challenge him. 

Dawn was on furlough from June to August.  She visited almost all her supporters and spoke at all her supporting churches.  This meant that she made multiple trips to Tampa, then took a long trip to Chicago and 2 areas in Seattle, WA.  She had every coffee, lunch and supper time scheduled - she really worked hard at touching base with everyone.  And somewhere in there, she managed to get a week’s vacation with a friend. 

She enjoys her ministry in Haiti quite a bit.  She goes out with teams, goes with the RMI staff to document projects and ministry happenings and works in the RMI office where she arranges teams’ travel and corresponds with them about their projects as well as many other details.  She’s finding it very rewarding and is excited to be a part of what God is doing in Haiti.

She has enjoyed the community on the mission center where she lives.  She regularly hosts a youth night/Bible study for the missionary kids and Bible studies and fun nights with single gals.  She has fun being a dog and cat mom.  She adopted the cat when it was just 6 weeks old in December of last year.  While she was on furlough, it had a litter of kittens!

Praise God with us for his care and direction in all of our lives over this past year.  The ministry is growing and our kids and grands are doing well. 

Pray with us about our support.  Since we’ve been in the states (13.5 years ago!), It has steadily dropped off, causing us quite a bit of concern. 

Pray for Haiti that the political turmoil will be resolved.  RMI had to cancel 22 teams this year.  This has really impacted our budget.  If you could help, designate it for “RMI Ministries”.

We pray that you have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!!