"Field Posts"

I can hardly believe it! I am working with RMI again. After previously serving with RMI for 15 years (5 in FL, 10 in Haiti), I stepped away to serve as a Pastor at Beacon EFC here in Galloway.  I thought I would be there a long time, but God had different plans.  My time on staff at Beacon was wonderful!  It was truly a difficult decision to step away from my role there. Now, I've returned to RMI.  RMI is in my blood.  I love it.  I love how the church partnerships change peoples lives, both here in the States, and overseas.  Being present with one another cross-culturally is transforming.  It's a great joy to support the mission of seeing more and more of this happening. Let me briefly answer a few questions... Are you moving back to FL/Haiti? No.  For the foreseeable future, I'll be working out of my home office here in Galloway, NJ.  The technology that is available today makes this even more possible.  In the last couple of days...

This blog is no longer active.  To connect with Rob and Becky, email us at robthompson1229 and/or beckythompson0516... both of these are @gmail.com addresses.

Missionaries crash and burn all the time.  If I'm being honest, I've been on the verge many times myself.  I've made my share of mistakes.  Through it all, I've received some GREAT wisdom and counsel over the years. As I write, I'm aware of my ability to fail at any of these daily.  Here's my collection that has helped me. I hope this helps you... If you are a missionary, or planning to be a missionary, I implore you, please read these carefully with a learners ear... Love Jesus Love Others - We must be absolutely sold out and passionate about loving Jesus, and because of that loving others. Check Your Ego at the Door - Win at outdoing others in showing honor. (Rom 12:10) Those “above” you and those “below” you should both feel like they are honored by you. Never seek honor or deny being honored (but always give the praise to God). You don’t have a monopoly on being right or more spiritual. When you think you are right, seriously consider that other...

Since our return to Haiti in August 2017, I have taken on some new responsibilities with RMI.  One very new area for me, is working with our Hope for Kidz Child Sponsorship Program (HFK).  Some of my work with HFK involves managing the database that contains all of our sponsored child information,  communications thru social media and blogging, and serving as a liaison between our Haiti office and Florida office. I had a request from one of our C3 Partner churches to get some information on young girl they sponsor in order to bring more awareness to the HFK program at their church (with the goal of increasing sponsorships there.)  So in early April, I took a day trip out to Anse a Veau. For me, it was special trip!  I had not been to  Anse  a  Veau  since 1999, which was my first trip to Haiti with Linwood Community Church .  The church in Anse a Veau has a special place in my heart! It was on that trip that I fell in love with ...

We are proud to share that Benjamin Altema has been promoted from Field Administrator in Haiti, to the position of Director of Field Operations. Benjamin will directly report to Rob Thompson, Field Director, and the rest of the team (missionaries and Haitian staff) will now report directly to Benjamin. This change will allow Rob to focus more on big picture development and less on the day to day operations. Benjamin came to work with RMI as an administrative assistant in 2006 and his gifts of leadership and administration were evident in a very short time. Anyone who knows Benjamin and has worked with him over the years, knows that he is a Godly man of integrity and leadership. He has been a blessing to our American missionaries, Haitian staff, and our team members who have had opportunity to work with him over the last twelve years. Benjamin has been married to his beautiful wife, Lucette, for seven years and they have four handsome sons; Jason and Jaden are six years old, Alan ...

Rob's been busy working with the RMI Haiti team to address a problem we've been experiencing. We believe that a partnership between a US Church and a Haitian Church, with RMI as the bridge, can't prosper, if there isn't at least some level of communication happening.  We realized that our system that we've been using was too arduous, it wasn't passing on information in a timely matter, it was time consuming and it wasn't passing on helpful information.  It was broken. So, we've redeveloped our system to make it much simpler, faster, effective and all around more efficient.  We're already experiencing fruit from the system both here in Haiti and in the US. If you attend one of our US Partner churches, and aren't already receiving updates directly related to your Haitian Sister Church, you can subscribe on your Church page here .

We got the opportunity to worship at our Sister Church in Cance.  The pastor asked if Becky would sing, and she's always ready.  She loves to sing.  Here she is singing How Great Thou Art .

The RMI team works hard to facilitate our "pre-trip administration"; all the work that needs to be done on our end, AND on the end of our US Church partners in preparation for a short term team visit to Haiti. Frankly, it's difficult to explain how complicated and protracted this whole process is. Problem:   This process hasn't changed in many years. It takes full time people on the RMI side managing the load, lots of coordination, lots of paperwork, lots of back and forth communication and documentation, filing, duplication of effort, etc. Solution:  It was time for a change to bring more efficiency and simplicity to a labor intensive process. After being in development for approximately 18 months, we've just launched a whole new system that embraces technology and automation, including online forms, website integration, automated email invoicing, email notifications and tasks, etc. On the RMI side, it takes many of the responsibilities off of one person, a...

We are out of space at our office, and therefore we have to convert our current office conference room into more desk space. Yet, we still must have a place for the RMI team to meet.  We also have LONG wanted a place where we can gather our Sister Church Pastors and School Directors.  God has open the door to address these needs. We're building a room on top of our current Depot building. It's Saturday, but the construction team wanted to work!  We're excited for what this "addition" to the RMI Depot will provide to our ministry.

Here are a few free pointers for those of us that find ourselves involved in missionary fund raising... WAIT - IMPORTANT NOTE:  Before I begin, to those who have given generously and sacrificially to us, we thank you! Your sacrifice sustains us.  Your generous giving is grace to us.  We are at a loss for words to say thank you. Back to fund raising...  Let me be very honest.  I am NO EXPERT.  I constantly feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.  As we enter into these things together, I want to share the following pointers  that I've found to be helpful to revisit time and time again. Be Authentic - There is no amount of manipulation that is healthy or helpful. Trust God - It isn't about you.  Don't get discouraged, seriously, God is at work in you and through you in this process. Be Truthful - Never deceive.  Never hide. Dream Big - Don't underestimate what God is going to do. Embrace Overhead - Many want to shy away f...

I'm so excited that TODAY is my last day of chemo!  This is a milestone in my cancer treatment that I have been looking forward to since the beginning of treatment.  I started out in September with a two-drug treatment once every two week for 4 treatments (that took 8 weeks.). That treatment was pretty rough on my system, but not as bad as I anticipated.  I was VERY fatigued for 5-6 days afterward and just didn't feel right.  Thankfully any stomach side effects were very minimal.  My hair started falling out when the doctor told me it would. And so far through my entire treatment, my blood counts have been great and I've had no issues with infection from a compromised immune system.  When that first treatment was finished, I started a second treatment, one-drug (different than the first two) once a week for 12 weeks. Today is #12 of 12!  This treatment has been much more tolerable. The biggest side effects really came from the Benadryl and st...

Am I worshiping my work, or is my work an extension of my God-directed worship?  How about you? Worship is an "expression of the heart, mind and soul born out of reverence and admiration that reveals and celebrates greatness".   Reference: Thompson Unabridged Dictionary Let's not disconnect our work from our mission of worship.  Let's make sure our worship is vertical, not horizontal, and not directed at the interminable pursuit of self. This admonition applies equally to those in "full time ministry", those "in the business world", stay at home moms and dads, retired, students, teachers, engineers, artists, etc. We all just as easily take our eye off the purpose of our existence.  When we take our eye off the ball, we swing/kick and miss.  We get sidetracked from the mission and spend countless hours in empty pursuits. As fellow believers, we are all on the same mission.  Let's not allow ourselves to get consumed by the work, let's...

Confession:  I've struggled with fear and worry my whole life.  I am an expert ( tongue in cheek ) and can certify that... Fear/worry steals. Fear/worry blinds. Fear/worry kills. Fear/worry distracts. Fear/worry deceives. Fear/worry devours. Fear/worry binds. Fear/worry exploits. Fear/worry ignores truth. Fear/worry prevents. Fear/worry consumes. These 2 destroyers are in cooperation.  Fear fuels worry.  Without fear, worry is dead. Fear. Where does fear come from? Fear comes from misplaced self oriented earthly desire and concern.  Dousing the fire that fear desires is only possible when we recognize fear and choose to center our will upon God's eternal purposes.  Ignoring and allowing fear to take up residence is not without consequence.  Surrendering to a God who wholly knows us and completely loves us and wants what is best for us frees us from the power of fear. Worry. Worry is trouble-centered frenetic mental and emotiona...

If we expect to be one, than there must be uncommon behavior intentionally applied.  Common vision, purpose and goals requires uncommon teachability, eagerness for harmony, admiration of other’s gifts, and meekness. I am speaking about T.E.A.M. T eachability - “Never be wise in your own sight.” Rom 12:16 E agerness for Harmony – “Live in harmony with one another” Rom 12:16 A dmiration of Other’s Gifts – “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Rom 12:10 M eekness – “Do not be haughty” Rom 12:16 If we expect to be ONE TEAM, one body, one family, we must intentionally act in unnatural uncommon ways.  Sadly, a flesh filled, all-too-common pompous and unyielding inability to listen and learn, lazy acceptance of discord, blindness to the gifting of others, and self righteousness are our pitfalls.  We are quick to speak (teach) and slow to listen (learn) to other perspectives. When don’t understand that unity follows harmony, not the other way around. We compare ourselves ...

A few days before my first surgery August 18th, we had my sister-in-law at Ash Aspen Photography take family photos. We are really happy with how they turned out! Below is one of our favorites! Here is the link if you want to check them all out. How am I feeling?  The last time I updated, the kids were starting school and I had gotten news of needing another surgery and a chemo start date. Since that last update, I had surgery to remove some skin and a port placed for chemo on Sept 2nd. Unfortunately, a non-serious complication developed from that surgery requiring a third surgery 6 days later. Those were a tough 5-6 days for me and to be honest, I was in pain and feeling pretty discouraged. Thankfully, since then, I've been feeling better and better each day, so much so, that I've been doing normal activities for a week now. It's been a blessing just to feel mostly normal. We got the pathology report back from the skin removal and it was cancer-free and we n...

"The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9 When we left Haiti on June 1, we had big plans for the summer. We had prayed through these plans and felt they were God-directed. Even looking back at how some plans weren't quite coming together before we left makes me realize that they were God-directed. He knew what we were going to find out on June 23rd.  My cancer diagnosis sure threw us for a loop, as it would anybody, but on top of that we were faced with so many questions and decisions to make: where to go for treatment, choosing the treatment option best for us, where to live, where to send the kids to school, etc. We were faced with so many changes for how we thought our summer was going to look and even bigger how the next year is going to look. Through July we were able to still do many of the fun things we had planned, but once August rolled around we had to put off our plans so we could instead make new plans to start ...

Surgery is done, and it went extremely well.  Becky was able to go home within 24 hours of finishing surgery.  Frankly, we are amazed at her progress.  She is certainly tired, and moving slowly, but we are grateful that her spirits are high, the incisions are clean and doing very well, and physical range of motion is more than we anticipated.  God is answering the prayers of many. Here are some updated praises and prayer requests... Praise for good surgery.  The Dr.'s were very pleased, we are pleased, and the at home nurse was amazed at the good work that the Dr.'s did. Praise for coming home so quickly and praise that the recovery has not been as hard as we expected it to be.  This doesn't mean it isn't hard! ;) Praise for the HUGE numbers of people praying and supporting us.  Watch for another update on this soon. Praise for meals coming over the next couple of weeks from friends. Pray for continued recovery.  Pray for no pain, greate...

After what feels like a million doctor appointments, consultations, tests, a second opinion and being flooded with information and statistics, it is finally time to start treatment. So ready or not, here we go... Surgery comes first and is scheduled for this Thursday, August 18th. Please pray for the surgeons, for clear steady hands and wisdom during surgery. I expect a 1 to 2 night hospital stay and then home for recovery. Please pray for us as family during the recovery time, as Rob will step up into many of my usual responsibilities and for the kids as they adjust to Mommy resting more. Chemotherapy will start a few weeks after surgery. They will look thoroughly at the cancer removed during surgery and use that pathology as well as how many lymph nodes they find affected to decide the course(s) of chemo. The oncologist sees two options for chemo that depend on the aggressiveness of the cancer they find. I may receive a less aggressive and shorter course of chemo or a more agg...

We are just overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness... When we came to the US for a 3-month furlough, we never expected to find ourselves staying here for a year. Cancer was not on our radar at all. Within three weeks of landing on US soil, we were stunned and looking at a much different reality for the year ahead than we ever imagined. Since my cancer diagnosis, life has been a whirlwind of doctors appointments mixed with working in the fun things we had planned. We've really been able to enjoy fun times with our family and with extended family and cousins. Rob and I still got to take the 2-night anniversary getaway we had planned months ago. We are really thankful for these opportunities amidst the madness of a million appointments. As you can imagine, we've been working hard to figure out our living situation for the next year and make a decision on school for our kids. When we first arrived, Rob's parents graciously made it clear to us that we could stay w...

These last two weeks have been some of the hardest in my life. I'm sure Rob would say the same. One of the biggest things I want to say to everyone who read the difficult news of my breast cancer diagnosis is "Thank you!" We have never felt more loved and supported and prayed for than we did this past week. I think the thing that has impacted me the most is the peace I have felt knowing so many of you are praying for me and Rob and the kids as we walk this difficult path. We have a long road ahead and many hard decisions to make, yet we have confidence that we do not walk through this alone. For that we are immeasurably grateful. We got some very good news today. It has been a week of many tests and doctor appointments and we are not finished with all consultations, but we walked away from today very encouraged. After MRI and PET scan results, it was confirmed that this is an early stage cancer and is contained to one small tumor and one lymph node. For those of y...