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Haiti Field Team
Benjamin Altema, Haiti Field Director
Benjamin is leading RMI's multi-cultural leadership team as Haiti Field Director. He has proven his leadership capability as he has worked his way up these last 12 years from starting out ministering with teams, to being in charge of RMI’s Haitian staff, to the Director of Haiti Field Operations and now to lead the entire field, both US missionary and Haitian staff.
Benjamin grew up in Les Cayes near the mission center. He and his family have been friends of RMI for many, many years. His mother worked for RMI co-founders, Herb and Shirley Shoemaker, for 10 years while they served in Haiti, and eventually, years later, worked for RMI and Dan and Debbie Shoemaker for 25 years. In his university years, he occasionally worked for RMI in various capacities. He graduated from the American University of Cayes in 2006 with a degree in the Science of Agriculture and Environment. In January of 2007 Benjamin joined the staff of RMI full-time. He married his wife, Lucette, in 2010 and they have 4 boys, ages 8 (twins), 7 and 4.
Support Benjamin by choosing "Haiti Staff" | Benjamin's Facebook | Email Benjamin
Benjamin is leading RMI's multi-cultural leadership team as Haiti Field Director. He has proven his leadership capability as he has worked his way up these last 12 years from starting out ministering with teams, to being in charge of RMI’s Haitian staff, to the Director of Haiti Field Operations and now to lead the entire field, both US missionary and Haitian staff.
Benjamin grew up in Les Cayes near the mission center. He and his family have been friends of RMI for many, many years. His mother worked for RMI co-founders, Herb and Shirley Shoemaker, for 10 years while they served in Haiti, and eventually, years later, worked for RMI and Dan and Debbie Shoemaker for 25 years. In his university years, he occasionally worked for RMI in various capacities. He graduated from the American University of Cayes in 2006 with a degree in the Science of Agriculture and Environment. In January of 2007 Benjamin joined the staff of RMI full-time. He married his wife, Lucette, in 2010 and they have 4 boys, ages 8 (twins), 7 and 4.
Support Benjamin by choosing "Haiti Staff" | Benjamin's Facebook | Email Benjamin
Lee Nunemaker, Director of C3 Church Partnerships and Member Care Support
Tina Nunemaker, Teacher, Special Projects
Lee and Tina Nunemaker have lived in Les Cayes, Haiti since the summer of 2015. Lee provides oversight and leadership development to RMI's team of Haiti Partnership Facilitators, as well as serves as the liaison between RMI's US C3 partners and their Haitian Sister Churches. He also provides counseling and member care for RMI's 40+ national and US staff. Tina provides hospitality to visiting teams via meal planning for while they are at the Zanglais Ministry Center before teams go out to their C3 Partner churches and when they return to the center before they head home. She accompanies teams to their C3 Partner church when possible. She also homeschools two of their four children and teaches Bible part-time for the second graders at Cite Lumiere Christian School. Their older sons, Daniel and Josiah have graduated and are living and working in the US. The younger two boys, Nathan and Isaac, enjoy interacting with teams who come to serve in Haiti.
Support Lee and Tina | Blog | Lee's Facebook | Tina's Facebook | Email Lee | Email Tina
Tina Nunemaker, Teacher, Special Projects
Lee and Tina Nunemaker have lived in Les Cayes, Haiti since the summer of 2015. Lee provides oversight and leadership development to RMI's team of Haiti Partnership Facilitators, as well as serves as the liaison between RMI's US C3 partners and their Haitian Sister Churches. He also provides counseling and member care for RMI's 40+ national and US staff. Tina provides hospitality to visiting teams via meal planning for while they are at the Zanglais Ministry Center before teams go out to their C3 Partner churches and when they return to the center before they head home. She accompanies teams to their C3 Partner church when possible. She also homeschools two of their four children and teaches Bible part-time for the second graders at Cite Lumiere Christian School. Their older sons, Daniel and Josiah have graduated and are living and working in the US. The younger two boys, Nathan and Isaac, enjoy interacting with teams who come to serve in Haiti.
Support Lee and Tina | Blog | Lee's Facebook | Tina's Facebook | Email Lee | Email Tina
Benson Joseph, Haiti Operations
Hope for Kidz Field Supervisor and Church Projects Manager
Benson has been on staff since 2002. He started as a mechanic and worked his way up to vehicle manager, translator, administrative assistant, supervising Hope for Kidz as well as Food for Health and projects. He took university classes for computer skills, english, and bookkeeping. He still wears many hats. He is the head of the Haiti Operations Department, is the Hope for Kidz Program supervisor and is responsible for management of all church related projects. He is also responsible for the oversight of all RMI programs. Benson married Denise in 2010 and they have 2 children, Woo-Ben and Herden. They are expecting a third child in September of 2019.
Support Benson by choosing "Haiti Staff" | Benson's Facebook | Email Benson
Hope for Kidz Field Supervisor and Church Projects Manager
Benson has been on staff since 2002. He started as a mechanic and worked his way up to vehicle manager, translator, administrative assistant, supervising Hope for Kidz as well as Food for Health and projects. He took university classes for computer skills, english, and bookkeeping. He still wears many hats. He is the head of the Haiti Operations Department, is the Hope for Kidz Program supervisor and is responsible for management of all church related projects. He is also responsible for the oversight of all RMI programs. Benson married Denise in 2010 and they have 2 children, Woo-Ben and Herden. They are expecting a third child in September of 2019.
Support Benson by choosing "Haiti Staff" | Benson's Facebook | Email Benson
John Penfold
Missionary Appointee
John is a native of northern Michigan and attends Walloon Lake Community Church, who is a C3 partner church. He has been serving in the church as a photo and video journalist since 2015. John's first visit to Haiti was in 2016 with a group from Walloon Church when they visited their Sister Church in Desriveaux. He fell in love with the Haitian people and returned to Haiti in 2017 and 2019. He loves the Sister Church model of RMI that allows an ongoing collaborative relationship between the churches of Haiti and the churches of the U.S., together making disciples of Jesus Christ. John feels God's call on his life to serve as a full-time missionary, using photos and videos to tell the story of God's work in Haiti. To prepare, he has already been using the Pimsleur app for the past three years to get a head start on learning Haitian Creole and French. John enjoys photography, video editing, reading history and biographies, playing guitar and ukulele as well as playing tennis and pickleball. He treasures his time with his mom, 5 brothers, 4 sisters, and a few dozen nieces & nephews.
Support John | John's Facebook | Email John
Missionary Appointee
John is a native of northern Michigan and attends Walloon Lake Community Church, who is a C3 partner church. He has been serving in the church as a photo and video journalist since 2015. John's first visit to Haiti was in 2016 with a group from Walloon Church when they visited their Sister Church in Desriveaux. He fell in love with the Haitian people and returned to Haiti in 2017 and 2019. He loves the Sister Church model of RMI that allows an ongoing collaborative relationship between the churches of Haiti and the churches of the U.S., together making disciples of Jesus Christ. John feels God's call on his life to serve as a full-time missionary, using photos and videos to tell the story of God's work in Haiti. To prepare, he has already been using the Pimsleur app for the past three years to get a head start on learning Haitian Creole and French. John enjoys photography, video editing, reading history and biographies, playing guitar and ukulele as well as playing tennis and pickleball. He treasures his time with his mom, 5 brothers, 4 sisters, and a few dozen nieces & nephews.
Support John | John's Facebook | Email John
Dawn Shoemaker
C3 Coordinator, Photojournalist
A third generation missionary on both sides of the family, Dawn knew she wanted to be a missionary since she was a young girl growing up in Haiti as a missionary kid. In going to Haiti, she is literally going back to the land of her birth. To prepare her for ministry, she attended Trinity College of Florida where she double majored in Biblical studies and cross-cultural communications. Dawn helps teams coordinate their trips to Haiti to visit their C3 partner churches, helps host the teams at the Zanglais Ministry Center, accompanies teams to their Sister Churches, and is the field photojournalist. She enjoys going to the beach, playing volleyball, camping and spending time with friends. She joined the RMI team in April 2018.
Support Dawn | Dawn's website | Dawn's Ministry Facebook | Dawn's Facebook | Email Dawn
C3 Coordinator, Photojournalist
A third generation missionary on both sides of the family, Dawn knew she wanted to be a missionary since she was a young girl growing up in Haiti as a missionary kid. In going to Haiti, she is literally going back to the land of her birth. To prepare her for ministry, she attended Trinity College of Florida where she double majored in Biblical studies and cross-cultural communications. Dawn helps teams coordinate their trips to Haiti to visit their C3 partner churches, helps host the teams at the Zanglais Ministry Center, accompanies teams to their Sister Churches, and is the field photojournalist. She enjoys going to the beach, playing volleyball, camping and spending time with friends. She joined the RMI team in April 2018.
Support Dawn | Dawn's website | Dawn's Ministry Facebook | Dawn's Facebook | Email Dawn
Jim and April Starkey
Missionary
Jim and April arrived in Haiti in August, 2019 and are RMI's newest missionaries. After getting settled, Jim and April's first job description will be language acquisition and field training. After that, they will be given more specific responsibilities.
They are from Ohio and were high school sweethearts. They have been married since 2005 and have 3 boys: Isaac, Micaiah, and Ezekiel.
Support Jim and April | Starkey's website and blog | Jim's Facebook | April's Facebook | Email Jim | Email April
Missionary
Jim and April arrived in Haiti in August, 2019 and are RMI's newest missionaries. After getting settled, Jim and April's first job description will be language acquisition and field training. After that, they will be given more specific responsibilities.
They are from Ohio and were high school sweethearts. They have been married since 2005 and have 3 boys: Isaac, Micaiah, and Ezekiel.
Support Jim and April | Starkey's website and blog | Jim's Facebook | April's Facebook | Email Jim | Email April
Joslynn Stakes
School Teacher
Joslynn is serving her third year with RMI for the 2019-20 school year where she will teach 6th, 9th, and 11th grades in Bible, history, and physical education at Cite Lumiere Christian School. She taught 5th-12th grade Health and PE for 5 years at Highland Baptist Christian School in Louisiana, her native state. She has visited her sister church Petit Trou through RMI four times. It was during these trips that God laid it on her heart to serve in Haiti as a teacher.
Support Joslynn | Joslynn's Facebook | Email Joslynn
School Teacher
Joslynn is serving her third year with RMI for the 2019-20 school year where she will teach 6th, 9th, and 11th grades in Bible, history, and physical education at Cite Lumiere Christian School. She taught 5th-12th grade Health and PE for 5 years at Highland Baptist Christian School in Louisiana, her native state. She has visited her sister church Petit Trou through RMI four times. It was during these trips that God laid it on her heart to serve in Haiti as a teacher.
Support Joslynn | Joslynn's Facebook | Email Joslynn
Tessa Andrews
School Teacher
Tessa arrived in Haiti in 2018 where she taught the early elementary grades at Cite Lumiere Christian School. She joined the RMI team in June 2019. She is from northern Florida. She grew up in the church with her mom and grandmother who are both Christians. She had the opportunity to go on a mission trip with her church to Cite Lumiere in 2017. Haiti and the ministries there really grabbed her heart and she found it very difficult to leave. She heard of the need for teachers at the missionary kid school, located at Cite Lumiere and felt that God was calling her to teach at the school.
Tessa shared, "...before I told anyone that I was praying about moving here, I had a moment where I was awestruck. My mama was cooking and came around to where I was sitting. She simply looked at me and said, 'if you ever wanted to move to Haiti I’d be okay with it.' It was one of the times during my journey here that really just solidified that Haiti is where God wanted me." She looks forward to being involved with RMI's various ministries when she isn't teaching.
Support Tessa | Tessa's Facebook | Email Tessa
School Teacher
Tessa arrived in Haiti in 2018 where she taught the early elementary grades at Cite Lumiere Christian School. She joined the RMI team in June 2019. She is from northern Florida. She grew up in the church with her mom and grandmother who are both Christians. She had the opportunity to go on a mission trip with her church to Cite Lumiere in 2017. Haiti and the ministries there really grabbed her heart and she found it very difficult to leave. She heard of the need for teachers at the missionary kid school, located at Cite Lumiere and felt that God was calling her to teach at the school.
Tessa shared, "...before I told anyone that I was praying about moving here, I had a moment where I was awestruck. My mama was cooking and came around to where I was sitting. She simply looked at me and said, 'if you ever wanted to move to Haiti I’d be okay with it.' It was one of the times during my journey here that really just solidified that Haiti is where God wanted me." She looks forward to being involved with RMI's various ministries when she isn't teaching.
Support Tessa | Tessa's Facebook | Email Tessa
Haitian Staff
We have 30+ national team members in Haiti. They fill a wide variety of positions from administration to partnership facilitators, mechanics, cooks, translators and chauffeurs. Each is a valuable part of our team and competently serve the Lord and RMI.
Support our Haitian staff by choosing "Haiti Staff"
Support our Haitian staff by choosing "Haiti Staff"
