Leadership Team/Starfish Kids

Dan and Gillian Shoemaker arrived in Haiti with OMS International in 2000 for a one-year term. In 2007, they see no end in sight.

Dan and Gill came to the Lord later in life. It all started when two Christian women witnessed to Gill over a two-year period. Gill started to go to church, and Dan followed later. On a Men for Missions trip, Dan went to Colombia and had a Holy Spirit experience while on a tour of the prison ministry. Over the next year, they both went on a mission trip to Japan, and Dan also visited Haiti for the first time. The Lord confirmed in them both that Haiti was His plan for them.

They brought their two boys, Jake and Cody, then 10 and 13. Now, they are grown. Cody is living in Ontario, Canada, and working in mechanics. Jake is in Canada on a six-month work project and will return to Haiti for his final six months before leaving for good in 2008.

Dan is part of a strong leadership group that manages the Haiti field. He is also the project manager for the Emmaus Biblical Seminary construction project. This is a two-year plan to build an 11-building complex. Good progress has been made already. Check out the following site to keep up-to-date: www.leaders4lifehaiti.spaces.live.com. Dan is also responsible for vehicle and generator maintenance. He is active with the many Men for Missions short-term teams that come each year to help in construction, with the medical clinic and in evangelism. If you are interested in participating on a work team, you can find out more at www.menformissions.org.

Gill is the director of Starfish Kids, a child evangelism ministry that uses education and student sponsorship to help children stay in school and thus hear the Gospel as shared by their teachers and pastor. You can read about Starfish Kids at: www.starfishkids.org.

Dan and Gill give God the glory for calling them to His service in missions. They didn't think they fit the stereotype of missionaries, but they have been blessed to see that God can use anyone that is ready and willing to obey the call to do, go or give as the Lord directs.

Missionary ID #803682