Grace & Peace

International Organization:

Grace and Peace Missionary Fellowship

Is an American-based, Non-profit Organization

Ministering in the Dominican Republic

and in the future will also have a base in Peru.

Grace and Peace is assisted by both individuals

and missions teams and is supported by businesses,

professionals, churches, individuals, and organizations

through their time, talent and financial resources.

(When I spoke with the director, she informed me that she is in the process of renovating their website, so it may or may not be recently updated or even in functioning condition... nevertheless, the link is http://www.gracepeacemission.com/index.html )

Grace and Peace Missionary Fellowship began in 1985 as Bill Rumple traveled back and forth from Haiti until 1998.

In 1999, Bill and his family began preparations to move to the Dominican Republic, which shares the Island of Hispanola with Haiti.

January 27, 2000: The Rumple Family moved to Barahona where they began their Ministry Center.

Directors: Bill and Karen Rumple

Administrator: Linda Simmer in Ohio

Book-keeper/accounting manager: Stephen Hansley in Ohio

Bill and Karen have 5 children; 4 are stateside and the youngest lives with them in the Dominican Republic.

Nicholas, who is the youngest at 14, comes to America for 3 months in the winter and goes to a public school. The remaining 9 months of the year, he and Karen return to live in a small village called Casandria, in Barahona, where their compound is. Bill lives in the Dominican full time and returns to the United States in January to raise funds.

The Rumples have 25 helpers in the 7 programs through Grace and Peace:

Mobile Medicine

Widow Program

Children's/education program

Church Planting/Evangelism program

Farming project

Water Project

Building Project

An excellent explanation in regards to "Why Is Grace and Peace Here?" can be found by following this link: http://www.gracepeacemission.com/Our%20Mission.htm

How does Grace & Peace relate to Women in Global Society:

The Widow Program:

Providing widows with a range of needs including: food and water, clothing, medicine and medical care when needed, beds, adequate housing when needed, as well as circumstances that arise when they must be bathed, or simply need someone to spend time with them.When I asked the director "who qualifies" for their widow's program, she responded that she likes to go by the criteria written in 1 Timothy 5:3, which simply states:

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.

1 Timothy 5 goes on to say that if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should attend to her needs and provide her with care. The widow's program definitely encourages families to take responsibility for their widows, and not abandon them or abuse them as they grow old, which is entirely too common.

Karen stated: "The widows here must beg for food or become a slave to their children in order for them to keep providing them with food and clothing. Many widows are forced to go on the streets to bring back money for the poor family (daughter's or son's) they live with and are abused if they don't bring back enough."

Interesting and sad how these women are abused by their own families for not receiving enough money from their begging.

The process for widows entering the program can be difficult to articulate; however, Karen described it as follows: (she provided me with detailed information via email correspondence from the Dominican Republic over the past several weeks)

"It takes me about 3 months to find out the "truth" as to whether or not they were truly married or lived together, as to whether or not the man actually died or left (and considered dead by all). It has taken me about 8 years to weed all of this out. I believe now that every widow I have is a true widow. I have an intense questionnaire that I use to get the important information and then after that, I do a surprise visit at lunch one time and then at supper. If there are men there, then usually they are not widows at all, just desperate to get into any program to eat. This is so sad for me because when I discover a woman who is not actually a widow and who is very poor, I put her on a list. This list of women get the bags of those who have gone up north to visit family, etc. When a widow is out of town, we do not give them food because the neighbor will steal it. We give it to one of the women on the "not really a widow" list.

We give them 15 pounds of rice, 5 pounds of beans, 30 chicken bouillon and 1 pint of oil every 15 days. Bill also give them whatever he has from the farm. Mainly he gives them plantains but will begin very soon to give them live rabbits to butcher and eat."

More to come....