Ministry In Mission is a non-profit corporation (501c3 ) that has grown out of mission work started at St. Mark Lutheran Church, Chesterland, OH in 2007. The journey began with an initial mission trip to the Children of Israel Orphanage in Les Cayes Haiti. The Lord moved Missionaries from St. Mark to continue trips to Haiti and provide humanitarian aid as well as spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. When the earthquake hit, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Disaster Relief asked Jackie and Mark Rychel from St. Mark Lutheran Church,Pastor David Luecke from Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church in North Royalton Ohio as well as several other people to come to Haiti to see how they could help. Pastor Marky Kessa, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti said he needed a guest house for missionaries to come and stay and minister to the people of Jacmel Haiti.
Pastor Luecke said to the Rychels “I’ll put up some money if you will” and a down-payment was made on some land in the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti, for the guest house, now known as John 3:16 Guest House in Jacmel. Many people donated money that was matched by the LCMS Disaster Relief. Teams came and did physical labor right beside their Haitian Christian brothers and the guest house became a reality.
Lutheran Church Charities is also instrumental in the on going mission of the guest house. They advertised for missionary teams to come to Haiti, and the number of teams increased. St. Mark Lutheran was gracious enough to act as treasurer for the mission work in Haiti. As more projects are added (see Center for Refuge on home page) the vision to found Ministry in Mission, became a reality, to manage the mission work in Haiti and to expand to projects in the United States and across the world