What about us?

Oh, the island life! One thing we learned from pastoring churches, 10 years in the Florida Keys, 15 years in Clearwater, FL and 10 years in Portsmouth New Hampshire - is that the boating and yachting community is large and is one of the most un-churched and un-reached people groups in the world. And the yachting numbers are growing fast throughout America and the world!

Hi, we are Jeff & Kathy Rudolph, the founders of Caribbean Island Ministries. We are retired pastors, still ordained with the Assemblies of God. After almost 36 years of full-time pastoral ministry and missionary work, we felt it was God's will for us to move into a new season of life. We now own 2 Charter Boat businesses in the Clearwater, FL area and Jeff in a USCG Licensed 50-ton Master Captain. We use our 31' Tiara Yacht for dolphin tours and other events and we also work with a local funeral home and perform ash scatterings at sea. We are also parents of 3 wonderful adult children and really proud to be known as "Grammy" and "Grammy".

Here in America, many people, after working hard all of their lives; have retired into a boating and yachting lifestyle. Consequently, traveling the “Great Loop” here in America and then traversing the islands of the Caribbean have become passions for many in the yachting community. Many have sold their homes and all of their possessions in order to live on a boat full time and achieve their dream.

For many of them, before this dramatic change in their lifestyle, they had a church family to connect with, a place where they could be nurtured and grow spiritually. But now that they have retired and entered into a new season of their life and made this lifestyle change, they no longer have a church home or a pastor or others to talk with, pray with, and grow with; so they experience spiritual drought and emptiness and become disconnected from the Body of Christ.

Caribbean Island Ministries exists to help with all of these issues and even more!

As a pastor for 30 years, pastoring churches in tourist towns like Portsmouth, NH and Clearwater, FL and Marathon Key, we have seen firsthand how the lives of the boating and yachting community is affected during times of natural disasters and how those living on the islands are affected also.

So our goal is to not only partner with local island churches and pastors with their mission, but also to help by bringing much needed help to the islands after natural disasters such as hurricanes.

And Kathy and I are praying that God will use us and that we will be His hands and feet to the boating and yachting community and to the people of the islands.

We are grateful to God that in 2007, we were able to lead a team of 52 people from our church in New England area to Marsh Harbour, on Abaco Island in the Bahamas to help restore Camp Abaca, a youth camp; that was devastated by a hurricane. This trip just deepened our passion for the islands! So.... we're asking that if can, partner with us to help us to achieve our dream.

Jeff & Kathy Rudolph

Our former Grand Banks Trawler