Luke and Becca

Work in the neighborhood continues

Remember us talking about the number of people coming to Christ in the neighborhoods just outside of the seminary walls last year?

Well, several months ago, some of our fourth-year students began to host bible studies for a few groups of these new believers. It’s been exciting to hear about the growth in these new believers lives as a result!

Just over a week ago this photo was taken in a neighborhood just outside of the seminary gate. This group is being led by one of our recent graduates along with some current students. Please pray for those involved with leading these groups as they continue working to serve the folks in our neighborhood.

Hitting the Road and Visiting Churches

Last weekend, Alex made his debut as a member of team Perkins in Haiti as we attended the missions conference at Calvary Bible Chruch in Derry, NH.

What a joy to have the chance to talk about missions and what God is doing in Haiti with these folks. We were encouraged to see so many come out for each of the sessions of this three day missions event here in New England. In a couple weeks, we should have the green light to travel a little more with Alex and we’re looking forward to getting him out to meet some more of you!

Haiti Team Spotlight: Andrikson Descollines

In the coming months, we want to introduce you to the team we work with on the ground. We’d love it if you would consider praying for them, just as you so faithfully pray for us.

This month, meet Andrikson Descollines. Andrikson serves as the Academic Dean at STEP while also teaching a full load of courses and helping with the preaching team at Quisqueya Chapel. He’s a busy guy!

I first met Andrikson in Haiti just as he was preparing to head to the States to begin studies at Dallas Seminary. It was a joy to later get to know him and his family during our time together in Dallas.

He graduated with a ThM from DTS in 2015 and immediately returned to Haiti to begin teaching at STEP. He quickly distinguished himself as a talented professor and was eventually promoted to the position of Academic Dean. Andrikson is a lot of fun to work with. He laughs alot and you can usually find him in his office with a pile of students as he helps them navigate their assignments.

When I asked him how we can pray for him, he said: “Pray for my wife’s health. Pray for my boys to focus well at school and to grow in their love for the Lord. Pray for my work at STEP, sometimes it can be overwhelming and very challenging. Pray for peace and safety for the area where STEP is located. Finally, pray for financial resources so that I can be able to provide for my family.”

Would you join us in praying for Andrikson and his family?

Free Resources

We’ve come across a couple exciting resources lately that we think you might find helpful.

First, the book: A Better Way: Make Disciples Wherever Life Happens, written by Crossworld President Dale Losch is available for free on Kindle today and tomorrow (Nov 10-11, 2018). This is a great book that looks at the explosive power of disciple-making and about “innovatively using one’s profession to launch disciple-making communities in the world’s least reached marketplaces.”

We may be a little biased, but we’re fans of Crossworld and of Dale 🙂 We think you’ll enjoy this read.

Free Online Classes

Also, we wanted to mention that Dallas Theological Seminary now has several free online classes available. Classes in everything from “The Life of Christ” to “Romans” to “Can you Trust the Bible?”

Click here to see what courses are available.

Prayer Requests

• Praise God with us for the blessing of the addition of Alex to our family. Thank him for his hand of protection during the delivery.
• Continue to pray for security in the neighborhood around the seminary.
• Pray for Andrikson as he serves a vital role on the team at STEP.
• Continue praying for the Pastoral Search at Quisqueya Chapel.
• Pray for the Lord to provide needed additional support for our return to Haiti in January.

Grateful to be in partnership with you!

Luke, Becca, Grace, Lydia, Joshua and Alexander.

He’s here!

Exciting news!! We’re excited to introduce the newest member of our family, Alexander Chester Perkins, born Friday, October 12 on the side of the highway in the front seat of the car while we were on the way to the birth center.

You read that right. It turned out to be quite an exciting arrival.

Becca had been having contractions for a couple of weeks. They would come, and then they’d stall out again. So on that Friday, we weren’t sure if it was the real thing until later on in the evening. As soon as we did, we hopped in the car and headed for the birth center. Shortly after we got on the highway, Becca said: “OK, I think we’re gonna need to pull over.” By the time I got the car to a stop in the breakdown lane, Alex had arrived. I put the car in park, looked over and there he was. I couldn’t (and still can’t) believe it!

We’re so grateful for the Lord’s hand of protection on Becca and Alex during the delivery. Both Becca and the baby are doing great!

We’re so grateful for the ways we’ve seen the Lord working this year.

While challenges abound, and most of the time we’re busier than we’d ever imagined, it’s encouraging to look back, and see some of what he’s done during our first term.

We’d love to share with you here just a taste of some of the things we’ve seen these past few months. Maybe grab a cup of coffee and pray with us as you read!

Waiting for the baby!

Becca’s pregnancy continues to progress well. So far, this has been the easiest pregnancy she’s had. Being pregnant in the hot Haitian summer is no easy task – so we’re thankful for the Lord’s grace. We’ve also been grateful for the care of a good Haitian OB/GYN.

A couple of weeks ago we returned to the US and we are eagerly awaiting the baby’s arrival any day here in NH!

Please pray for Becca and the baby in these remaining weeks (days?) of pregnancy.

Leadership Course

The new course Luke developed this spring, Christian Leadership, was taught to over 70 students at STEP and was received very well.

Building a course from the ground up in another language was a greater challenge than we anticipated, but it was also a lot of fun.

The interaction with the students in class regularly made us say: this is why we’re here!

Malaria

After several trips to the countryside in late spring, Luke started to get sick. Thinking he had picked up something the kids had been passing around, he stayed home for a couple days and rested. When the fever didn’t go away and started to get higher, he was tested for Malaria and the test was positive.

Thankfully, Malaria in Haiti normally responds very well to treatment and after a couple of miserable weeks, by God’s grace, he was back up and running again.

Quisqueya Chapel

Our church in Port-au-Prince is still on the hunt for a pastor.

We’re so grateful for the many folks who are volunteering to help lead the ministries of the church during this extended interim time.

A couple of months ago, we were able to add a few new faces to the board and that is proving to be a big help.

Pray for Luke as he leads the Board of Elders.

Visitors!

This spring, we were privileged to have Pastor Mark McCune along with his wife Michele and their daughter Izzy from Cornerstone Community Church in Harrisonville, Missouri join us to lead the Crossworld Haiti Field staff retreat.
Mark spoke for several days on grace and discipleship and it was a great encouragement to the Haiti team. They spent several days with us afterwards to visit the ministries we’re a part of. What a joy it was to have them with us!

Are you interested in seeing what we’re up to in person? We’ve had several visitors this past year spend anywhere from a week to a weekend with us and it’s always a joy to show them some of what the Lord is doing in Haiti. If you’d like to visit, just let us know!

Generator Problems

Reliable grid power is never something we can count on in Haiti, and this makes us heavily dependent on backup systems to keep things going.
At Quisqueya Chapel, our primary generator threw a rod several months ago, leaving it unrepairable. We praise God for the provision of a new generator that is now running well.

Over at the seminary, the primary generator we depend on broke down last fall, and this summer, a secondary generator also stopped working. Please pray with us as STEP staff continue to work on these generators.

Issues in the STEP Neighborhood

The security situation in the neighborhood around the seminary has continued to destabilize this year. We’re often hearing gunfire in the area several times a week.
Although we’ve been able to resume building houses on the Fort Mercredi side of campus, we’ve had to put construction in Grand Ravine on pause until the situation improves. Please pray with us for peace in the area.

Home Ministry Assignment: Visiting you this Fall!

We left Haiti a few weeks ago and are currently awaiting the baby’s arrival in New Hampshire. After the baby arrives and we’re able to travel, we’ll be hitting the road to visit as many of you as we can before we head back to Haiti in January.

As we put our travel schedule together if you would like to have us speak to your group sometime between now and the end of December, would you let us know?

Prayer Requests

Pray for Becca and the baby’s health for the remainder of this pregnancy and for a safe delivery.

Pray for security in the neighborhood around the seminary. Pray for stability to return so we can resume some of the community projects we’ve had to put on pause.
Praise God for Luke’s full recovery from Malaria this summer.
Continue praying for the Pastoral Search at Quisqueya Chapel.

Grateful to be in partnership with you!

Luke, Becca, Grace, Lydia, Joshua and #4

I wish you were with us at our graduation ceremony.

There were over 1,000 people packed into the Bolosse Baptist Church just down the hill from the seminary and was ridiculously hot. While I sat there with the faculty, sweating into my regalia, something happened that brought me such encouragement.

As the speaker was in the middle of his commencement address, something caught my eye down in the audience. A group of my students in the front row were looking at me, nodding their heads and smiling.

What are they smiling about? I thought. Is my hat on crooked?

The address was being given in French, not Creole, so I couldn’t understand it. But when I saw the reaction of my students, I leaned in to listen and see what I could pick out.

“In a few minutes, we’re going to give you a License in Bible and Theology, he said, but if we’re following Jesus model, it should really be a License in Service.

It turns out that he was giving a commencement address on the subject of Servant Leadership and my students were making a connection.

Just a few days before, I finished teaching my course “Leadership Chrétien” (Christian Leadership) at STEP. It was an entirely new course for the seminary, a course where we spent the whole semester talking about Servant Leadership and what it looks like in the Haitian context. Ideas that were now being reinforced in this graduation speech.

To be honest, I had been nervous for much of the semester. It was my first time teaching a full seminary course and it was my first time teaching in Creole. Are they understanding this? Am I communicating ok? The feedback was good, but I wondered if it was really sinking in.

Sitting on the platform, I shifted my gaze away from the speaker and back down to my students. The smile on their faces confirmed for me: they caught it, it and they wanted me to know. What an encouragement!

Would you pray for these students as they put the principles of servant leadership into practice in their own ministries?

Tomorrow is an exciting day.

Tomorrow 43 of our students will graduate from STEP Seminary and begin serving in ministries all across Haiti. Click below to see a short glimpse of our graduation practice this afternoon.

Thank you so much for your partnership with us as we work to develop leaders for the Haitian church that have the heart of a servant and a passion for discipleship!

(If the music is too loud, feel free to click “CC” for subtitles.)