Luke and Becca

One of the traits of a good missionary is flexibility, right?

This summer ended up looking very different than we expected. Between shouldering extra responsibilities at DTS, adding a new baby to the mix, beginning preparation for our departure and Grace having surgery – all while trying to make progress on our support development – our summer felt like a whirlwind!

Here’s a quick look at some of what we’ve been up to since our last newsletter:

July

Luke  was ordained at Grace Bible Church in Dallas. After submitting a statement of doctrine, he was examined along with our friend Paul by the elders at the end of June. After a 1.5 hour long oral exam, they voted and we passed! Whew! Seriously – it is such an honor to be ordained by this church.

Taught a two week class called “Gospel 101” at Grace. What a blast this was!

Connected with Haiti MAF pilot Michael Broyles and family (love that family!) as well as the legendary Dr. Walt Baker (who has logged over 50 years in Haiti) while on a DTS trip to Colorado. Walt serves on the board at STEP Seminary and it was great to visit with him about some things we’ll face when we get there.

We found a new home for our dog Riley

August/September

We found a new home for our dog Champ – so sad to say goodbye to our pups!

Luke traveled to Atlanta for DTS

We traveled to Missouri to visit with Cornerstone Community Church in Harrisonville. We are SO thankful to have this church on our support team! While there we spent the weekend with Sr. Pastor Mark McCune and his family on a 200 acre Christmas Tree farm. We got some fly fishing in and the kids played with the cats and dogs and picked tons of “flowers”.

On Sunday morning Luke preached in the service and we visited with people afterwards. If you’re interested, you can hear that message here.

While we were in Missouri, we were also able to visit with Aunt Eleanor and her family in St. Joseph and connect with staff at the Crossworld headquarters in Kansas City.

Grace had minor surgery to correct something with her eye. The initial recovery was a little tough, but we’re thankful she’s back to normal and having fun!

Luke traveled to Colorado for DTS

Throughout the Summer

Luke served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the course “Dynamics of Christian Leadership” at DTS

We changed something like 23,000 diapers 🙂

Support Update

Our support has grown(!), but not as quickly as we had hoped.

At the beginning of the summer, we anticipated being able to invest a lot of time in reaching our summer goal. Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out like we expected.

We had some major transitions at work over the summer and I shouldered some additional responsibility while we weathered that. We were glad to serve there – but it was difficult to make good progress on our support at the same time.

Thankfully, that season has now passed and we’ve been able to put some things in place to free us up some going forward.

Current Percentage

As of now, we have grown to 37% of the monthly commitments we need. While we wanted to be much closer to 100% by now, we’re trusting that God has the perfect time in mind for us to get on the ground.

However, just when we were starting to get discouraged, we received two gifts from anonymous donors totaling $6,000(!) towards our outgoing/one-time expenses budget.

Whoever you both are – we’re blown away! Thank you!

Thanks to these gifts and the faithfulness of those of you who have been giving all along – we’ve now reached 44% of our one time expenses fund! This is incredible and we’re so grateful!

What’s Next?

Before we go to the field, we’ll need to head to Kansas City for two weeks of Pre-Field orientation (PFO).

We are super excited to be there for this – but here’s the catch: we need to be at 75% of our monthly support (and 50% of our one-time) before we can be invited to the training.

PFO is offered twice a year: November and June. We would love to be at the November training (so we don’t have to wait until June), but we’ll need to reach 75% fairly soon if this is going to happen.

As we emerge from the craziness of this past summer and hit the ground again with support development, would you pray for us?

Prayer Needs

Language Training Decisions: Eventually we’ll need to learn both French and Creole. Soon we’ll need to decide which language to tackle first. We can learn Creole in Haiti, but to get the level of French we need, we’ll have to spend time in either France or Canada. Would you pray for us as we make this decision in the coming months?

Travel: As we travel over the next two months (both for support raising and for DTS), would you pray for our family that the Lord will give us grace to manage the stress that can be associated with that?

Encouragement: To be honest, we’ve been a little discouraged. We know the Lord will get us to Haiti according to his perfect timing – but we’re eager to get going! 🙂 Pray that we will be encouraged as we keep pressing on in support raising.

We love you guys!

Check out the pictures below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love graduations. 

Regalia. Pomp and Circumstance. Degree conferral. It’s all so much fun.

My own graduation in 2013 was rich with meaning for us. We spent 6 years being trained by some of the best at DTS and as I walked across that stage I remember feeling grateful for the investment of my professors in me, eager to get to work and thankful to finally be finished!

A Graduation in Haiti

Just a few weeks ago, 37 men and women walked across a differant stage in Haiti to graduate from STEP seminary. The first class to enter the seminary after the 2010 earthquake, they are now trained and ready to make disciples and transform their communities – to the glory of God.

As they walked across their stage, I bet they felt much like I did: grateful, eager and thankful.

Imagine what their impact will look like 5 years from now as they begin to make disciples in their communities.

Think about it – If each of those 37 men and women make just 5 disciples a year for the next 5 years, that’s925 new disciples!

But – if each of those new disciples make 5 more a year, that’s a potential of almost 300,000 new disciples in five years! I don’t know about you, but that gets us excited!

We believe a disciple is someone who is learning to live and love like Jesus and helps others to do the same. Imagine the impact that 300,000 new disciples would have in Haiti!

The truth is, many of those 37 graduates will go on to pastor churches of 100 or more people. What if each of those church members reproduced themselves? If I start to run the numbers on that impact, my brain starts to hurt.

We can’t wait to join the team at STEP to help get the next generation of Haitian pastors and disciple-makers out and serving!

Baby #3 is Here!

We’re excited to announce the arrival of our son, Joshua Alan Perkins! He was born a month early on June 2nd, weighing in at 5 lbs 9 oz and 21 1/4 inches long. After a brief stay in the NICU, we brought him home on June 5th.

Baby and mom are doing great and Grace and Lydia LOVE being big sisters. It is so fun to see how sweet they are with him.

If you missed it, check out this video we shot to introduce him.

Missouri VBS Project

We were so excited to see one of the churches on our support team, Cornerstone Community Church in Harrisonville, Missouri, take us on as a special project for their VBS last week.

Not only did they meet their fundraising goal – they DOUBLED it.

It was so fun to be with them via FaceTime when they unveiled the final results. You should have heard those kids yell with excitement!

Update: 75% by Sept. 15th

We’re so thankful for those who joined our support team this past month.

As of now, we are at 35% of our monthly support.

In order to stay on track for our summer goal, we need to add 9 new people to our support team this next month. If you think you’re ready to be one of them, let us know.

How Can You Pray This Month?

Joshua: Praise God for the safe arrival of Joshua. Prayfor us as we adjust to being a family of five.

STEP Graduates: Pray for these 37 new graduates of STEP as they begin their ministries.

Chikungunya: Continuepraying for those affected by the Chikungunya virus that is sweeping through Haiti right now. Although it is rarely fatal, it is very painful. Pray for this outbreak to subside.

Support: Continue prayingfor God to bring others to our support team.

So grateful to be serving with you,

Luke, Becca, Grace, Lydia and Joshua