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“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1:14

I love this verse because it captures so well the significance of what today represents. Jesus, although fully God, didn’t leave us on our own, but he came to us, and became one of us, so that we might see the glory of the Father and receive grace upon grace. What a miracle!

Not only is this a miracle, but it’s also the most profound example of the kind of servant leadership we aim to cultivate at STEP Seminary.

Here in this culture, leadership often involves creating a distance between yourself and those you lead. We see this on display every day as we watch government officials flying around the capital in their fancy SUV’s with sirens blazing.

At STEP, we’re working to produce leaders who see things differently. We want to see graduates who enter into leadership not for the prestige of the position, but for the opportunity it provides to serve the people God has entrusted to them.

One thing that helps foster this is the “Cleaning Day” we hold twice a semester. Last Friday, everyone from the President, to the professors and students left their ties at home and came to the campus dressed ready to get to work on the grounds.

While students learn a lot in the classroom here, what a profound lesson in leadership for them to see the President of the institution holding a broom and sweeping up trash.

As I watched the professors and students working together last Friday, I thought about Christ – who “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant”.

As you celebrate with your family today, we want you to know how grateful we are for you. God is doing something wonderful at STEP – and we’re so grateful that this team (us here on the ground and you through your support) gets to be a part of it!

Ministry Snapshots

• In October, we hosted a new missionary couple in our home while they got adjusted to life in Haiti – it was fun for us help this couple in the same way that so many others have done for us while we’ve been adjusting.
• Also in October, we weathered Hurricane Matthew. Here in Port-au-Prince, we had minimal damage – but parts of the southern peninsula were devastated. Luke drove a delegation from STEP to the affected area shortly after it happened to assess the needs. Since then, STEP has been working with our grads to help get them and their churches back on their feet.
• It’s been a privilege for us use our home to host people both overnight and for meals. In November and December, we did a lot of this. In fact, every week now there is someone at our house for dinner at some point – either a missionary friend or a discipleship contact. Yesterday, we had 19 people over for lunch as we celebrated Christmas Eve together. This afternoon we’ll have another group over for another meal. We’re grateful that the Lord has provided a home for us to do this.
• Luke has enjoyed meeting again with the discipleship group he led when he was here years ago at Quisqueya Chapel and Becca has enjoyed developing a relationship with a new single mom at the church who is raising her baby while also navigating a physical disability.
• At STEP, progress continues on the construction on the new academic building. Just a couple weeks ago, the roof was poured and although the building isn’t finished yet, we plan to have classes meet inside next month. Continue praying as construction resumes in January and as STEP continues to pursue the funding needed to complete this.

How can you pray?

1) Pray for patience and endurance in language learning. We’re making progress, but it’s slow going.

2) Pray for peace in the country as Haiti weathers a political storm following the presidential elections last month.

3) Pray for Becca’s family as her father goes in for open heart surgery sometime in the next couple weeks.

4) Pray for some close friends of ours, the Broyles family (serving with MAF). Their son Elijah was medivaced to the US a couple weeks ago after developing severe pneumonia. Pray for his continued recovery.

5) Pray for wisdom in disciple making as we pursue the relationships God has given us here.

Jwaye Nwel!

Luke, Becca, Grace, Lydia and Joshua

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hank you for your continued prayers for Haiti as we begin to deal with the aftermath of this storm. Port-au-Prince received almost no damage. Praise God!

As you may be seeing, reports from the south are bad. The damage in many places is being compared to the earthquake of 2010. Homes have been washed away. Roofs have been torn off. Roads and bridges have been washed away. STEP has alumni serving in the south and preliminary reports from them show extensive damage.

Additionally, there is significant damage in the north where our organization here in Haiti, the UEBH, has many churches. We have a group traveling there as I write this and we should have info back from them soon.

Compounding the issue is that many of the hardest hit areas are now only accessible by plane or boat. Our friends at Mission Aviation Fellowship are flying supplies into the hardest hit areas and other crews are working to open the roads up.

Many have asked us “Where do we give?”

Crossworld has set up a Haiti Relief Account so we can have funds to begin helping our UEBH churches and our STEP alumni get back on their feet. If you are interested in giving to this effort, Becca and I would love for you to give there.

Thanks for your partnership as we serve our brothers and sisters here in Haiti, we’re so grateful for the opportunity to serve here.

Watch the video below to see an update from our Haitian leadership here on the effects of this storm. We shot this yesterday on the STEP campus.

Just a quick note to ask you to pray for Haiti.

As you probably know, Hurricane Matthew has made a turn to the north and is heading our direction. The last update I saw said the eye will pass over the western part of the country on the southern peninsula and the effects of the hurricane will extend here to Port-au-Prince as well. There is a good chance that this storm will result in a significant loss of life and damage to property. As a developing nation, the country is just not equipped to handle this stuff.

Right now, we’re seeing some light rain and light wind. We don’t expect it to pick up until sometime this evening.

We have a nice strong house and plenty of food, fuel and water. We feel as prepared as we can be. We’ve been in contact with most of our friends here and they are prepared as well.

We appreciate your prayers also for our son Josh, who came down with a fever and what appears to be a stomach bug last night.

We’ll keep you updated as we’re able. It’s quite possible that we will lose cell service and internet for some time, so if you don’t hear from us, that is why.

Thank you for praying for us. We’re so grateful for your partnership!

Thank you for praying as we’ve been traveling over the past few months both in Texas and on the east coast.

This month has been one of the best months in support raising we’ve seen – and we are SO close now we can almost taste it!

Click below to see a brief video update on our journey toward ministry in Haiti.

Prayer Requests

1) Support: We’re almost there! We have just over $650 per month left before we reach 100% of our budget.

2) Becca’s Mom: Continue praying for the situation with Becca’s parents as we move them back to New England this next week so they can be closer to family and for Becca’s mom Jackie as she undergoes treatment for cancer.

3) Praise God with us for two successful support raising trips over the past couple of months and for the new partners he has added to our team.

Thank You!