One of my (Paul) best-kept secrets (which should not be a secret) is that Miriam and I have started a podcast. It is called “The So Dad Podcast.” We talk about all things fathers and daughters and everything in between. It is a glimpse into Miriam’s and my conversations, the fun, the thoughtful, and even the slightly awkward. Each podcast ends with the “So, Dad” question. Miriam tells me nothing about the “So, Dad” question in advance. It can be a question on any topic: theology, finance, the Bible, life, children, movies, etc. The “So, Dad” question always keeps me on my toes. Miriam and I hope to bless others with what the Lord has blessed us with through the podcast.

The podcast drops on Tuesdays, and you can find the podcast at:

Please pray for Donna and my time teaching at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS). Donna is already in Kenya, and I will leave in a few days. We have a couple of friends joining us. Mario (our friend who has taught at ATS before) is joining us again to teach another class. Lupe (another friend who has helped ATS in the past) is traveling with me to help ATS with IT issues. Pray that the Lord would use Mario and Lupe to advance his kingdom. Lastly, please continue to pray for ATS’s accreditation situation (see items 6 & 7 at rpc.bz/pray).

For the past several years, I have had the privilege of leading the Missions Portion at my church’s Vacation Bible School. They are very gracious in letting me stray from the box curriculum and do what I feel God is leading me to do that year. As many of you know, my passion is sharing the Gospel with children and teaching others how to share the Gospel with children. Over the years, we have studied the ministries our church supports, both locally and internationally. We have learned about our missionaries and how we can pray for them. We have learned and practiced how to share the gospel with our friends and neighbors. This year we looked at the 10/40 window and unreached people groups. A couple of weeks ago, as I was cleaning my office and gearing up for upcoming projects, I had the idea that I should share my ideas as well as some of the resources that I have found on teaching children about missions. So, here we go!

First and most importantly, discuss what scripture says about missions. Here are several key passages and people:

• Matthew 28:16-20
• Romans 10:14
• Jonah (the whole book is 4 chapters)
• Paul (Acts 9:1–31, 13:1–14:28, 15:36–28:31)
• Peter (Acts 2:1–5:42, 9:32–11:18)

Practical ideas:

• Pray for missionary families
• Write encouraging letters to a missionary family
• Go to an international restaurant in your area and visit with the staff
• Have a map on your wall; commit to pray for one country as a family
• Invite a neighbor who is from another culture over for dinner or dessert
• Cook international foods, find the country on the map, and look up pictures, dances, and customs of the country
• Play international games
• Read books about different countries
• Read biographies about missionaries
• Find local ministries to get involved with
• Help your children raise money for a charity or missionary, i.e., a lemonade stand, small jobs
• Write scriptures with chalk on your sidewalks
• Help a neighbor in need

Recommended Books:

• Window on the World: An Operation World Prayer Resource edited by Molly Wall & Jason Mandryk—A child friendly prayer guide to the world.
• God Everywhere by Sarah Nunnally—3 book series.
• Do Great Things for God Series published by The Good Book Company—Check out Amy Carmichael written by Hunter Beless, my nephew’s wife. Sadly not pictured because I keep giving my copies away 🙁
• Christian Heroes: Then & Now Series published by YWAM Publishing—I have read almost the whole series!
• The Marvelous Mud Hut by April Graney—A story of a family that went on a mission trip. Great Book!

Online resources:

• https://pray1040.com/kids-corner—Great information and maps; you can look up countries to learn about unreached people groups
• https://joshuaproject.net/resources/children—They work closely with 10/40. Great downloadable resources for kids and weekly informational emails.
• https://www.wycliffe.org/resources/kids—They use a storytelling method about Kate, a missionary kid, and her parrot, Mack. They meet friends from all over the world. Prayer for people groups, Christmas activities including Advent, and cooking activities

July 21, 2026
Day of Fasting and Prayer
for Africa Theological Seminary

Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) is holding a day of fasting and prayer on July 21, 2026. ATS would be honored if you would join them in fasting and praying. There are different ways to fast. No food or water from sunrise to sunset. No food for 24 hours. Only eat green vegetables and drink water for 48 hours. Fast from all forms of sugar and refined carbohydrates for a week. Skip lunch, etc. The point is not how you fast (which may be limited due to a health condition), but that you fast. Please prayerfully consider the best way for you to fast and seek the Lord on behalf of ATS.

Below are the praise and prayer items. In addition, this information, along with the praise and prayer items, can be found online at rpc.bz/pray.

While not required, if you would like to pray corporately with others praying for ATS, there will be an online prayer time on July 21 at:

• 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time;
• 8:00 a.m. Mountain Time;
• 9:00 a.m. Central Time;
• 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time;
• 5:00 p.m. East Africa Time.

To join in the online prayer time, please visit rpc.bz/pray and find the “Pray Online” link. (The link will be activated a few hours before the prayer time.)

Praise and Prayer Items

1. Praise God for (a) who He is—His attributes, (b) His works—in the Scriptures and in the history of the church, and (c) His redemption of His people.
2. Praise God for what He has done through ATS. ATS students continue to have significant Kingdom impact.
3. Pray that ATS will continue to serve the church well by discipling and equipping its leaders.
4. Pray for the Lord to continue transforming the hearts of ATS students and staff to be conformed to His image.
5. Pray that the Lord gives wisdom to the ATS leadership.
6. There is a bill before the Kenyan parliament that will allow the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA) to accredit institutions giving bachelor’s and graduate degrees in Kenya. Pray that this bill will pass, will be signed into law, and there will be no legal challenges to the new law. (ATS is accredited through ACTEA. ACTEA is a founding member of the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE). Because of ATS’s accreditation with ACTEA and ACTEA’s relationship to ICETE, ATS’s degrees are recognized everywhere in the world, except in Kenya.)
7. Because ACTEA is not recognized by the Kenyan government, ATS currently has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pan Africa Christian University (PAC) so that ATS can continue its bachelor’s program. Pray for a good relationship between ATS and PAC. Pray that the MoU works out the way ATS envisioned it would.
8. Pray for (a) God’s financial provision for ATS, (b) donors to provide ATS students scholarships, and (c) the churches in Kenya with ATS pastors to give generously to ATS.
9. Because the government of Kenya does not accept ACTEA accreditation, ATS has received some bad press. Pray that (a) the quality of ATS’s program and students would be clearly seen by those who have produced the bad press and those who have read it. (b) That the bad press would not negatively influence those who God is calling to attend ATS.
10. Praise God for what He will do.

A one-page printable PDF with this information is available at: rpc.bz/pray/pray.pdf

Photo by Samuel Martins on Unsplash

As you know from our last blog (Where in the World are Paul and Donna?), we did an East Coast tour to visit supporters:

• 25 Days
• 4,441 Miles
• 18 States
• 2 Countries
• 13 Beds
• Saw 4 out of 5 great lakes
• Visited 6 churches/church events
• Lost count of waterfalls, large rivers, and Amish buggies

We had many wonderful, illuminating, encouraging, heavy, heartfelt, and providential conversations. As one of our missionary friends has said, “Missionaries are not rich in finances, but we are rich in relationships.”

Praise God with us for a great trip.

Pray for us as we catch up on all the things that fell through the cracks while traveling (especially Paul, who was traveling before he started traveling and is traveling yet again).

Every year we take a month to visit supporters and churches. About two weeks after Paul returned from Kenya, we loaded up the car and headed East. We will be making a large circle with stops in Tyler, TX; New Orleans, LA; Brentwood, TN; Cleveland, GA; Seneca, SC; Houghton, NY; London, ON; Honor, MI; Grand Haven, MI; Kansas City, KS; and back to Denton, TX.

If you are somewhere close on this loop and would like to get together, please let us know sooner rather than later, as the adventure has already begun!

In my last blog I wrote about the “Double Trouble with Working Remotely.” One of the verses I turned to was 1 Peter 5:7. It is normally translated “casting all your anxieties on him” or “cast all your anxiety on him.” So I was surprised when the New English Translation (NET) read, “​by casting all your cares on him” [emphasis mine]. In the Greek text, “casting” is a particle.[1] The NET Bible is translating this particle as a particle of means linked to the command to humble ourselves in verse 6. How do we humble ourselves? By casting all our cares on him.

As I reflected on 1 Peter 5:6–7, it made sense to see by casting all my cares on him as the means of humbling myself. Worrying is a type of pride. Worry says I will take on the concerns that I should give to a God who cares for me.[2] Pray that Donna and I will humble ourselves by casting our cares on him.

Donna is back in Texas after teaching Child Development. Praise God her class went well. For Donna, this was a fast trip. As I mentioned in my last blog, Donna has become her mom’s “person.” Pray for Donna as she readjusts to the rhythm of life in the USA.

My longtime friend Mario taught Apologetics while I handled all the academic issues of the class. Praise God that the course went well and Mario had a great time teaching. Pray for Mario as he works on raising scholarships for students.

Saturday (Mar 28) was graduation at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS). Praise for a joyous celebration of what the Lord has done. Currently, I am teaching Exegesis, which is a tough class. Pray for the students.

Continue to pray for ATS and the local issues around accreditation.

Footnotes:

[1] Greek particles are extremely versatile, which accounts for various nuances and abuses. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Zondervan, 1996. 613.

[2] ESV Global Study Bible, Crossway, 2012, 1 Peter 5:7.

Paul with students at the entrance to ATS.

I (Paul) have been in Kenya for a little over a week. While I am thankful to be able to work remotely, there are things you miss working remotely. Below are some examples.

I knew one of my Kenyan colleagues was sick. However, when I saw him, I thought, He does not look well. So I asked, How are you feeling? He said, Oh, I feel much better, and I am making steady improvements. If he is feeling better and making improvements when I thought he did not look well, I can only imagine how bad he looked while I was not present.

While Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) is fully accredited with the Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa (acteaweb.org), ATS has had some local issues around accreditation. I have followed these remotely, but now that I am here, I am gaining a new appreciation for the difficulty the faculty has had.

With any institution, policies are constantly changing. ATS is no different, and there have been some policy changes related to the above-mentioned accreditation issues. Again, I knew this was in the works, but getting on the ground and having to implement these things is different from knowing about them.

If I were in Kenya full-time, these things would come up over the course of several months. However, after being gone for some months, I am hit with all of these types of things all at once. It is like double (or triple or quadruple) trouble.

Pray for the above-mentioned issues. Pray that I respond with grace, wisdom, cultural understanding, and in ways that are helpful rather than critical. I am hoping to find better methods to stay in touch remotely; pray for God’s guidance. Also, pray for Donna, who leaves in a week and a half for Kenya. Donna’s mom, Mary, has a great support system while Donna is away. However, Donna has become Mary’s go-to “person,” and Donna is deeply missed while gone.

Grace & Peace — Paul

Paul speaking at the book dedication

Paul’s Old and New Testament Intro Classes

Duane (Paul & Donna’s good friend) Teaching

Donna Reading to Her Class

Donna Speaking at Chapel

Donna Speaking at a Children’s Rally

Donna’s (1 of 2) Sunday School Workshop

Paul & Donna in Boston to Attend the Evangelical Theological Society Annual Meeting

We released a pre-publisher, pre-published online proof of Navigating Culture. Navigating Culture is the book we have been working on with our colleagues. You can view the proof online at:

navigatingculture.com/proof

The preface of the proof explains our reasoning for this release. Part of which is to get feedback on the book. We would love for you to review the proof and provide us with your feedback. If you read the proof, like it, and know the president of a publishing company, please let us know. (We did mention the release in our last blog, but it was toward the end.)

Back in our July 10 blog, we mentioned the donation of over 1,300 books to the Africa Theological Seminary from Christianbook International Outreach. Praise God, the books did arrive, and we had a celebration and dedication of the new books.

Praise God with us that we finished the Navigating Culture proof. Pray that we find the perfect publisher or have wisdom in self-publishing. Pray that the content will help those working internationally (whether serving overseas or working with foreigners in one’s home culture). Praise God for the arrival, celebration, and dedication of the books. Pray that they would help students grow in their knowledge of, service to, and heart for God.