Category: Prayer Blog

At the moment Paul is packing away, checking off things on the never ending to do list, making lists for me…

Do you ever get the sense that God is up to something? This trip was planned for December but was moved up to this week. TWR has again asked Paul plus two other engineers to work on one of the transmitters (same one Paul worked on last time), the solar system, and some other items in West Africa. A few hours ago there was discussion on if this trip would even take place. Illness and passport issues are delaying the other two engineers. Due to COVID exposure, Paul has spent this week at the family ranch quarantining, while still teaching his class remotely. It has been a crazy week! We sense that God is up to something really good!

The plan is for Paul to be gone for just over three weeks. While he is in West Africa he will continue his online class. Then home for about two weeks before heading to Kenya to teach in person; returning home before Thanksgiving…Lord willing.

Please pray for Paul’s travels in such unprecedented times and for God’s favor on this trip. I would also love prayer as I try to balance everything while he is gone.

Blessings,

Donna

One of my students, who graduated from Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) and works amongst the unreached, is experiencing some significant health challenges with a pregnancy. Please pray for God’s supernatural healing and protection.[1]

One of the challenges with online learning has been working through providing resources for students while they are away from the ATS campus. On campus there is access to numerous computers that have theWord Bible Software installed, which is excellent and free.[2] Since many students do not have laptops, I have worked on figuring out how to search the New Testament for multiple Greek words (in any conjugation or parsing) using an Android phone given the constraints of some students (apps need to be either free or very economical and they must not require Internet after the app and resources are installed).

Earlier this year I shared with you about the Android Bible app called MyBible.[3] Once again this little app has come through and provides a means for students of the Scriptures to do more complex searches involving multiple Greek words. Here is a seven minute video that I made for my students showing them how to do this:

Link to video: MyBible Multiple Greek Word Search

If you are interested here is a link to the play list with the other MyBible app videos that I have made: MyBible app Video Playlist

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Grace & Peace–Paul

Footnotes:

[1] Those of you who have been following me for a while will remember praying for this student back in 2016: New Testament Biblical Theology Prayer Requests (in the video this student’s 2016 prayer request starts at 2:54).

[2]

[3] Online Classes, Android Bible App, & Graduation Trip

Here are some snapshots since my last update.

My youngest child, Miriam, married Kade. It was a meaningful marriage that matched Kade and Miriam’s personalities and honored the creator of marriage. Below is a picture of Kade and Miriam along with a picture of Miriam and I.

Donna’s mom, Mary, had hip replacement surgery and stayed with us during her recovery for two weeks. Mary is doing well, back in her apartment and looking forward to the day she does not have to worry with movement restrictions.

I am teaching Synoptic Gospels online. This is the course I was to teach in person back in March before I had to quickly leave Kenya due to a COVID outbreak (see COVID Challanges, Leaving Kenya, and Back for details). There was a one week synchronous orientation (both students and I online at the same time) and now three months of asynchronous learning (students and I online at different times working on assignments and projects with due dates to keep things moving forward).

One of the interesting things that we deal with in Synoptic Gospels is the longer ending in Mark. Many Bibles have a note indicating that Mark 16:9-20 is not in older manuscripts. I put together a document showing two Greek manuscripts. One with the longer ending and one without. I marked and commented on the manuscripts so that you do not have to be a Greek scholar to see that one has the longer ending and other does not. If you are interested, have a look: The Ending of Mark. Below is a picture of Codex Alexandrinus and the longer ending in Mark from the document.

Thanks for praying, supporting and helping develop the next generation of African leaders.

Please Pray for my Colleague

Please pray for my colleague Margaret and her husband Moses. Recently Margaret’s mom and dad passed away (within a month of each other) and Moses’ mother passed away. In addition, Moses’ father has stage four cancer. Pray that God’s grace and provision would abound to this precious family.

As a cultural side note, in most African cultures the cost of funerals and medical care falls upon the children. So, in addition to the heartbreak of losing a parent, there is also the financial hardship of medical bills and funeral expenses.

Congratulations Micah Joy!

Micah Joy graduated with a bachelors degree in Ranch Management from Oklahoma State University. We are very proud of all her hard work and excited for the next phase of life for her. Please pray for her as she takes these next steps in life.

The Mundane

I love going to Kenya and teaching classes or being part of graduation. There is also an important part of my ministry with Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) that is … well … mundane: emailing, grading, prepping, etc…. So it is just not exciting newsletter material, but it has been my reality since I returned from Kenya. The one somewhat exciting thing I have worked on is new academic regalia for the ATS faculty. Below is a picture  of an old hood and possible new one.

Thanks for praying about my trip back to the States. One taxi, two airplanes, three trains, one car ride, and 31 hours later (door to door) I made it back. All went well including the COVID formalities. Praise be to God.

Due to a surge of COVID cases, on Friday evening (March 26) Kenya went into a partial lock down. All in-person learning was suspended, including the class I was going to start on Tuesday (March 30). All domestic travel into and out of Nairobi was suspended. Fortuitously, domestic air travel into and out of Nairobi was given a small grace period through Sunday night. At the moment, international travel is unaffected.

Saturday I spend the day scrambling to get a flight from Northwest Kenya into Nairobi, trying to wrap up lose ends, packing, and saying goodbye to those whom I could. On Sunday I made it to Nairobi where I will park until my flight on the weekend. I am watching and hoping that I can get an earlier flight that is economically viable. Other than meals in a socially distanced dining hall with a small number guests and some trips to the grocery store, I will quarantine.

Praise God with me that I made it to Nairobi before it locked down to all domestic travel and that I was able to change my ticket without paying thousands of dollars in fare differences. Pray for those I left. On Sunday I missed a graduation celebration along with leaving one of my colleagues in the middle of a project. Pray for Africa Theological Seminary as it was starting to recover from the first COVID shut down and now it is closed again. Pray that God speeds my reunion with my family and for provision of the unexpected costs.

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Saturday was Africa Theological Seminary’s graduation. Congratulations to the 62 graduates (30 at the certificate level, 18 at the diploma level, and 14 at the BA level)!

Below is a six minute video with the highlights of the graduation. Praise God with us for what God has done in the lives of these graduates.

https://youtu.be/Hl3_8PmHJtE

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I would be traveling to Kenya. Well, I am en route. I will be participating in graduation at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS). This will be a great graduation. Since last year’s graduation was canceled, we will be graduating two classes. In addition, on this trip I will be teaching Theology of Transformation.

ATS’ motto is: Training the Heart, Instructing the Mind, Empowering the Hand. The goal is not just passing knowledge to students but also transformation at the heart level. Early in moving to a hybrid online/inperson model ATS realized that certain courses should be wholly inperson classes so that adequate attention can be given to heart level change. Theology of Transformation was one of those courses that requires focus at the heart level.

Praise God with me for what He has done in the lives of the students graduating. Pray for my travels, graduation and that heart change would happen in my Theology of Transformation class.

Currently I am teaching two online classes at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) using a blended model: Hermeneutics and Pentateuch. For the beginning of each class there was five half-days of lecture via Zoom. This acted as an induction to ensure all the students could use the online tools and to hit the highlights of the course. Now the students are in ten weeks of purely online learning. Pray for these two courses that the students would learn and be able to apply the material.[1] Below are some pictures of what lecture via Zoom looks like for my students and me.

One thing I am particularly excited about is I finally found an Android Bible app that will work well for ATS students. Some of my requirements were: One, the app (and the Bibles on the app) needs to be free or reasonably priced—by Kenyan standards. Two, the app does not use Internet after installation. And three, the app has some basic Greek and Hebrew tools. The app that was found is MyBible available on Google Play. I put together some videos for my students giving an overview of the app and some directions for installations, the videos can be found at cox-net.com/mybible.[2] Praise God with me for this find and pray that it will be a blessing to the students.

Mid March I head back to Kenya to attend graduation (which is on March 20) and to teach an in-person class. Praise God that I am able to make it back to Kenya. Pray that graduation will be a blessed time where God’s achievement in the lives of these students can be celebrated.[3]

Lastly, following the closure of the Early Childhood Development Laboratory (due to COVID) at the University of North Texas (UNT), Donna was moved around and finally ended up scanning papers all day in a windowless office. So, after much prayer, we made the decision for Donna to leave UNT and start substitute teaching in Denton. The hope is she can get a full time teaching job in August. Pray for God’s favor in this endeavor. Also, pray for God’s provision. Our support is down due to COVID and substitute teaching pays less than UNT.

Footnotes

[1] Hermeneutics has been taught as a “hands on” class with a minimal amount of lecture and a large amount of class/library assignments where the teacher goes from student to student ensuring the students are skillful at interpretation. Pray that the students will be gaining the skills they need with the blended model.

[2] Keep in mind the videos are toward some of my students who are not strong in technology.

[3] If anyone would like to join me in Kenya for graduation, please let me know.