Category: Prayer Blog

Thanks for praying for Donna’s surgery. All went well and no evidence of cancer. Donna is feeling good, she is just easily tired.

My adjustment back to life in the US had a little hiccup. Both Donna and I quarantined until her surgery as getting COVID before surgery is bad. A couple of days after Donna’s surgery, I went to a small Sunday School Christmas party. Turns out that one of the people preparing food tested positive for COVID the next day. So I have been quarantining away from Donna. Tomorrow I will get a rapid COVID test. If negative, I go back to adjusting to “normal” life.

Thanks for being on this journey with us.

Thank you very much for your prayers for my trip to Benin. By God’s grace along with the help of the TWR team in West Africa and Paul Harkness (another former radio guy who volunteered for this trip), we were able to resolve several major issues with the transmitter (see my last blog for background details ). Continue to pray for the team in West Africa as there are still some smaller issues plaguing the transmitter. Below is a picture of the West Africa technical team along with Paul and me.

I made it back to the US for Thanksgiving and time with my family. I am now re-adjusting to the rhythms of life in the US. As well, my two on-line classes with Africa Theological Seminary are wrapping up and the time to grade is upon me.

Later this week, Donna will have day surgery to remove a large nodule from her thyroid that is pressing against her esophagus and vocal chords. In the grand scheme of surgeries, this one should be straight forward. Nonetheless, your prayers would be appreciated. Given that all goes as expected, I will send an update next week as to how the surgery went and how Donna is doing.

TWR, the organization I worked with before I started working with International Christian Ministries (ICM) and teaching at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS), installed a new transmitter in West Africa for specifically broadcasting into Nigeria. The transmitter is running and broadcasts are being heard in Nigeria. However, the transmitter is not operating as it should. TWR asked me to return to West Africa to work on the transmitter. ICM granted me permission to help TWR for six weeks while still teaching my online classes (which I can do from anywhere as long as there is Internet).

So I am back in West Africa for six weeks working on a transmitter. Prior to moving to Kenya, I spend seven years working here with TWR. It is good to be back and see some of the people with whom I served.

Please pray that the Lord will grant success in working on this transmitter. Continue to pray for my online classes. Below is a picture of me and the techs.

This weekend I was at the Jon Just Memorial Ride in Chaska, Minnesota. For the last 16 years, this ride has raised funds to purchase motorcycles for pastors in Africa. The ride was started by Dave and Cindy Just on the one year anniversary of the death of their son Jon. Jon was a viberant lover of Jesus and avid rider who died in a motorcycle accident on his way to church to lead youth group. Dave and Cindy took what the enemy meant for evil and have used it to bless pastors and Christian workers in Africa.

Praise God with me for Dave, Cindy and another successful ride. Pray for me as I put together a video of the ride. This video is for the pastors and other Christian workers who have received (or will receive) motorcycles to tell the Just’s story. In addition, the video will try to explain how a bunch of people riding around on motorcycles raises money for motorcycles in Africa. The idea of a group ride for fun or for a cause is a foreign idea in most of Africa.

Lastly, thank God that the induction to on-line/distance learning is going well at Africa Theological Seminary.

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The one minute video can be viewed at youtu.be/zvtpEg1xHKY.

This week blended classes started at ATS. Since quarantine started, ATS has sought out ways to keep discipleship and learning moving forward. Lots of different ideas have been discussed and debated (quite passionately at times).

After much prayer, ATS is using a blended model. Students will come to ATS for two weeks. In these two weeks, they will be in mentorship, accountability, and attend chapel. In addition, they will be introduced to four courses, the ATS on-line learning mangement system and pick up text books. After these two weeks they will return home for seven weeks of on-line/distance learning.

When the seven weeks are complete, they will return to ATS for more mentorship and accountability along with wrapping up lose ends for the courses and taking finals. The field assignment (a practical ministry application of what was taught in the course) remains a key component.

A few of my USA based colleagues and I are doing our course introductions via Zoom.

Please pray for this new endeavor.

New Testament Introduction Students

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View from Back of the Class

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View from Paul’s End

Here is a four minute video update on Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) and my book.

Many of the students at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) have limited access to the Internet and to computers. Because of this, ATS did not consider online learning as a viable option. However, in Kenya all educational institutions are still barred from having in person classes. Hence, ATS is evaluating making a number of courses available online.

It is accepted that many students will not have access to these courses. Although for students who do have Internet access along with devices capable of supporting an online course, it makes sense to allow these students to continue their training while in person classes are barred.

The last few weeks, I have been working on evaluating the viability of ATS doing some online classes and how to potentially offer these classes in a more limited bandwidth way. As wonderful as Zoom is, it is bandwidth intensive. In Kenya, most people do not have unlimited Internet plans and pay for the Internet a few gigabytes at a time.

Pray for my colleagues and me as we work through the best way forward for online learning given the constraints of our students. Thanks for your prayers for the partial release of my book. So far the feedback has been positive.

Back in September I wrote a blog “Can my Dissertation Help Those Working in the Arab World?” The last few months I have thrown myself at this task with reckless abandon (likely letting some other critical tasks fall through the cracks). As I was writing, it seemed that much of what I was writing had value not only to those working in the Arab world, but also to anyone working cross-culturally with Bible interpretation. Hence, the initial idea metamorphosed into the book “Culturological Hermeneutics: Understanding Interpretation Through the Lens of Culture,” which should help those working cross-culturally identify, better understand, and adjust for cultural differences in Bible interpretation.

I have written six of the proposed twelve chapters that will make up “Culturological Hermeneutics.” Before going any further, it seemed prudent that I should do a partial release of what I have done for review and to ensure that it is headed in the right direction to help the body of Christ.

I will be emailing copies to a few friends and colleagues for review. If you would also like to review “Culturological Hermeneutics” drop me an email and I will send you a copy.

Praise God with me that I am to the point of doing this partial release. Please pray with me that the feedback received would be honest (many people in an effort to be encouraging and kind fall short in the honesty category). Pray for God’s direction and leading. Pray for the things I have let fall through the cracks (like keeping in better touch and writing a much overdue newsletter).

I am discouraged with social distancing and quarantines. I have spent a good amount of time pondering if my discouragement is appropriate. In the grand scheme of things, I am very blessed. Many people have been able to keep supporting us through COVID-19. Donna has been transfered to the College of Engineering at the University of North Texas and is working in their recruiting office; so she still has a job. All but one of my kids has been able to keep working through COVID-19. We are all healthy. I have made some significant headway on a research project (more about this coming soon). There is much for which to be thankful.

Had everything gone to plan, I would have returned home from teaching at Africa Theological Seminary in Kenya yesterday. I love teaching along with enjoying researching and writing. Although because of the way things worked out in 2017,¹ I only spend four months a year in Kenya teaching and eight months researching, writing and doing development work. When I miss two months of the thing I love and only get to do it four months out of the year,² in addition to having no idea when I will get back to Kenya, it is discouraging.

Given I remain thankful for my blessings, I think it is OK to be discouraged about not being able to do what God has gifted me to do and what I love to do. So here’s to everyone discouraged with social distancing: May we remember our blessings and may the time of unrestricted reunions come quickly.

Notes:

¹In 2017 after waiting for 18 months, my Kenya work permit was not renewed and I moved back to the USA. For those who do not know this story the following blogs will help fill in the missing pieces:
Work Permit Update: https://www.cox-net.com/prayer_blog/?p=682
Updated: https://www.cox-net.com/prayer_blog/?p=686
Moving to the USA: https://www.cox-net.com/prayer_blog/?p=691
Letter from President of ICM about the Cox Family: https://www.cox-net.com/prayer_blog/?p=700

² This is roughly speaking. I do teach a Sunday School class and have other opportunities here and there.

On the news the other night, in relation to some churches in the United States meeting together in violation of a government quarantine, the reporter said that science must be put above faith. This highlights the confusion many have between science and faith.

Science is not a savior. Science, according to the scientific method is a process of reasoning, observing and experimenting.¹ This process is not meant to take the place of faith or to be put above faith. It is meant to be a method for either proving or refuting a hypotheses. Science does not create cures, treatments or vaccines; people do, using the process of science.²

On the other end of the spectrum, faith is not God. Faith is a belief, trust or confidence that one puts in something, someone or God. From a Christian perspective, faith is a human reaction to what God has done and is doing. We do not serve faith for the sake of faith.³ Because of and through our faith we worship and serve the persons of the triune God.

I quarantine not because of science (or governmental mandates). I quarantine out of love for my neighbor, which is a result of my faith in God, expressed in not spreading COVID-19 especially for the sake of the sick, weak or elderly. The scientific method (used by those in the field of infectious disease) has helped me to understand how COVID-19 is transmitted so that I can make intelligent decisions in executing how I love. Faith and science in harmony.⁴

Notes:

¹ This process is not always as exacting as scientists make it out to be. Reference my blog on The Unpredictability of Predictions to see how inaccurate science can be.

² There are those who place their faith in the process of science. Unfortunately, many of these people cannot distinguish where science ends and their faith begins.

³ Faith for the sake of faith happens when people lose the distinction between faith and God (the object of one’s faith).

⁴ There has never been a conflict between Christian faith and reasoning (be it scientific, philosophic, apologetic, logic or any other rational thought process). Augustine (354-430 AD) said: “I believe in order to understand.” Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury (1092-1109) more succinctly expressed the relationship between faith and reason: “Faith seeking understanding.”

This is not a claim that Christianity has all the answers: it does not (nor does any other philosophical, religious, scientific or logical system). Rather it offers a system where faith and science/reason/logic are not in conflict, plus much more.