Praise be to God that as I (Paul) write this, I feel like I am over my malaria and the rest of the family is healthy. Thank you to the many who prayed for this and sent encouraging emails. Also praise God that last week Donna and a colleague were able to have a wonderful time of refreshment in Ghana at a women’s conference while I got some extra time with Micah Joy and Miriam.

For those of you who have been following this blog/email update since August of last year, you remember that TWR Africa has been working on updating and revising its strategic plan. After many months of prayer and toil the new structure for TWR in Africa and the new strategic plan is being rolled out. Rejoice with all of us at TWR Africa that we are moving to the implementation stage of this plan. Which brings me to my current location for the next week: South Africa!

Part of the new structure within TWR Africa is that I will be helping with the regional management team and traveling to South Africa for meetings a couple of times a year. The first set of meetings starts on Wednesday and I came a few days early for some other meetings with colleagues and to do some shopping.

Please pray that God would give the regional management team ears to hear our Heavenly Father and wisdom as we work to further His kingdom.

Grace & Peace — Paul

If you are sick of hearing about malaria in our updates we are definitely sick of having malaria. At present, Donna and I (Paul) have not been able to kill off the parasite, Fiona Kennedy (one of our fellow TWR colleagues) and her son Daniel also has malaria. I have been through all the “nicer” malaria treatments and I am now on a week’s course of quinine, which can have some very serious side effects. So far, my side effects have not been too miserable, for which I praise God. Donna, Fiona and Daniel are on a treatment course with “nicer” side effects. First we would covet your prayer concerning our attitudes and hearts. Pray that we would not become discouraged and forget that our lives are in God hands for His glory, which can be shown through grace in illness just as much through healing. In this same vein, pray that our hearts would fully trust in Him and remain tender. Second we would covet your prayers for physical healing and spiritual protection. Pray that medicine being taken would kill the malaria parasite with minimal side effects.

Thank you for your prayers for my trip to Cotonou during the first week of February. Praise God with us that He granted the team a spirit of unity with some positive meetings and contacts. Unfortunately, my malaria hit a high during this week and I spent one day in bed and another team member had a nasty cold and spent a good part of day in bed. There is positive progress on the short wave license, however there is one area of concern, and the NGO status requires some more paper work. Praise God for the positive progress. Pray that God would give TWR wisdom with the area of concern on the shortwave license and in the paper work for the NGO status.

Many thanks for your prayers for our run-on with malaria. The girls and Donna are much better; Micah Joy is still a bit fatigued. I (Paul) ended with malaria again, however, I am almost back to normal.

This week I will be working in Cotonou on the short wave license, the NGO status for TWR in Benin and the start of a new radio program being produced in Benin. Joining me in Cotonou will be Abdoulaye Sangho, the regional director for TWR in West Africa and a Beninese colleague Virgile Ouendo. While Abdoulaye and Virgile are old hats at developing nation’s politics, I easily get impatient and do not understand some of the cultural nuances, not to mention doing it all in French.

Please pray that God would accomplish this week what He desires, both in terms of the work ahead and His work in our hearts. Pray that we would be in tune with the Spirit, each other and (for me) the French.

Crazy! The girls both tested positive for Malaria today.  I (Donna) became sick with it several days ago and am feeling better.  Paul has also had it recently.  Because we take daily prophylaxis our cases are not too severe but the treatments are not really great for you.  We all just feel weak, achy, and feverish.  Several friends also have it.  Please join us in praying against this.  Please also pray that one treatment will be enough.  It appears that each time we have to take several treatments. We are quite tired of it, but trying to find God’s will in the midst of it.

Normally it is Paul’s job to write the prayer blogs but today I decided to post a prayer blog. If you are interested in seeing more family news you can check out our family blog where I mostly post. www.cox-net.com/family_blog

Donna

Another one of the lessons from December’s dark time was the battle of the Christian life.

The Christian life is a tooth and nail battle with peril and danger accompanying every movement and decision. It is unlike any other battle or conflict that has been fought. Our enemy intimately knows us while many times we only vaguely understand the enemy who is deeply entrenched in our territory. What makes the enemy so dangerous is that our enemy is our own heart, with its deception, stubborn pride, arrogance and continual belief in its own abilities to do good.

Our heart wages war for the control of our lives against the Spirit who wants total control to produce His fruit and accomplish God’s will in our lives. The heart with its unending and relentless campaign against God’s Spirit tries, and many times succeeds, to make us think that we can accomplish some good or be of some benefit to the kingdom of God. It is this lie that leads us to believe in our abilities and leave the power of the Spirit, not with blatant abandonment but with ignorant deception. The battle is to remain in complete dependence on the Spirit to do the work while continually battling the prideful lie of the heart that we in ourselves are useful.

Lord, help us to yield to Your Spirit and die to the lie of our usefulness.

In my last update/blog, I shared about December being a dark month and God’s faithfulness to bring me through and teach me some lessons in the process; one of which concerns the beauty of the Savior.

In speaking on struggles on the mission field John Piper spoke about how missionaries persevered on the mission field because they saw how beautiful the Savior is. They persevered so that they might better know the beauty and wonder of the Savior. During December when things were pretty dark John’s words about the beauty of the Savior haunted me. Did I find the Savior beautiful enough to persevere; was the Savior truly beautiful in my eyes? In the end, the beauty of the Savior overwhelmed me, despite my lack of vision for His beauty. It would be a lie to say that something within me caught a glimpse of the Savior that led me to gaze upon his beauty, like spotting an animal in the wild and then using binoculars to study it. The truth is that the Savior so powerfully revealed Himself I could not have missed it; the only choice was to gaze into His eyes or turn and flee, like walking around a corner of a trail and finding oneself face to face with a majestic lion. This overwhelming beauty of the Savior has produced in me the desire to better see and more purposefully seek the beauty of our God.

Pray that we develop the patience to gaze intently at the Savior’s beauty, carefully studying the details of His radiant face, rather than just quickly glancing in the midst of our daily routines. Pray that we take time to savor and absorb the refreshing drink from the wonderful Counselor, letting His fullness reach the deepest parts of our souls, rather than just sipping enough to finish the present task. Pray that we feast at the banquet table of the Lord’s majesty; intentionally trying all the different delicacies, purposely developing our taste buds, rather than just slamming down some greasy fast food on the road of life.

One of the problems with emailing updates and blogging is how much does one share, especially concerning struggles? This particular update may border on being too honest, so if missionary honesty is daunting for you: skip this update.

The month of December was a dark month for me. The last quarter of 2009 I was traveling lots and struggling with health issues (you can read past blogs for the details www.cox-net.com/prayer_blog). This was already after being away from my family a good deal in the second and third quarter of 2009 (three months out of six). A tremendous amount of energy was poured into the new strategic plan for TWR Africa. When I returned from my last trip to South Africa I was exhausted in all aspects of this word. Add to this I had a resistant strain of malaria for a couple of weeks in December.

There were a number of days in December when it was all I could do to pray: “Lord, please help me….” Discipline of Bible study was gone. Discipline of prayer (other than the above mentioned prayer) was gone. For the most part, any spiritual discipline that you can think of was non-existent in my life. I was very clear with God that if He did not work miraculously in my life, I was done with missions and moving back to the States.

God was very gracious and kind to help me through a dark month and taught me some important lessons in the process; perhaps the dark month (albeit hard) was what God knew I needed. Let me take this opportunity to thank those of you who have prayed for me (special thanks to BH).

Praise God with me for His graciousness and kindness to bring me through a dark month. Pray that I will implement the lessons learned.

In my last blog I requested prayer because I did not feel well and was going to have further testing done while I was in Johannesburg. Thank you very much for your prayers in this regard. The results of the further testing showed no abnormalities and that I am in good health. Up until now, I have been very tight lipped about my health as I did not want to raise unnecessary concerns while taking prudent precautionary measures given the situation.

For the last few months I have been having unusual feelings around my heart. It seemed prudent to discuss the situation with Fiona (our TWR colleague who is also a medical doctor). Upon examination Fiona found my blood pressure to be slightly elevated and an ECG done in Benin was normal.  All the indicators pointed to stress and lack of exercise. Although, given my families heart history and lack of facilities in Benin to test for and deal with cardiac problems, Fiona choose the path of prudence until a cardiac problem could be clearly excluded. Fiona started me on Atenolol, which is a medicine to protect the heart and lower blood pressure. The first week on Atenolol I did not feel very well as my body adjusted to the medicine. At present, the Atenolol is causing some insomnia, fatigue and a light pressure in my head / dull headache. The doctor in Johannesburg, Dr LeCrus, fully agreed with Fiona’s prudence until he could do a stress ECG and get a full blood workup done. Both the stress ECG and the blood work (including cholesterol) were all normal. Dr LeCrus would like to taper me off the Atenolol over a period of a few weeks.

I am aware that requesting prayer for my health without giving too many details was frustrating for some. However, I choose to say very little as I feared if I said too much it would cause unnecessary concern. Especially since it was mostly likely that the symptoms were caused by stress and Fiona starting me on Atenolol was purely a precautionary measure until a cardiac problem was excluded.

I would appreciate your continued prayers for the insomnia, fatigue and dull headaches as I taper off the Atenolol. In the near future I will post on the rest of my trip to Johannesburg and strategic planning meetings.

Grace & Peace — Paul

We are incredibly grateful for all your prayers – thank you very much.

The situation with L. continues to improve. I spent some time with L. this week and he continues to seek what lessons God has for him in this situation. Today (Nov 5, 2009) is a court hearing that L. is required to attend to insure that all the insurance paperwork is in order. L. and the team have worked diligently to insure all L.’s paperwork is in order so this hearing should be more of a formality for L.. The only concern is that the family of the man who was killed does not have all their paperwork ready. Pray that this does not create additional proceedings for L..

HAAC (the agency that issues broadcast licenses in Benin) has requested additional information concerning our shortwave application. Much of what is requested is clarification on international shortwave procedures, which can be a very confusing topic as multiple international organizations (UN, ITU, HFCC, etc…) and governments are involved. Pray for wisdom as we prepare our responses, pray for HAAC to clearly understand all the complexities of international shortwave broadcasts and pray that TWR finds favor with HAAC.

Last week I did not feel well. This week I am feeling much better, but the doctor would still like for me to get some further tests during my next trip to South Africa mid November. I would appreciate your prayers for my health.

Lastly, next week our family will go to Togo for a Spiritual Life Conference. Please pray this will be a time of spiritual refreshment.

Many thanks for your prayers.

Grace & Peace — Paul

Thank you for your prayers for L.. As most of you know, L. is an employee of TWR in Benin who was driving home last week and had an accident with a motorcycle that killed the driver of the motorcycle.  In Benin it is normal procedure when there is an accident with a fatality for the driver to remain in police custody until the police are assured the family of the deceased will not seek revenge and until the innocence of the driver can be established. Because of this L. spent four days in police custody and then another three days in prison (jails and prisons in developing nations are less then ideal). It was a hard week on L., his family and the team here in Benin. While it was a hard week, we also saw God’s hand moving and L. had many opportunities to share about his faith and the work of TWR.

We are praising God that the family of the deceased has accepted this as an accident and that yesterday (22 Oct. 2009) L. was declared innocent in the accident and released. Last night was a joyous reunion with L., his family and friends. In addition we are praising God that the insurance company is paying for the damages involved in the accident.

Thanks again for your prayers in this situation. Please continue in prayer for the family of the man who was killed; he had a wife and two children. Also for L. and his family as they process these events. Pray for the team here in Benin as some are exhausted after the many long hours working through all the cultural and legal details.

Grace & Peace — Paul