In the ancient world, the winter solstice was an important holiday. Different ancient cultures had various beliefs and celebrations. They revolved around the darkest day of the year and the hope for longer days, more sunlight, and the new life Spring brings. This provided a beautiful backdrop for the early church to introduce Jesus as the light that has come into a dark world, which is the origin of Advent.

Many people focus their Advent and Christmas celebrations around the account of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke. However, when considering Advent’s origins, John 1 beautifully conveys the truths of the Word becoming flesh (verse 1)—and just as important—the light shining in the darkness (verse 4) and the light coming into the world (verse 9).

The early church’s celebration of Advent focused on not only Jesus’ First Advent but also Jesus’ imminent Second Advent. It was a time to reflect on the incarnation and prepare for the second coming.

May your celebration of our Lord’s First Advent be joyous and prepare your heart for His imminent Second Advent.

(And may you consider John 1 for your Christmas readings.)

1. Still going to Kenya: The Lord has kept the door open for me to travel to Kenya, teach at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS)—for four months a year—and work remotely with students and research from the USA—for eight months a year.

2. Family times: What is not to love about time with a new grand-baby? In addition, I am thankful for times with our moms, kids, and their significant others. (Albeit there were some challenging discussions.)

3. Support account only slightly in the red: This year, our support account is only a few hundred dollars in the negative. A huge thank you to our supporters. In the last few years, it was thousands of dollars in the negative. (Those interested in giving can visit: cox-net.com/get_involved.htm)

4. Teaching assistants: I had two wonderful teaching assistants this year. They were a blessing to the students and me. Lord willing, they can continue their studies and development; this will better equip them to develop the next generation of leaders.

5. Donna’s impact at UNT: Through Donna’s role as an advisor at the University of North Texas, she can help students navigate their degree plans and life.

6. Working with college students: Donna and I are blessed to be involved with our church’s college ministry. We regularly bake for them, entertain students in our home, meet for breakfast, and mentor them.

7. Peaceful elections in Kenya: In past elections, there was the loss of life and property. Praise God that the 2022 elections were peaceful.

8. New opportunities with ATS in 2023: Donna and I have been praying about new opportunities with ATS in 2023 and are excited about the possibilities. More on this is coming soon.

9. Trips to Rwanda and West Africa: I am thankful for two successful trips beyond Kenya this year. One to Rwanda to help license a student and one to West Africa to help TWR. (Although this made it a travel-intense year.)

10. New Adjunct teacher for ATS: This year, the Lord opened the door for me to introduce a fantastic adjunct faculty member to ATS

Grace & Peace — Paul

Thank you for praying for my time in Kenya. Praise God that the election dispute was resolved peacefully. I taught three classes at Africa Theological Seminary: Pauline Epistles, Old Testament Biblical Theology, and New Testament Biblical Theology. Praise God that all three went well.

I am grateful for your prayers for my Rwanda trip. Thank God with me for a tremendous licensing service for one of my students. I also encouraged some churches and led a few workshops. Pray for Africa Inland Church Rwanda. They are facing some difficult struggles.

In my last update, I mentioned an article I wrote on a missions database used in training. The article’s reviewers are willing to consider it for publication with substantial revisions. All the requested revisions are reasonable and will improve the article. Praise God that the article is one step closer to publication. Pray for me as I make the revisions.

I am writing from Gisenyi, Rwanda. I will, Lord willing, make my way back home via Kigali, Nairobi, London, and Houston between now and next week. I spend a few days in Nairobi for meetings. Pray for my travels and that my time in Nairobi will be productive.

Below is a video update. The update includes: birth of first grand baby; Samantha May, working on course material, near completion of article on cultural database used in missions training, upcoming Kenya trip and Kenya elections.

If needed, the YouTube link is:  https://youtu.be/ffsA__DXeq8

Praise God with me for a successful trip. The two classes that I taught at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS), Elements of Greek and Exegesis, went well. My courses are in constant evolution attempting to better clarify areas where previous classes struggled. These courses were two steps forward and one step back. The changes brought more clarity, but they came at the expense of time, which is in short supply with ATS’s in-service model[1].

In addition to teaching two courses, I helped a new adjunct teacher from Houston get started at ATS. As I write, the new adjunct is teaching Church History I. Lord willing, he will be able to teach one history course a year. So far he is doing great and the initial feedback from the students is exceptionally positive. Pray for the new adjunct and Church History I.

By God’s grace, I made significant progress on some administrative issues. Lastly, I rock climbed with a dear friend. We enjoyed God’s wonderful creation, had wonderful fellowship, and climbed some great routes.

I am looking forward to a joyous reunion with my family, some rest and getting back to writing.

Footnote

[1] ATS’s in-service model endeavors to keep church leaders in ministry while they become better equipped for the ministry. To this end, the classroom portion of a class is only 8 to 10 days with practical ministry assignments to supplement and reinforce the material.

After a very short four weeks at home, I am en route to Kenya again. On this trip, I will teach Elements of Greek and Exegesis at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS). Both of these courses are very demanding on students and teach valuable skills for interpreting the Bible. Please pray that God’s grace would abound to the students. Pray that I will have wisdom and clarity in teaching.

I helped to recruit a new adjunct faculty member (who is from Houston). Lord willing, he will be able to teach one church history class each year. On this trip I will also be helping him get started at ATS.

Typically I spend a couple of months at home before taking another trip. However, this year I have an unusual schedule. My departure to return to Kenya came way too fast. Pray for Donna and me as we adjust to this year’s schedule.

In March I mentioned that I could not contact the author of a cross-cultural database based on guilt, shame, and fear. The hope was to get permission to use the database for an article. After a careful examination, how I will use the data can be used under “fair use” (no permission needed). As I worked on the article, I found some surprising results. I am in the process of tidying up my work and documenting how I did the analysis. A friend who is a statistician will double check my work. Before I get too excited, I want someone else to double check my work. Pray for this process and clarity with my results. If any of you are proficient with the R system for statistical computing and would like to look over my results, let me know.

Encouragements

Graduation at Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) is always a joyous time celebrating what God has done in the lives of our graduates. It was incredibly encouraging to be part of this year’s celebration. Praise God for what he has done in the lives of our students.

A dear friend from when I went to seminary in Dallas, Lupe, traveled with me to Kenya. Lupe is an IS/IT guru, and he helped install a new server and Wi-Fi access points. In a short week, Lupe moved ATS years ahead. Thank the Lord for Lupe and the work he accomplished.

I taught Old Testament Introduction and enjoyed the interaction with the students on the material, their eagerness to learn, and how well they did in learning the material. Pray for these students as they take what they learned back to their ministries and churches.

Discouragements

This trip is very dichotomous. The encouragements were great. But there were some significant discouragements.

Due to some administrative issues, some students are facing a delay in their graduation. The issues are a long and complicated story, and I would love to sit down with you and discuss them over a cup of chai and samosas at the Lilian Hotel here in Kitale. Pray for the students whose graduation is on hold and pray for a quick resolution to the issues.

My six-month-old phone wigged out during a meeting, was stuck on the start-up screen, and it would not turn off. After messing with it for some time, I could not get it to boot (it would not go beyond fastboot or the bootloader). I use a mobile money feature here in Kenya, so all my money for the trip depended on having a working phone, plus all the other stuff a phone does. My phone dying was a huge discouragement. Praise God I brought a spare hand-me-down phone from a family member for Lupe to use while in Kenya and was able to get critical functions running on it.

I will start my journey to the USA soon. Pray for tailwinds, smooth flights, easy connections, and a divine appointment for the person sitting next to me or for an empty seat next to me.

There have been some discouragements in the area of writing and grading. Part of my role at ATS is to write some academic articles. One article that I believe has great potential is an analysis of a cross-cultural database based on guilt, shame, and fear. One discouragement is that I have been unable to contact the database owner concerning permissions.

Another discouragement is a higher than average percentage of students who plagiarized in my last two classes. There are cultural issues involved, and I try to show grace. Nonetheless, it is discouraging and frustrating.

There are two encouragements. Recently I ran a 50 kilometer (31 mile) ultra marathon. I trained and ran the marathon with minimal injuries (mainly blisters and some soreness on the top of my right foot). None of these slowed my training or marathon pace.

Currently, I am en route to Kenya for ATS graduation. Graduation is always an encouraging time of celebration for what God has accomplished in the lives of ATS students.

Praise God with me for a successful ultra marathon and the graduating students. Pray for patience and grace with my students who plagiarize, along with progress on permissions for the article.

 

Thanks for your prayers for my trip to West Africa. The trip went well, and we figured out the challenging problem I mentioned in my last blog.

The journey home was exciting. On the trip from TWR’s West Africa Transmitting Station to the airport (which we had to make a few days early because of COVID testing), a 40-foot container had fallen off its truck and was blocking the road. We bushwhacked and drove through a small village to get around the container.

As my departure approached, I received a message from Delta stating that my flight between Atlanta and Dallas could be delayed or canceled due to the weather; it was scheduled to arrive at the same time the big storm was forecasted to hit Texas. Upon landing in Atlanta, I discovered that my flight from Atlanta to Dallas was canceled. Delta had already put me on an earlier flight to Dallas. However, I had just over an hour to clear immigration, get my bag, clear customs, and get to the gate. Thankfully I made the earlier flight and was reunited with my wife. (Sorry Atlanta friends, I will have to see you another day.) Praise God with me that Donna and I did not have to spend more time apart.

Pray as I switch gears, prepare for my March trip to Kenya (Africa Theological Seminary’s graduation and teaching a class), and as I return to writing (more on that in a later blog).

Since my last update, my Pentateuch and Major Prophets classes have finished. When Africa Theological Seminary (ATS) started doing online learning, my Teaching Assistant’s (TA) responsibilities were ensuring all the equipment for Zoom was set up and working. Gradually his responsibilities increased, and he is now helping with virtually every aspect of the course, including grading. Praise God for an outstanding TA. Pray for my TA and me as we grade all the field projects for Pentateuch and Major Prophets.

Currently, I am in West Africa (once again) helping TWR at their West Africa Transmitting Station (WATS) for a few weeks. It makes for a nice short break from ATS and keeps the engineering side of my brain from getting too rusty.

I was at WATS in October of last year. You may remember that one of the engineers, Graham, who was to join me in October, could not make the trip due to passport issues. Part of this trip is giving Graham an orientation to WATS, along with several projects and some repairs.

Praise God that the intermittent issues worked on in my last two trips seem to be fixed and that Graham is with me on this trip. Pray for us as we work on projects and some technical problems, one of which is quite challenging. Pray for Donna and me as we are physically separated by many miles once again.

Paul reviewing broadcast issues with WATS technicians.