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.

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.