Sarah Cox, the wife of Josh Cox, is on her first trip to the Congo. Here is an email that she sent to people that are praying for her. She gave me permission to send it to the rest of our email list.
One other note about the Importance of your prayer. We frequently start at seven in the morning and finish at nine at night, which does not leave much time for prayer. So, your prayers are really important for the people here. Thanks again.
Enjoy!
For the team,
Greg
Pictured above: Solomon, Diane and Sarah with bags of charcoal.
Hello Prayer Warriors!
This week has been incredible! It has also been so overwhelming. The Congo and it’s people are kind and beautiful but it’s also a place of true poverty and despair. We have met with many friends that other members of our team have known from previous trips.
One special friend that I think we would all like to adopt is Solomon. He is so special in many ways but what I love most about him is the way he sees past his circumstances to create something to better his and his family’s situation. Solomon has a charcoal business. In Congo most people use charcoal to cook with. Solomon invented a way to make it with less emissions and it’s cheaper!
We met James who is the project manager of a company started by two ladies who employ people with disabilities. In Congo if you have a disability you are considered useless and your family thinks you have no value so finding a job or getting married is very difficult.
We have met a man named Terry who went to the Bush to preach the gospel. When he got there the bush people wouldn’t come to see him because they had no clothes. So he went and got them clothes and they came to listen to the Gospel!!!!
On Sunday we went to a French church service where our friend Paul is a gifted preacher. I was encouraged by his teaching and grateful to God that the Congo has true Christian teaching. Corruption is a big issue in the churches in Congo. The ladies and I got to go to a Women’s Day event held at Paul’s church and I had the honor of speaking to the women there as well as Karen who is a full time Missionary in the Congo with her husband Mark. In a crazy turn of events, Mark and I realized we graduated from the same High School! It just took going to the Congo to meet.
Next week, my husband Josh and our friend Mike Scheffelin are teaching their class on video production and storytelling. Storytelling is an incredible way to reach people. It helps them see the truth like nothing else can. It’s also biblical because Jesus taught in parables! Our leader Greg Herring and Mike Marshall are teaching about entrepreneurship and leadership.
In Congo the women do a majority of the work with little pay, raise the children, do all the housework, and feed the family. Leadership from the men is seriously lacking in the Congo. I am so grateful for the husband I have. He is an incredible leader in our family. Greg and Mike are also great men and are obviously called by God to teach these men how to be leaders.
Pat Herring, Diane Scheffelin, and I will get to spend the day in a Congolese woman’s home so we can see what their life is like. On Thursday, the ladies and I will go to Tracy’s Heart. It is an organization that takes in rape victims, counsels them, teaches them the gospel, gives them a job skill and teaches them about nutrition. We will have the opportunity to talk to these women about the gospel and hear their stories.
Throughout the trip we also get to observe the teachings and help lead discussions, create icebreakers and trust building exercises (Thank you Jesus for Pinterest, am I right?) and also build relationships with the people here.
Prayer request:
Pray for receptive hearts for the gospel we are sharing and for the material the men are teaching.
So far no one has gotten sick or injured. Pray that continues.
Pray that we will continue to build bridges here and that the Lord would continue to bless the relationships we formed and are forming.
This place is so overwhelming and I struggle with feeling helpless. There is so much need and so few willing to come. Pray for my attitude.
Pray that I would constantly remember that God is doing the heavy lifting, I just need to show up and obey. I don’t think I truly understood that till I got here.
Visiting Tracy’s Heart is going to be HARD. It will be emotional and challenging on a whole new level that I have not experienced. Please pray for me and Pat and Diane.
What we are doing here needs a lot of flexibility on our part. Things can and do change unexpectedly and God provides opportunities that we didn’t know were going to happen. I like schedule, routine, and list. Pray I remain flexible, it is only because of the Holy Spirit’s intervention that I have remained flexible thus far.
I have always hugely struggled with trusting and submitting to authority. I can see the enemy trying to use this against me while we are here. Please pray that God would change my heart and that I would not sabotage my relationships with my co-laborers. Greg is an incredible leader and knows this place so well (this is his 9th trip at least). He is a great man of God and is worthy of trust and respect.
Pray I won’t feel useless because I can’t swoop in and fix all the things. When I feel this way it is because I am trying to do it in my own, very limited power instead of trusting God’s limitless power and perfect plan. See, it comes back to struggling with trust and submission.
Pray for our sleep as a group. Some of us are struggling. I woke up at 3 o’clock this morning and am WIDE awake! Pray that if I don’t get back to sleep, God would supply me with super natural energy to get through today.
Lastly, pray for a humble heart for me. My pride and “need” for validation can make me resentful when I don’t get it. Again, this makes it about me and not about God. I can see how God is thankfully using this trip to work on this issue in my heart. Pray I would continue to be receptive to it.
Thank you all for your dedicated prayers. Feel free to forward this email to anyone who would benefit or would pray for us.
In His Name,
Sarah Cox