Cox Shares Missionary Insights with Students Monte Cox never imagined that he would become a missionary, but God evidently had other plans for him. In 1982 , after their graduation from Harding, Cox and his wife, Beth, packed up their belongings and the ir infant daughter, Rachel , and left for Kenya with a team of three families who were also recent Harding graduates. During the next 10 years, the Coxes returned for an extended period only once - during the school yea r of 1988-1989 when he was Harding's visiting missionary. His focus those nine months was on Africa. He wanted to encourage and tra in young people to be missionaries with a desire to reach receptive hearts in Africa . ow he and his family have re turned to stay. The famil y has grown to five, including Joel , 7, and Sarah , 5. Rachel is 10. The re we re two major reasons for the ir permane nt return. First , they felt the Lore! opened a door for th m at Harding where he could find and help train missionaries to go to Africa. The second reason for the move was the children. Many missionaries find it difficult to raise thei r children in a foreign culture past the age of 12 without forcing them into a situation where the children would be uncomfortable in their "own '' culture. If they remained in frica until the childre n were ready for college, and then decided to come Faculty member, Monte Cox takes time out of his busy schedu le to ta lk with a few of his students. Cox was a missionary in Africa until he decided to come back to the states to teach :11 Harding. to Am rica, they would probably feel uncomfortable with American culture. So they decided to return . With the decision made , Cox joined the Harding Bible faculty in the fa ll. He returned a changed person. His missionary experiences have made him care about the world, feel a responsibility for it and see the world through the eyes of God's love. To him, people are all the same. Intent o n passing on pure gospel instead o f cultural bias s and traditions in Africa. Cox r -examined his world view in light of scripture, which forced him to look at what he rea ll y believed . He returned to Harding to share this knowledge and growth with the students, with the hope that they can learn and grow from it. - Melissa Forrest Gabe Polk - Wayne.,horo. TC\ . N11rsi118 . Jesse Pollard - Searcy, AR. P.~)'cbology. Michelle Ponds - Florene<: , AL. Physics, ,\'/alb . Spanish , OEGE, Alpha Chi. American Studies, Campaigns (Venezuela) , Dean\ LiM, 1 lonors, :-ipanish Club. l 'niversity Singer~. Who's Who. Peggy Poole - :-,carC). AR Social Work. Nuria Portabella - Guat<:mala Cir;. Guatemala . B1ocben1ist1y, Alpha Chi. American Studie.,, Che111is1ry Club. Dean's Lbl. Jason Powers - Poteau, OK. Business Almzaue111e11t. Chi Sigma Alpha, Campaign' <Scotl.tnd>. lmramurah, :-,iucknt Impact. Robert Provost - Wallingford , CT. Busi11ess t:d11catio11. Galaxy , American t.l:irketing A"ociation. College Howl. Dean's List. lntr.imurals. Becky Pruitt - Smith\'ille. TX. .Spa11ish . Seniors 211
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