The Brush

I'm a retired officer having worked, with my wife, on agricultural projects in Africa for much of my life. (I have a BSc. in agriculture). We now live in Perthshire. You may know Majors Stephen and Heather Poxon (at Paisley). Heather is our eldest daughter. We worked in Zimbabwe, Kenya (where Heather was born), Congo and Nigeria and retired in 1996. Both of us were new to the Army and just thank God for the wonderful way He has led us over the years. 

I still go to Africa quite frequently, last year I went with our youngest daughter, Carol and her family, and a group of school children from her school to Malawi to plant trees and put up beehives in four villages for the Army. Then in November I helped run a beekeeping training course for the Army in the Congo. Next month I will be going to Sudan to help with a beekeeping project run by World Vision.

Since retirement I have published several books for development workers in Africa (on plant uses, beekeeping and edible insects!). This work was paid for by doing dry-stane dyking for local farmers. I enjoy dyking, and it's a way of saying thank you to God for being able to live in this beautiful place.   

A few years ago I went to stay with my eldest daughter, Heather, who lived in the bush in the Congo. I remember when I woke up in the morning hearing all the wonderful sounds of Africa, the cockerels crowing, some women talking, I felt the warm air that came through the window which was wide open, and then suddenly I heard a pig. I looked out of the window but couldn't see it any where. Where had it got to? Then I suddenly saw it being carried on someone's shoulder.

While I was staying with Heather I was given my duties each morning. One morning she gave me this brush made from some grass stems bound with an old tomato tin.

It had been bought in the market for 10p.

My job was to sweep out the sand, dead cockroaches and ants each morning - all the bad things that had come into the house during the past 24 hours.

Each morning we need to ask God to keep us clean, pure and fit for his service - to clean out something unkind or untrue we might have said, some bad habit we've got into or some bad thought that's been bothering us.


Let us make the same prayer that king David made many years ago, each morning when we get up.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit in me".

Major Paul Latham (R)