Hi everybody!
March was a great month for us! Kelly had her spring break from school, and we had a college friend come visit us! It was a lot of fun to show her some of the wonderful places in Kenya. We also had a lot of ministry opportunities.
Before spring break, Matt took all of his ministry partners on a marriage retreat at the coast. Since last year, Matt has tried to plan periodic events that will help the guys in their personal lives. Last year they went camping, and Global’s mission director, Dave Simpson, encouraged them in their ministry. This year, we held a marriage retreat led by some Kenyan friends who work in family ministry. It was a phenomenal time of growth and deeper introspection into their marriages. The wives of the team also got to meet one another and had a great time interacting with each other. Being without their kids and having someone else cook for them was a real treat! One of the couples said that the last time they had done ANYTHING without their children was eight years ago on their honeymoon!
Matt has worked closely with the Kenya Baptist Theological College for several years.He has periodically taught one course in youth ministry. They have now asked him to take the lead in rolling out an entire youth ministry program that will start in November 2016. They used to have a youth ministry “diploma” program that ran for several years, but there were many challenges within the school and the program was put on the shelf for some time. Matt has been wanting to really get a youth ministry program going in this school, so it’s very exciting that it is finally happening.
We’ve heard some follow-up feedback from our 10 December conferences in Kenya and Tanzania. Twenty-three churches have started youth ministries for the first time. They have added a total of 295 people to their churches in the last 3 months- 126 youth and 169 adults. We keep hearing reports about older adults who are against the gospel and set in their ways, and then who have a child or grandchild start attending the youth ministry (OPEN THIS LINK- https://youtu.be/VYhZOqYxxr ). So many times, the adult starts softening and even desiring to receive Christ. It’s amazing how targeting the young generation touches all generations! Your support is helping to revitalize and energize the church here in East Africa! Thank you for all you do to support us!
Matt and Kelly Elmore