Hello Everyone! Hope you are doing well!
4:12 News
We've unfortunately had some sad news recently. One of our staff members from the coastal team named Nzomo Bithoya died this month from colon cancer. He was 63 years old. He had been teaching conferences with us for the last couple of years and was doing an amazing job. His faithfulness was amazing. For some reason, the church that he planted and pastored for many years never really grew that big. Despite the small number of congregants, Nzomo was faithful. He was a dynamic preacher of the word and an amazing teacher. He taught conferences with us for hundreds of people. He led many people to Christ throughout his years. He was also a translator for different bible languages and Christian materials. His faithfulness and consistency in the Lord was very encouraging. During his burial, the family placed a sheet over his coffin that had our ministry logo and his church logo on it. He was a faithful man and he will be missed by our staff.
Kenya Opening Up
Amazingly, God is blessing our team right now to teach many conferences. Between January and February, we’ve taught 43 conferences on how to start and run a youth ministry to pastors and church leaders. Since Kenya opened up after the initial COVID shutdown, pastors and Christians alike are hungry for the word. We've had so many requests for conferences to reach young people. We thank God for this and are so grateful for our incredible and proactive staff.
Kuza News
We are so grateful for all of you who financially supported us to start a radio show in Nairobi. We were able to hit our financial goal by the end of 2020 and are now working in partnership with Pearl Radio in Nairobi. We're currently doing an ad campaign with them to hype up our KuzaApp.com online ministry and will soon start a radio broadcast. This partnership will provide us with access to hundreds of thousands of youth and young adults in the Nairobi area.
Expansion Of The Ministry News
After some discussion and prayer with our ACO board of directors, we are changing a bit of how we function. What has been functionally happening on the ground in Kenya is now more explicit in Matt’s “title”. The title has changed from “Director of Church Equipping” to “International Director of Ministries.” Matt will now be helping to coordinate all of the ministries on the ground in East Africa for African Christian Outreach. Nothing will really change about his day-to-day job, but now our ministry will be more all-encompassing of what African Christian Outreach is doing. So if you start hearing about additional ministries in future newsletters, this is why! Here are some of the other arms of the ministry you’ll be hearing about:
1. Student Discipleship Ministry (SDM)-SDM does evangelism and discipleship on college campuses in East Africa. We have a team of 30 Kenyan staff members that minister in 23 college campuses in 3 different African countries. They have around 600 students actively participating in Bible studies.
2. New Beginnings Crisis Pregnancy Center- After many years of ministering to college students on campuses with SDM, our staff members frequently encountered young ladies who were pregnant and unsure if they wanted to have an abortion or have the baby. One of the young ladies we work with felt God call her to start New Beginnings and we now have a very amazing holistic ministry with these young women. In 2019, New Beginnings served 90 ladies.
3. Pamoja House-One of our SDM Kenyan staff members had a heart for the unsaved communities around his university. He lived in a predominately Muslim neighborhood, and felt God calling him to reach out to this community with thestudents from his Bible study. Out of this, Pamoja House was started (Pamoja means “together”). Pamoja House teaches courses on basic computer skills, baking, resume writing, and chess to the local community with the goal of sharing the gospel and discipling people. In 2019, we had 120 people consistently coming to the courses, and 4 people from a Muslim background receive Christ (they are still actively involved in discipleship).
We are excited about these ministries and the opportunities that they bring. Please pray with us as we move forward together with African Christian Outreach.
Personal News
Not too much new on our end. Zeke turned 3 in January! Matt is continuing to work on ministry, and Kelly and Zeke hang out at home! We’re beginning to make preparations to return to Kenya in mid-July. It’s amazing how fast this year is going! Kelly is planning on going back to work at Rosslyn full-time next year, so we are sorting out housing options and other things.
We are grateful for all of you, and pray for God's provision and grace for you during this time.
God bless you!
The Elmores- Matt, Kelly, & Ezekiel
Prayer Requests
Pray for God to use our new radio program for his glory.
Pray for directions and blessing on all the ministry arms of ACO.
Praise- Kelly’s dad update- Immunotherapy appears to working to kill the cancer. He is still dealing with the side effects of cancer and previous treatments.
Kelly’s health and headaches to get better.
Pray for us as we begin preparations for returning to Kenya in July.
Matt’s uncle passed away from COVID last month. Please pray for his family.