December 2017 News

Hi Everyone! 

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and we wish you a very good New Year!

Conferences: 

Between November and December, we taught 40 conferences! This included more than 2000 youth (300 of whom made a profession of faith) and 500 pastors and church leaders. A very successful two months for conferences!

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Kuza:

Our Kuza app has been doing wonderfully for the last 6 months. Before we started our partnership with Kubamba Radio, we were averaging 4 downloads a day. After partnering with Kubamba, we are averaging 25 downloads a day. It has been such a blessing, and because of their partnership, we don’t have to pay a dime for any advertising that they do for us. Kubamba also helps us promote Kuza by holding events where their DJs play live music, have dance crews, and preach the gospel. During these events, they encourage the attendees to download the app. If any become saved during the event, they encourage them to read our “Foundations” devotions which help new believers learn the basic foundations of Christianity. We have nearly 7,000 downloads on our app, and over 3000 actively read it on a consistent basis. Pray for these youth to continue to grow.

Download Kuza and see what youth are reading.

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Coastal Youth Camp:

In December, Matt helped preach at a youth camp on the coast of Kenya with a missionary friend named James Wanje. He was asked to preach on the topics of identity in Christ, evangelism, and not wasting your life. He shared the preaching duties with a Kenyan pastor and another American. Around 60 kids received Christ. There were some powerful stories, including the exorcism of some demons and radical life changes! One girl had a terrible reputation, and received Christ during the camp. On the last day, she shared her testimony and sang a worship song in front of the entire camp. When the pastor called her mom and told her what had happened, the mother was amazed and said “if my daughter can change, then this whole family needs Jesus”. We’ve seen over and over here, youth camps and youth ministry is not just about youth… it’s about whole family transformation.

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Personal:

Hopefully most of you have heard via our announcement and on social media, but we have been matched with a birth mother, and are coming back to the States on January 12. God willing, we will become parents to a baby boy who will be born in mid-late January. We are so excited! Please be in prayer for the paperwork we have to complete, for us as we become parents, for our baby boy, and for our lovely birth mom, and the difficulties she will encounter. Our ministry here will continue without us for 6 months until we can return. We have such a great team here, and are confident in their ability to keep things running. This will be the longest we’ve been in the States since moving to Kenya, so it will be quite a change!

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Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for a big Kubamba concert (over 15,000 students) on December 31st, and that we’ll have 3000 more downloads to reach our goal of 10,000 for 2017!

2. Pray for those saved at camps and conferences to continue growing in their faith.

3. Pray for us as we transition to the U.S. for a longer period, and prepare to become parents. Please pray specifically for the necessary paperwork to come through, for our baby boy, and for his birth mommy.

October 2017

Us on a camping trip... and yes, it was cold!

Happy Fall! (Or happy spring to us in the southern hemisphere!)

Kubamba Radio and new devotional - Matt was interviewed on live radio regarding our new Kuza devotion called “Live Free”. The devotion is about living free from addictions. Afterwards, a young lady contacted Matt through Kuza and thanked him for the app. She heard about it on the radio and said it has been hugely helpful for her in combating her addiction with alcohol.

Rosslyn’s CFS- Rosslyn’s High School had their cultural field study (CFS) trip in September this year. Matt organized 4 of the sites, and Kelly went on one of them. It was a great and meaningful trip this year.

Kenya Elections- Well, we had peaceful elections in August, but the results are being contested in court due to reports of election fraud and corruption. We now have another election scheduled for Oct. 26. This situation has stirred up more political tension, so we are praying for continued peace.

AFLEWO - Matt had an amazing opportunity to promote Kuza at an event called AFLEWO (AFrica LEt’s WOrship). AFLEWO is a worship concert that included a 250 person choir and great praise band. It started at 6 pm on a Friday night, and ended at 6 am on Saturday morning! There were roughly 15,000 youth and young adults there, standing shoulder to shoulder and worshipping God for the entire 12 hours.

Missions Devotion - In preparation for a new Kuza devotion on Missions, Matt & some of his team members have been attending a bible study called “Xplore” by the Center for Missions Mobilization (CMM). It’s been a fascinating and revealing study about mission work among unreached people groups. These are people that most likely could not find someone to share the gospel with them. Our goal with this new devotion is to encourage youth to give their lives to frontier missions. We pray that at least one youth who reads this devotion will devote their lives to the mission field of an unreached people group.

Ethiopia - Matt was asked by a partner organization named “Youth Ministry International (YMI)” to help teach at a conference at the Evangelical Theological College (ETC) in Ethiopia. YMI and ETC are hoping to start a masters in youth ministry degree, which will pave the way for more trained teachers at the bachelor’s level. We hope this will allow more and more youth pastors to reach the more than 29 million youth of Ethiopia.

Personal - We love our newly renovated house, and have a bit more space to move around in! No news on the adoption front yet. Kelly is helping coach cross country at Rosslyn again this year, and is enjoying that.

Thank you for your continued support of us! God has been encouraging us about the importance of our work, and we are grateful for your role in it. 

Matt and Kelly

Prayer Request:
1. Continue praying for us to reach our goal of 10,000 downloads of the Kuza app between now and December 31st. We currently are half way there. 

2. Pray for the fruit of the 20 conferences and 1 seminary training we did in Aug/Sept.

3. Pray for us to partner with a seminary in Rwanda.

4. Please pray for a peaceful Kenyan re-elections coming up in October.

5. For fruit from our Missions devotion. We desire to have 1 out of our current 3000 readers feel the call to full-time missions.

6. Pray for us to find national partners to teach our conferences on the coast of Kenya.  

July 2017 News

The FBCLW mission team with most of our teaching team.  

Hi everyone!

Hope you’re having a great summer! We’ve had a busy but good June and beginning part of July!

FBCLW Mission Trip - We had an amazing time on a mission trip with First Baptist Church of Lake Wales, FL (FBCLW). They are our sending church and it is the first time that they have visited us since we have been in the mission field. We had the privilege to partner with our Kenyan home church, Ridgeways Baptist (RBC), to do a mission trip planned by them to Mwanda, Kenya. While there, we did a pastors training conference for the local pastors, door-to-door evangelism, and school ministry. RBC was given a large amount of money from some donors to do a large food distribution, and we were able to help feed those that were hungry. There has been a severe drought across Kenya, and the agrarian society of Kenya has really been struggling with food shortage. The food relief was a huge blessing to the community, and it was very moving to see their reactions.

Kuza - The Kuza app has taken off in the last one month. We currently have over 2000 total downloads, 1200 of which was in the last 4 weeks. 1200 is more than double what we’ve had in the previous 6 months. Our partners Kubamba Radio have been giving us free mentions, and also ran an advertisement for us on the radio. This has been an amazing answer to prayer and we're grateful for how you all have been praying for this. Please continue!

Tanzania Seminary - Another big answer to prayer is finding a quality seminary to partner with in Tanzania. We started working with a very well-run and organized seminary in northwestern Tanzania. We trained 80 students at their seminary this past month and they want us to continue to partner with them and return on a regular basis. This is something that Matt wrote down in his prayer list for 2017 and it has been answered.

Momentums - We had the privilege of training a few hundred church leaders in our conferences and seminaries this month. Our teaching team has been very busy!

Personal - It’s been a busy, but nice summer. We’re getting ready to move back into our renovated house soon. Chewy is all healed and hopping about! Some of you have asked about our adoption. We are still just in the waiting phase! If anything happens, we’ll continue to keep you posted!

Thank you all for your continued love and support . Hope everyone is able to have a relaxing and refreshing summer!

Matt and Kelly

Prayer Request:

1. Continue praying for us to reach our goal of 10,000 downloads of the Kuza app between now and December 31st.
2. Pray for our 8 conferences and seminary events in July to bear lots of fruit.
3. Pray for us to partner with a seminary in Rwanda.
4. Please pray for a peaceful Kenyan election season coming up in early August .
5. Pray for us to get some Christian celebrities to help promote Kuza through their social media accounts.

Sue's story of how Kuza impacted one of her friends!  

May 2017 News

Hi Everyone!

We hope you are doing well. Here’s some updates from April and part of May!

Kuza App - The Kuza app is starting to really take off. Last month we had around 300 downloads, for a total of 650 downloads. Of these, 450 people are actively reading our devotions. We’ve also started some significant partnerships with other organizations for our app. Our partnership with Kubamba is progressing very positively. We’ve also started partnering with Nairobi Chapel, which is one of the biggest churches in Kenya, with many satellite church plants. Their youth pastor and young adult pastor loved the app and are planning to use it as their curriculum. Kuza is meeting a huge need as a cost-effective way for them to help disciple their youth. We can’t tell you how many youth and church leaders have thanked us for this app. We found out that the youth involved in a bible study in a Nairobi slum have started sharing together what God was teaching them from the Kuza app. We pray that Kuza will continue to be a way to build community and discipleship.
         Kuza is also going on tour! There is a tour for Christian artists called “Safisha Tour” that travels to over 40 different high schools and churches all over the country. Their primary goals with the tour are to preach the gospel and help youth be empowered to fight against sexual immorality. Our devotion “Truth about Sex” was the perfect fit for them.
         We were able to promote Kuza at three different concerts this past month. Two of the concerts had around 2000 youth each. We are continuing to pray for the best and most effective ways to promote Kuza.

Kuza Seminar - We were planning to teach 3 Kuza Seminars (for youth only) this past month, however, we ended up teaching 5! This seminar teachers the basics of the Christian faith to youth, and is proving to be an effective training that pastors are very grateful for.

Momentum Conferences - We also held 8 Momentum conferences, where we strive to equip senior pastors to reach youth through the start of a bible study or full-on youth ministry. We were able to train several hundred people, and have 4 more coming up, as well as teaching in one seminary.

Personal - It’s been raining pretty frequently here, which we’ve needed desperately because of the drought. We’re looking forward to a hopefully somewhat restful summer here in Kenya. Our house is being renovated by the school, so we have to move everything out and stay in a friend’s house (they will be in the U.S.) for the summer. Our poor cat Chewy broke her leg, so has to stay in the house with a cast on her leg for a month or two. She is NOT happy about that! Kelly’s also been dealing with some ongoing lower back issues, so please pray for continued healing with that!

Thank you all for your support and prayers, we are grateful for you! 

Matt and Kelly

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for our partnerships with Kuza to be effective. 
2. Pray for more Christian community to be built around our Kuza app. 
3. Pray for Kuza to be promoted well, youth to receive salvation, and for youth to escape the trap of sexual immorality during the Safisha Tour. 
4. Praise God for 8 Momentum conferences last month and the 4 Kuza Seminars.  
5. Continue to pray for us to reach our goal of 10,000 downloads of Kuza this year. 
6. Pray for us to find favor to promote Kuza via radio and TV this year.  
7. Pray for Kelly to finish the school year strong. 
8. Pray for First Baptist Church of Lake Wales mission trip with next month. Pray that it will be uplifting for both them and the Kenyans.

April 2017 News

Hi Everyone!

Here’s some updates on what we’ve been up to lately!

Annual Ministry Retreat - Matt had his annual spiritual retreat with the Kenyan guys he teaches with. Two years ago, they began a tradition of refraining from doing any ministry during the month of March, but taking time to pray, spend time with their families, and spend some time on this ministry retreat for spiritual encouragement. This year was special because our good friend James Wanje spoke about conflict management, team work, and team building. Some of the things to come out of the retreat were so helpful and timely. Matt had been praying for something for 4 months and it was answered at the retreat! It was a great time of encouragement, unity and refreshment.

Mission Team - A team from Global Youth Ministry came to minister alongside of us for 10 days. The team consisted of our missions director Dave and 4 students from Global’s Institute for Global Youth Studies. They got to participate in a writing retreat with our Kenyan team, preached in 8 schools to over 1000 kids, preached in 4 different churches, led several people to Christ, taught one conference, and visited with several people in their homes. Whew! It was a great trip.

Kuza - Thank you for your prayer for this last month. Things are going really well, and we officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding between Kubamba Krew (the TV and radio ministry we told you about last month)! The partnership between us is very exciting, as we each meet a need in each other that the other is lacking - discipleship for them, and publicity/marketing for us. Kubamba Krew has a huge following among Kenyan youth. We’re gearing up to launch the app officially on K-Krew’s TV and radio programs. Our goal is to have at least 10,000 downloads this year.

Writing Retreat - Our writing team just finished two devotions- one on the book of Ephesians, and another on overcoming addictions and abuses - “Live Free”. These should be edited and posted on our app soon.

Conferences - We’ll have 10 conferences and 3 youth camps during the month of April. We are also starting a new conference just for youth, called “Kuza Seminar”. Our conferences are typically geared towards church leaders and pastors. Since more and more youth ministries are growing, we’ve received feedback about needing to have something for the youth themselves. We’re excited about this new opportunity.

Adoption Update - Our profile book has been approved and completed, so we are now officially a “waiting family”... meaning that it could happen any time! Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for the child and birth family that God has for us!

We are very grateful for you, and pray God’s blessings for you! 

Matt and Kelly

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for at least 10,000 downloads for our Kuza app. 
2. Pray for the partnership of Kubamba Krew and Global Youth Ministry to grow stronger and be fruitful. 
3. Praise God for the great ministry retreat, and salvations during our mission team’s trip! 
4. Pray for the Live Free & Ephesians Devotions to make a great impact in the lives of youth in our Kuza app.  
5. Pray for the Kuza Seminar to jump start the spiritual growth of youth. 
6. Pray for the 10 conferences and 3 youth camps that we will be ministering in this April.  

February 2017 News

Hi Everyone!

We hope you are doing well! Our apologies for not sending out a newsletter earlier this year. It’s amazing how quickly time can fly!

Ethiopia- Matt traveled to Ethiopia in January to teach a course on youth ministry at the Addis Ababa Bible College. An interesting fact about Ethiopia is that it is the second largest country in Africa according to population (99 million) and 75% of their population is under the age of 25. Youth ministry is a major need for the church there. One of Matt’s students was Ermias, who is in charge of all youth ministry within the Full Gospel church. These churches have about 5 million members and many of them are youth-aged. Ermias said the youth ministry class was extremely helpful, and he’s excited to implement some changes with his youth. It was a very productive trip, and we’re praying to one day have a missionary in Addis Ababa to help facilitate youth ministry in this heavily populated country.

Kuza- We announced our Kuza smart phone devotional app in December. It is growing in popularity and is exciting to see! We officially launched it December 14th right before While we officially launched it mid-December, we did not start advertising it until the last two weeks. So far we have had 200 downloads. Matt also had a meeting with a very large and well-known Christian TV and radio youth ministry named Kubamba Krew here in Nairobi. They have around 500,000 very close followers who are youth. They loved our Kuza app and want to partner with us in raising awareness of the app. We will have a big meeting with them in the coming days to hammer out the details. We’d love to see youth all over East Africa grow strong in their personal relationship with Christ through this app.

Adoption Updates- Our adoption home study in December went well. We are waiting for our home study to be approved and are finishing up our profile book, which is what the birth parents look at it to decide who they want the adoptive parents to be.

Conferences- We had 12 wonderful conferences in the months of January and February, and through them trained several hundred church leaders.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support! We are very grateful for you!

Matt and Kelly

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray that God will call a missionary to work with Global Youth Ministry in Ethiopia.  
2. Pray for our app and potential partnership with Kubamba Krew.
3. Praise God for the 12 conferences we were able to teach in January & February. 
4. Pray for our writing team as we work on a devotional called “Addictions and Abuses” and one on the book of Ephesians.
5. Pray for our team during the month of March, as we get together to pray and encourage each other.

December 2016 News

Nathan teaching in Burundi 

Hello Everyone! 

    November and December are always very busy months for us. We are doing 34 ministry events, including: teaching in seminaries, conferences, and youth camps in the countries of Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. In our 8+ years of being in Kenya, this is the busiest two months we’ve ever had. All of our mentors are working really hard!
    Matt went to Burundi for the first time in November. It is an amazing place filled with mountains, hills, and valleys. Burundi borders the second largest freshwater lake in the world (according to volume of water), Lake Tanganyika. Matt went with Nathan, another Kenyan mentor, and they were so impressed with the churches being planted and the amazing worship taking place. One thing they lacked was solid discipleship and youth ministry. They were so hungry to hear about how to reach the 40% of their population that is youth-aged.
     One thing we are very excited about is our new smart phone app! We are launching a smart phone app this month for our devotional writing ministry on the Google play store. It is called “Kuza”, which means to grow or be nurtured in Swahili. The goal is to help youth grow and be nurtured in their relationship with God through these devotional materials we are producing in a Kenyan context.
     In personal news... some of you know this and some don’t, but we are currently in the process of adopting an infant from the U.S. through Bethany Christian Services! We now just have to complete our home study (a series of interviews and check of home safety), and are coming back to the U.S. in mid-December for Kelly’s Christmas break to do so. After going through 7 years of infertility, we feel this is something God is calling us to do, and he has supplied everything we need for every unique challenge we’ve encountered adopting from the U.S. while living abroad! As you may know, unfortunately adoption is very expensive. Please know that we will be using our personal money for this adoption - every cent you give to our ministry goes specifically for that- our ministry here in East Africa. Please pray for us as we continue in this process- specifically that we will trust Him throughout, and that He will provide the right child for our family!
     We hope to see many of you while we are home for the 3 weeks in December/January. If we don’t, we wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior, and a wonderful New Year. May our God supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19). Love,

Matt and Kelly

November 2016 News

Our friend Bobby came to visit us and encourage us this month

Hello Friends!

We hope all of you are starting to enjoy some cooler weather! Our weather is starting to heat up more, although we’re starting to have frequent rains, which helps keep it pretty cool. Kelly has wrapped up a season of coaching cross country, which has been fun, but also made the schedule a little bit busier!

We’ve had a great month and there are several things we’re excited about. First, Matt and his team have been invited back to Ethiopia to teach at the Addis Ababa Bible College again. Very few churches there do anything to reach their youth, and 70% of the population of Ethiopia is under the age of 30. They were also invited to a new Presbyterian seminary in Uganda. Sam and Zephaniah taught there, and said it is a very well organized seminary that was extremely receptive to the youth ministry courses. They have invited us to return each year. We are excited about our future partnership with both of these schools!

Matt has done a lot of work with the Kenya Baptist Theological College (KBTC)and teaches there regularly. He and some partners from Youth Ministry International (YMI) are starting back a youth ministry diploma and degree program there, which has lain dormant for many years. It was started by a YMI missionary, but because the college has gone through some rough times, it was put on the back burner. A lot the students are excited about the program and have already signed up for it.

We did a ministry report follow-up, and found that after training a number of pastors during the June- August months, 59 churches started a youth ministry for the very first time in their church. They have added a total of 421 people through the start of these ministries. One hundred and seventy five of these are adults who have come to the church because of the change they see in the youth and through the direct evangelism of the youth themselves.

We’ve got more exciting news about a new devotional app that we are launching,as well as some exciting personal updates, but you’ll have to stay tuned until next month to hear all about that!

We appreciate your partnership in the gospel!

Love,
Matt and Kelly

September 2016 News

Youth Leaders from a local Baptist Church in Nairobi

Hello Friends!

August was a good and busy month of starting back school for Kelly and getting back into ministry for Matt! Matt had the privilege of training several leaders of youth ministries around Nairobi. It’s been interesting and exciting to see how many churches have reached out and asked Matt to train their youth leaders on how to use biblical principles in discipleship and evangelism. Historically, we’ve been more focused on establishing youth ministry where there is none, so this seems to be a possible new facet of the ministry.

Matt has also been invited by some people from the country of Niger in West Africa to teach at two different seminaries there. We have never done any ministry in West Africa, so this would a brand new door into a historical spiritually dark area. It is very expensive to travel there, around $1000 for a flight, and too far and difficult to drive. If we feel that God is leading us to expand in this direction, our desire would be to lay some ground work there, with the hope that a full-time missionary would come to follow through on training the nationals there.

At the beginning of the year, Matt trained a pastor from the Maasai bush area. One of the principles we teach is evangelism in the form of “chapati evangelism”- equivalent to “pizza evangelism” in the U.S. (Chapatis are round flat breads commonly eaten here).  It’s a way for youth to help evangelize in their community. The pastor called Matt and said he had started a youth bible study, and his youth were now implementing this “chapati” evangelism. The youth contributed their own money to buy flour and oil, cooked the chapatis themselves and then took them out to friends they know are not saved. They then took those friends to church to eat more chapatis, and a member of the youth ministry preached the gospel. It has been a very effective and fun form of evangelism for this pastor and his church. The pastor was excited to see youth being saved and his youth taking ownership of evangelism. We are thankful to see pastors implementing the practical principles that we teach to reach others for Christ!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support! We appreciate you!

August 2016 News

One of the many ministry events 

Hi everybody!

    We had a wonderful and busy June and July in the States, being with friends and family and fundraising in various places. We got to travel up to Global Youth Ministry’s headquarters and joined them for a staff reunion and a few days at one of their youth camps. It was very rejuvenating and encouraging to spend time with the staff there.

    Back in May, we had three interns join us for a few weeks and had an awesome time with them. They helped teach conferences and spoke in churches and schools, and God really worked through their testimonies. They are all praying about future work in missions or in ministry, so please pray for them as they continue seeking God’s will for their lives.

    While we were gone, our ministry team (the men Matt has mentored) here in Kenya was very busy. They carried out 20 ministry events in three different countries- teaching in 3 seminaries in Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, as well as leading 17 conferences. It is really exciting to see our guys being faithful in teaching and carrying on the vision of the ministry without us being there!

    We are very happy to be back in Kenya. Kelly is gearing up for a new school year and Matt is settling back into ministry. This year, Matt will be specifically focusing on getting the curriculum part of the ministry more developed. Our hope is that the ministry can become more self-sustaining through the distribution and sales of this curriculum. Several churches and youth have bought our 31 day devotional material and have given very positive feedback on it, particularly about it being written in their cultural context.

    We are so grateful for your continued prayer and financial support. We so enjoyed meeting up with a few of you this summer, and pray God’s blessings on you and your families. Thank you for your contribution to God’s kingdom!

Love,
Matt and Kelly

May 2016 News

Matt at a youth camp 

Hi everyone! Hope you’re all doing well! We’ve been having a very rainy April and May!

This past April was very busy. We had a total of 14 ministry events. We led a youth camp, taught in two bible schools, and 11 conferences. We were able to train several hundred people on how to start and run a youth ministry or bible study. It was a super encouraging month. We got some feedback from the conferences we did last January and February. We only had 5, but God moved in strong ways. Thirty-three of the churches started a youth ministry or bible study. They added 55 youth and 62 adults as a result of the youth ministry. We so appreciate your financial support that makes this possible.

Zephaniah, Gilax, two of Zephaniah’s youth, and our friend Nahashon ran a youth camp in Mt. Elgon area. It was a very humbling trip for the guys. The youth camp was organized by our pastor friend, Paul. He attended one of our conferences about 2 years ago. He started a youth bible study at his church, but wanted to do a youth camp to strengthen his church and unite other local evangelical churches together. He had never run a youth camp, so invited us to help him. Some of the youth slept on the ground at the church. Others stayed at home, and then walked for miles in the rain to come to the camp. There were about 400 youth total. Most of the youth had very little knowledge of Christianity. They were very emotional when it came time for our team to leave, as most had never heard someone preaching the Bible in a way that applied to their lives. It was an extremely moving experience, and we plan to go back there and train pastors from the other churches there this May.

We have 3 college-aged interns coming in mid-May for almost 2 weeks. Please pray for them as they get to interact with Kenya, and that God will speak to them individually, particularly about any future calls to missions.

We will be coming back to the U.S. for June and July. We hope to reconnect with many of you while we are there! See you soon! Thanks for your continued support and prayer!

Love,
Matt and Kelly Elmore

April 2016 News

Matt with a pastor who started a youth ministry after he trained him.  

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

March 2016 News

Hello everyone!

Hope you’re all doing well!  This was a pretty big month for us. As we told you last month, Matt had the opportunity to travel to Ethiopia for the first time with Gilax, one of our Global mentors. They found that the church there is really struggling to reach the next generation. Very few of the churches did any sort of ministry with the youth, despite 75% of the country’s population being under the age of 25. They were able to teach many pastors in training at the Addis Ababa Bible College. We hope to continue teaching there, and eventually place a missionary there full time to train the locals.

Sam and Zephaniah, two of our mentors also had the opportunity to travel to Burundi! Burundi is a country has faced great hardship, but they are very receptive to the gospel and churches there have a desire to reach the next generation for Christ. 45% of the population there is under the age of 15. We were able to partner with the Baptist seminary in Burundi, and taught hundreds of pastors and church leadersabout how to start a youth bible study. Please pray that these pastors will put into practice what they learned.

A little update- back in November, we taught a total of 8 conferences, encouraging pastors and church leaders to pioneer a youth ministry at their churches. We recently followed up with all of the senior pastors who attended these conferences. Forty-one of them reported back that they had started a youth ministry at their church. In total, they added 315 youth and 184 parents of these youth to their churches in the last few months. This is a total of almost 500 people. Several of the pastors had also took our encouragement to involve the youth in evangelism. Their youth were the catalyst in planting 3 new churches, which have exploded to over 200 members total. 

Thank you for your support and involvement in our ministry that allow ministry like this to go on. We are thankful to God for continue to bless us and increase our “borders”, and we pray that God will do the same for you!

Thank you,

Matt and Kelly Elmore

January 2016 News

Matt with some students from Ethiopia 

Happy Belated New Year!

Here in Kenya, if you haven’t seen or spoken to someone since before New Year’s, you greet them with “Happy New Year!”… even if it’s February!

We had a great holiday break. Kelly’s mom came to visit just before Christmas, so it was nice to see her and receive a few gifts she brought with her! A fun note- you never know who’s going to show up to Christmas dinner. We had a leopard tortoise wander through our back door while we were eating! 

Matt was able to preach at 3 different youth camps throughout the holidays. Several churches that we helped start youth ministries in were putting on their very first youth camps, but weren’t really sure what exactly to do. Our ministry has been able to come alongside them to help with logistics and material, and we’ve been able to see the fruit of them. We also had 12 successful conferences throughout December. We were able to teach a few hundred church leaders for the very first time on what youth ministry is and how to get one started. As you can, December is a very busy month! Most students and others are on holiday, so there’s lots of opportunities for conferences and meetings.

At the beginning of the new year, Matt brought together all of his ministry partners to create a vision for this year. A main theme was to make sure the ministry thrives on the grace and strength of God and not on our own. They also set several goals for the year:

• To teach over 100 conferences through Kenya and East Africa
• To write 4 devotional books for youth, to develop an app for these, and to sell the books to county governments for distribution in high schools
• To seek out new seminaries to teach in East Africa. We have a potential partnership with one in Ethiopia and possibilities in Rwanda and Tanzania.

In relation to the third goal, Matt will be traveling in February to Ethiopia for the first time. He will be teaching at the Evangelical Theological College. They are very interested in teaching youth ministry, but do not currently have a program and have met some resistance from the local evangelical churches. 

We appreciate you all, and pray for a renewing and joy-filled new year!

Matt and Kelly Elmore