August 2020 News

Hello from Florida!

We apologize for the delay in checking in…we've been busy adjusting to life in the U.S. It’s amazing the things that seem unfamiliar after you’ve been away so long! We also have been able to spend lots of quality time with family, which has been so much fun!

Kenya & COVID-19

The Kenya government has begun to roll back a few of the COVID19 restrictions. Churches are allowed to meet again, but with a cap of 100 people. As a result, the small and medium-sized churches have been meeting, but large churches are just continuing with online services. A few days ago, Kenya hit their all-time daily high of COVID19 cases. Despite this, we are encouraged that the death rate has been relatively low and the recoveries have been relatively high. Around 80% of those that have tested positive for COVID19 in Kenya have been either asymptomatic or had very mild symptoms. Please keep praying for Kenya because, at the moment, the biggest threat to Kenya is not COVID19, but hunger and poverty.

Kuza

In July 2019, God led us to start KuzaApp.com. There was no way we could know at the time what 2020 would hold for us and the rest of the world. Having a digital ministry like Kuza has been very strategic during this time of limited physical movement.  When Kuza first began, we were reaching around 10,000 people a week, largely through the app. As of July of 2020, we’ve hit numbers as high as 75,000 people a week, through our blogs, videos, app, and podcast. Social distancing has pushed more and more people online looking for answers. By God’s grace, Kuza has helped many find biblical answers. We are also currently averaging 45 clicks a month on the “Receive Christ” button on kuzaapp.com.  This takes them to a video that explains the gospel, from creation to the cross. They can then talk to a counselor to help them understand more. We pray that those clicking the button are following through with it, and have genuinely confessed Christ as their Savior. The director of the Nairobi Area Youth Network told us recently that he’s seeing and hearing about Kuza’s ministry and impact on youth everywhere in Nairobi. Very encouraging to hear that!

4:12 Ministry

4:12 has not been able to go out and teach conferences or in seminaries at the moment due to government restrictions. But, we believe that with the lift of the ban of church gatherings, this will soon change. Our staff is planning to teach smaller local conferences starting this month. Assuming that COVID19 news in Kenya remains relatively positive, we will continue expanding our reach of conferences. 

Family

Several of you have reached out to us and are asking how we’ve been doing settling into Florida. We are doing well. We are staying in a rental house that Kelly’s parents own, which has been a huge blessing. We’ve been able to spend lots of time with our families. Please continue praying for Kelly’s dad. The last round of radiation and chemo for his cancer were unfortunately unsuccessful. He is currently undergoing immunotherapy, so we are praying that this will be successful. He continues to be in a lot of pain and is dealing with several side effects of the cancer and radiation. However, there’s a lot he can still do, so we’re grateful for that. Zeke has been a great distraction for all of us. He’s talking up a storm and so excited about life. Matt has an office at Christ Community Church in Ocala, and goes to work 4 days a week to continue working on ministry from the States. Kelly finished up with Rosslyn at the end of June, so is a full-time homemaker for now!

Hanging out with Kelly's brother, Donald, and his wife, Shallon.

We know that times are difficult right now for many of you- physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually. Now more than ever, people around the world need to hear the truth and hope of Jesus Christ… and nothing but that. We are grateful for your continued support and prayer as we seek to share His truth and hope specifically in East Africa. We pray for you and the rest of the Church worldwide as we all seek to do this in our own communities!

We are grateful for you!
Matt, Kelly, & Ezekiel Elmore

Prayer Requests: 

1. Praise God with us that Kuza is reaching more people and seeing more people receive Christ. 

2. Pray for those in Kenya who are struggling with hunger and poverty to see their situations turn around. 

3. Pray for 4:12 conferences in August to be impactful and lead to the start of youth ministries.

4. Pray for Kelly’s dad, George, to be healed of cancer and relieved of pain. 

5. Praise God with us that none of our staff in Kenya has gotten COVID19. Pray that continues to be the case. 

6. Pray for God to bless our time in the USA to be fruitful and meaningful for His kingdom.

April 20202- We're Coming to America

Dear All, 

Since our newsletter last week, our circumstances have changed quite a bit! 

One thing we have not yet shared with you is that in February of this year, we decided to take a year-long furlough (or sabbatical) in the States. There were several reasons for this, one having to do with Kelly’s contract with Rosslyn and financial considerations, and the other is Kelly’s dad’s health. As many of you know, he has been battling cancer for the past year. After going through treatment last summer, it resurfaced in another area in December. After being here for 12 years, and only coming home for short visits and the 6 months when Zeke was born, we decided it was time for us to come home for a bit. This will also allow Zeke to get to know his family in person, rather than just over video chat (at least when all this social distancing dies down!). We were planning on coming back in June, but had not bought tickets yet due to COVID-19. 

As we said last week, the government banned all international flights in and out of Kenya. We were notified a few weeks ago that there was a possibility of a U.S. Embassy chartered flight that may be coming to remove some of their Embassy staff and other Americans who wanted to leave. We prayed about it for several days and decided that if a flight became available, we would like to be on it. We didn’t know when the next opportunity to leave Kenya would be, and we wanted to spend this next year with family. 

It’s been a rollercoaster week of being told there was a flight coming next week and there were seats available, then being told they weren’t available, and then finding yesterday there were seats on a “first come, first serve” basis. It was absolute madness (imagine a virtual Black Friday sale, combined with the Hunger Games, except all of your competitors are your friends). Somehow, and we’re not really sure how it happened, we were able to get tickets on the flight. I think there were only 30-some seats available, and there are a lot of Americans in Kenya. 

*Please note that we are not trying to leave because of civil unrest or anything. It has been very calm here and the government is doing a good job of containing things while still allowing life to continue. However, as with living in any foreign country, there is always a bit of trepidation about what might happen. 

So, next week, God willing, we will be boarding a flight to come back to the U.S. for about 14 months. We only have a few days to make sure our house is all packed up for the year, as new renters will be moving in. Please pray for us! And please pray for Zeke… we have an 18 hour flight to the States… with a 2 year old....

We have already set up ways for ministry to continue while we’re gone. Kelly was approved to take a sabbatical from Rosslyn. Because so much of Matt’s ministry has moved to a digital format, his work can continue seamlessly. He will continue to collaborate with our guys who do the preaching and teaching in conferences and seminaries, once everything opens back up. The Kuza team will continue working on the app devotionals, blogs, videos, and podcasts. Last time we spent 6 months in the States, the Kenya team was actually more productive and effective while we were gone (not sure what that means, ha!), and we are praying that this will happen again. 

God has blessed us with an amazing team, both our supporters Stateside, and our Kenyan team on the ground. We are so thankful to partner with all of you in equipping churches to reach youth for Christ. We hope (eventually) to see many of you Stateside!

Prayer Requests: 

1. Please pray for us as we get ready to leave Kenya. 

2. Pray for our staff and colleagues' safety. 

3. Pray for protection as we travel. 

4. Pray for Zeke during the long flight (and for all of us during our 2 week quarantine afterwards).

5. Pray for Zeke to adjust well to our new house and schedule. 

April 2020 News

Dear all, we hope you are keeping safe and well during this crazy and unreal time! We wanted to send an update to give you a glimpse of how ministry is continuing on and what life is currently like here in Kenya. 

Kenya & COVID-19

The Kenya government has tried to “flatten the curve” for the country by initiating some strict measures. After the third case of COVID-19, the government immediately shut down all schools. Soon afterwards, they cancelled all international flights both coming and going. Currently, we’re in the middle of a 30-day curfew, requiring the entire nation to be indoors from 7 pm-5 am. They are tracking down all connections of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to prevent its spread. As of today, they are also requiring everyone who is out for their "essential business" to wear masks. So far, the number of confirmed cases is just above 100, and almost all of these were ones already in quarantine. We are praying for Kenya to be spared what we've seen in other countries.  However, we are concerned for the people that live on day-to-day income or “hand-to-mouth” lifestyles. If people like this cannot go to work due to shut downs and social distancing measures, then they don't just stop making money... they go hungry. The government is doing their best to help out with these issues of hunger, but we need God’s mercy in a unique way here in Kenya. The problem is not just COVID-19 and a collapsing economy- it is also hunger.

Kuza

Social distancing has led to the shut down of many businesses in Kenya. Lots of people are at home and on the internet to either work or fill their day. As a result of this, our online ministry through KuzaApp.com has more than doubled in the last two weeks. Our average reach was 30,000 people per week. In the past two weeks, our numbers have shot up to 61,000 per week. We’ve also seen a lot more clicks on our “Receive Christ” button on our website. One of the videos that we shot in our backyard had 39,000 views on Facebook in five days. Marvin, who is one of our Kuza staff members, wrote a blog entitled “A Biblical View of COVID-19”. This blog had more than 5000 clicks (which according to our standards, means it went viral!).  We interpret all of this activity to mean that people are looking for God. They're at home, scared, and looking for hope in the Lord. We’re praying that this will lead to a revival and a resurgence of people coming back to to the Lord.

4:12 Ministry

Due to government measures, no churches or large gatherings are allowed. Therefore, our 4:12 ministry is not currently happening. We’re not teaching any conferences or training in seminaries at the moment. However, we have been meeting on Zoom like most of the world, to pray together. We’re also planning to record someone teaching all of our conference materials to put online as a resource to churches. 

Family

We as a family are doing well. Matt is working in his home office Monday-Friday writing more materials for KuzaApp.com, together with his staff who are at their homes. Kelly is also working online for Rosslyn Academy, often right next to Matt in the same office. It has been kind of fun to work side-by-side. Zeke is living his best life as usual, playing outside and being a two year old. (No, my and mine are his favorite words). He's loving dinosaurs, drawing (or "draw pen" as he says), playing with balls, torturing Chewy our cat,  and Florida State (raise 'em right). He’s also enjoying seeing Mommy and Daddy more frequently.

Prayer Requests: 

As we list our prayer requests, please know we are praying for the States and for all of you. We know these are such uncertain times, but we praise God we know the one who KNOWS. To close, John Piper has written words of hope far more eloquently than we could, so please see his article here.

1. Please pray for God’s mercy in Kenya to keep COVID-19 from spreading.  Pray for those who have the potential to go hungry. 

2. Pray for COVID-19 to spark a revival in Kenya. 

3. Pray for our staff, colleagues, and their families to not get sick. 

4. Pray for 4:12 staff members to remain encouraged, even though they’re not teaching conferences or in seminaries.

February 2020 News

We hope that all of you had a great Christmas and a great start to the new year! 2019 was an amazing year for our ministry and we want to thank you for all that you did to support us both financially and prayerfully. Here are some stories and stats about what God did in 2019 through us!  

2019 was Year Eleven on the ministry field for us, and has been our most fruitful year by far! We have seen more people make a profession of faith, more conferences taught, and more people discipled than ever before. We have seen God do amazing things. I would call 2019 the year of grace. I say that because despite our family having to slow down on ministry and travel, and spend more of our time and energy on raising our little boy, the ministry is thriving like never before!

We’ve seen the grace of God lead our Kenyan staff take on more responsibility and see them do a wonderful job managing the ministry. It was also His grace that allowed us create an office space for our Kuza members in the month of July, which has really led to a booming Kuza online ministry. By the month of November, we were reaching 25,000 people per week through our blogs, podcast, app, and videos. We were blown away at how fast this online ministry has been growing in Kenya. It was also God’s grace to see more than 5000 professions of faith and 7080 people be added to local churches after we taught them in our conferences. We know that not every missionary gets to see fruit like this from their ministry, and we know it's God's grace to see such an amazing harvest.  We are so grateful for your support which enables all of this!

See some more 2019 statistics below for both of our ministries- 4:12 and Kuza.

Goal: Create Digital Discipleship Materials for Youth
 

• 556- Total Daily Devotions Written as of November 2019 for Kuza App.

• 4 - Local Kenyan staff who write & develop blogs, videos, devotions, and podcast.

• 20,000 - Total App Downloads as of December 2019

• 25,000- Average number of people reached weekly through blogs, videos, podcasts, and app as of December 2019.

• Office- Started Full-Time Office July 2019

• Website- KuzaApp.com 

Goal: Equip Churches to Reach Youth
 

Conferences

• 2019- 300 Conferences 

• 2018- 176 Conferences 

• 2017- 128 Conferences 

• 2016- 100 Conferences

Conference Types

• Momentum- Two levels of training. There are both a one and two day versions for pastors and church leaders encouraging them to start a youth ministry or Bible study for the first time. 

• Kuza Seminar- Two day seminar for youth, to build on and support the work our Momentum-trained pastors and church leaders are doing. 

All-Time Ministry (since 2010)

• 1069- Total Number of Conferences Taught from 2010-2019. 

• 23.6- Average Number of people added to the churches per conference

• 25,228- Total Number of people (youth & adults) added to churches between 2010-2019 most of whom are first time believers.

• 15- Local Kenyans who teach

Seminaries

• 2019- Taught in 25 seminaries and local Bible schools

• 7- Different countries taught in- Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, & Zambia.

We celebrated Ezekiel's second birthday on the 24th of January! We had a fun party with a borrowed slip-n-slide, a kiddie pool, birthday cake that Kelly made from scratch, ice cream, and lots of friends his age. Zeke was a little scared to get into the water and go down the slip-n-slide (although he made one trip sitting on Daddy's lap!), but he loved being around everyone at the party.

Prayer Requests: 

1. Pray for us to reach our goal of reaching 50,000 people per week through Kuza. 

2. Praise God with us that Ezekiel is two years old and doing so well. 

3. Praise God with us that we reached our financial goals for 2019 with our end of the year fundraising.  

4. Prayers for Kelly's dad's health as he battles cancer and is currently undergoing treatment.  

5. Pray for funds to continue to keep pace with our new ministry and staff growth.

6. Pray for our 4:12 staff to reach our goal of 300 conferences once again for 2020. 

7. Pray for Matt to make wise administration decisions for the ministry. 

November 2019 News

Hi Everybody! God is doing some amazing things right now, and we just wanted to give you a quick update as to what is going on.

Kuza:

As of a month ago, we had reached just over 15,000 people with our Kuza ministry. Two weeks ago, over 20,000. Last week, over 22,000. God is blessing our online ministry of Kuza. We are so humbled and amazed by that. Most of the people are being reached through our app, which is the "original" form of the discipleship material. Our videos on Facebook have also had more than 3,000 views.  Recently one pastor I met found out that I was behind the Kuza  ministry, and he was so excited to meet me. He said that every time he leads a young person to Christ, he has them download our app and read our Kuza devotions to disciple them.

Please pray for Kuza. Towards the end of year, we will have several opportunities to promote Kuza at very large youth ministry events. It will be expensive for us to do it, but has the potential of adding a great number who will be familiar with our app and blogs.

Click here to see our Kuza website.

Kuza & Spread Truth:

Kuza partners with Spread Truth, a youth-oriented evangelistic ministry, and we joined together for a week-long sports evangelism tournament. Together with volunteering churches, we were able to lead more than 1000 people to Christ. More than 100 youth basketball teams and 100 volleyball teams competed as the gospel was preached. Kuza staff were fortunate enough to be on the evangelism teams, and as we were evangelizing, we had people download the app to help them be discipled. Spread Truth did a fantastic job organizing everything, and we were grateful to be a part of the event. The Kenyan government, churches, and community leaders were all involved. Thousands of people heard the gospel and drew the attention of the entire county it was in. 

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for us to maximize our opportunities to promote Kuza this year. 

2. Praise God with us for the success of Kuza in the last one month. Pray for more people to start following Kuza.

3. Praise God with us for the success of the Spread Truth & Kuza events. Pray for people that made a profession of faith to be get involved in churches and be discipled. 

4. Pray for funds to keep pace with our new ministry and staff growth.

5. Pray for us to find a quality (and inexpensive) English to Swahili translator for our blogs and website.

October 2019 News

Hi Everybody! Hope you are doing well. Our most exciting personal news is that we cut Zeke’s hair! :) Kelly cut it with scissors. He did great and looks so grown up now! It was sad to lose the beautiful curls, but was very difficult to manage!

4:12 Ministry

Our Tanzanian staff has seen God do some incredible things as they’ve been teaching. One incredible incident was among the Sukuma tribe of Northwest Tanzania. Many of the Sukuma are churchgoers, but they still hold firmly to witchcraft, as we would soon find out. While our team was teaching a conference there, they kept feeling uneasy and like they were not breaking through with any of the people. They fasted and prayed for a whole night, asking God to move. Someone informed them the next morning about the whole region being deeply involved in witchcraft. The community did not trust God’s ability to actually help them in their lives. They finally realized why it had been so hard to teach! They continued praying and fasting. Finally, at the end of the conference, God brought a breakthrough. The entire conference of 400 people came forward and repenting, confessing sins (sometimes embarrassing ones) out loud to God. Pastors and church elders came forward. Almost everyone there came to Christ completely.

4:12 Administrator:

Matt mentioned in our previous newsletter that our 4:12 teaching ministry has grown from 8 members to 15 members since Ezekiel was born (20 months ago). This massive growth in our staff has been incredible. But with the growth of the ministry, there must be growth in administration. Matt, together  with the leaders of the 4:12 team, decided to lift Sammy to become the full-time administrator of the ministry. Sammy has already been handling a lot of administrative responsibilities, but it was made official. After announcing the rest of the 4:12 team, they commissioned Sammy by laying hands on him in prayer. This delegation of administrative responsibilities has been a burden lifted off of Matt’s shoulders, allowing him to focus more on the growing Kuza ministry.

Kuza Office Launch:

We officially opened our Kuza offices at the end of July this year, but had not made this opening public to our friends and ministry partners in Kenya. So, we held an official launch of our Kuza office and showed our partners some new Kuza developments on September 26th. We had snacks, tea, and a presentation. They were all very impressed and recommitted themselves to continue partnering with us moving forward.

Kuza:

Since we started the four-member Kuza team in July, we have been able to expand Kuza beyond just an app to a more full-fledged digital ministry. We currently have videos called “Soma,” which means “to read” or “to study” in Swahili. We also have a podcast that we record in our office, as well as continuing  with our blogs. The Soma videos are very similar to the “Look at the Book” videos by DesiringGod.com, but we use local examples and Swahili to present it.  DesiringGod.com graciously permitted adapt their concepts to a Kenyan context and create videos like this. The goal of these videos is for Kenyan youth to focus on the scriptures and learn how to interpret them. Check out a video and podcast. below.

Massive Opportunity: 

Please continue praying for us as we, together with our ministry partner Spread Truth, have officially signed an agreement with the government of Kenya to minister amongst the National Youth Service (NYS). NYS has 23 stations and  60,000 young adults between the ages of 18-25 involved in the program. The plan is to do a survey of all 23 stations and then create a plan of action for 2020. Please pray with us to find staff, and prayerfully consider supporting this fantastic ministry opportunity.

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for Matt to gain wisdom in administration, especially with the growth of the ministry.

2. Pray for the people that have made a profession of faith this year through our ministry.

3. Pray for the Kuza office to generate lots of biblical, meaningful, and relevant content, and for more partners to help promote Kuza.

4. Pray for a new opportunity for Kuza involving a partner ministry and the government of Kenya!

5. Pray for funds to keep pace with our new ministry and staff growth.

6. Pray for Zeke to continue to develop and grow well, especially for his speech (it’s coming!)

7. Pray for Kelly as she begins this new school year working part-time, and tries to balance work and homelife.

8. Pray for us to find a quality English to Swahili translator for our blogs and website.

April 2019 News

Hello Everyone!

Our apologies for the delay in getting a newsletter out! Life with a toddler...

Malawi Ministry

We’re officially teaching in a new country now- Malawi, in the southern part of Africa. Nathan, who has been ministering with us since 2012, became Facebook friends a few years ago with Pastor Braswell, a pastor from Malawi. Pastor Braswell came to Kenya for a conference and to meet Nathan. Soon after their meeting, we sent Nathan & Zephaniah down to Malawi to teach at 2 different seminaries. The students wholeheartedly received the teaching and we’re excited to hear stories of what will happen in their churches. We now have 6 countries that we’re continuously teaching in! (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Ethiopia, & Malawi)

Coast Teaching Team & Tanzania Teaching Team

We have two new teaching teams- a Kenya coastal team and a Tanzania team. It took the coastal team a little while to get going, but after some organizing and delegation, they are teaching our curriculum very effectively. The Tanzania team has been doing amazing work. With just three members, they have already taught 65 conferences within the past 6 months that encourage pastors to start youth ministries. They have led more than a hundred people to salvation in the first quarter of this year.  One of those people that received salvation was a blind young man. He struggled to walk to our Kuza seminar and struggled to walk back home, but he came early and stayed for both days they taught.

The Coastal Team

The Blind Young Man

Jesus Film Muslim Salvations

A partnering ministry called "Spread Truth" gifted us a Jesus Film backpack. Inside the backpack is a projector, a screen, two microphones, and two speakers, all allowing us to show the Jesus film to crowds of up to 1500 people. The whole system is powered by solar power, so can be shown anywhere. Our Tanzania team fearlessly showed the Jesus film to several hundred people, most of whom were Muslims. Afterwards, 4 Muslims publicly prayed to receive Christ! Many others were trembling and had tears in their eyes. We believe that others surrendered their lives to Christ privately. Please pray that we continue to have opportunities to show the Jesus film after teaching our conferences. 

Kuza

We’ve been blessed with office space to run our Kuza ministry from. We’re planning to hire a couple of Kenyan staff to write part-time for our Kuza website and app. They will also develop video content and podcasts to help youth grow stronger in the Lord.

Personal

We are all doing well! Zeke is 15 months old, walking and running everywhere and jabbering. Kelly will be going part-time next year at Rosslyn to spend more time at home with him, so we will be moving off Rosslyn’s campus this summer. We appreciate your prayers for Kelly’s migraines, they have been much better recently! We had a great time celebrating Easter with both Kenyan and American friends with a camping trip and by going to our church. We are grateful for you and your partnership in the gospel!

Easter Sunday

—Matt, Kelly and Zeke

Prayer Request:

1. More opportunities to show the Jesus Film at our conferences.

2. People to grow closer to Christ through the Kuza app and new Kuza staff.

3. For effectiveness for our Coastal and Tanzanian teams, seminaries in Malawi, and open doors in the country of Zambia.

4. For us during our move and transition this summer.

5. Pray for the Malawi ministry to continue to grow stronger. 

6. Praise God with us that Ezekiel is walking and saying a few words now! Pray he continues to be healthy and will be saved whenever he is older. 

Financial Support:

If you feel that God is leading you to support our ministry of equipping churches to reach youth for Christ, please see one of the options below. 100% of all financial gifts come to the mission field & are tax deductible: 

1. CHECK- Please make a check out to "African Christian Outreach" and write "Matt & Kelly Elmore" in the memo line to be sure it goes to us. Mail the check to African Christian Outreach at P.O. Box 600275 Dallas, Texas 75360. 

2. ONLINE- You can give a one time gift or set up a reoccurring gift by hitting the "Donate Now" button below: 

September 2018 News

Hi Everyone!
Well, we are back in the swing of things here in Kenya! We’ve been enjoying some frigid temperatures here- lows in the 40s, highs in the low 70s, although it’s starting to warm up- highs in the low 80s, lows in the 50s) 

Conferences:

The month of August is always a busy month for us, since Kenyan schools are closed for a holiday and churches love to host conferences for youth and church leaders during that time. We taught 26 total conferences and trained more than 3000 people! This month we also taught our largest conference ever - a Kuza Seminar to 700 high school and college students in Bomet, Kenya. After teaching our lesson on salvation, Simeon and Evans gave an opportunity for the students to receive Christ. They said there were so many hands that went up, there was not room at the altar to accommodate them. God really moved in that conference, and we are grateful.

Kuza:

Matt is continuing to work hard on the Kuza app. We are planning to start posting weekly articles on https://kuza.africa. The radio station we’ve been partnered with, Kubamba Radio, has been going through some tough times financially, so please pray with us for God to raise up someone in the gap for them, and for a continued fruitful partnership. 

Personal:

The first few weeks of starting school and leaving Zeke were a little hard on Kelly. Thankfully, we have someone watching Zeke while Kelly is at work. Her name is Sarah and she is doing SUCH a great job taking care of him. He’s just starting crawling, and wanting to pull up to stand. He is so much fun! He’s got two teeth and is starting to feed himself. We also took him camping for the first time and he did great!  

Good Story:

Matt happened to run into a pastor called Nicholas, who had been trained by us in youth ministry. He shared that they started with 8 youth, and have 29 that faithfully come. Several parents of the youth have also started coming to the church. One of the youth is studying to be a music pastor, and another takes the church’s projector to show the “Jesus Film” in various parts of their home area. This film ministry they’ve started has led to a few thousand salvations. You never know how powerfully God can use a conference to see His church grow! 

Thank you for your partnership in the gospel! —Matt and Kelly

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for our Kuza ministry to continue growing stronger.

2. Pray for the 12 conferences we have planned this month to be well- attended and for future fruit.

3. Pray for Kelly’s health- she is fine, but dealing with migraines, some persistent neck pain, and eczema (yes, I’m falling apart. Thank you mid- late 30’s...it’s always something.) 

Matt had the privilege to preach to children at an elementary school. 

Intestines, cabbage, meat, & rice. Lunch for the hungry visiting teacher. 

Nicholas preaching to 500 kids at a children's camp. 

300 youth at one of our Kuza Seminars. 

Nathan taking a selfie with some middle school-aged kids that he taught at a Kuza seminar.

July 2018 News

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are enjoying your summertime! We are wrapping up our last two weeks here in the States.

Hard to believe it’s almost over! Here’s some highlights from the past couple months.

Kuza Seminar

As you may know, last year we started a conference for youth only, called “Kuza Seminar”. One incredible story from last month- Zephaniah was hosting a Kuza seminar, and a group of 6 youth walked 30 miles through dry and arid terrain to get to it, since there was no other transportation available! They started walking at 6am and arrived at 6pm. Zephaniah was so humbled that these young people would walk so far. They slept on the ground at the church for two nights and then walked back 30 miles (without any food and water on the way). Two out of the 6 made a profession of faith.

Working Hard

Our teaching team has been working very hard teaching conferences ever since we left. When we compare how many conferences they have taught from January-June this year compared to last, the team has taught 20 more conferences this year! We are so humbled that God answered our prayers to see the work not slow down but speed up in our absence. The curriculum side of our ministry, (which includes the Kuza App) isn’t growing quite as strong, but we recently started a patnership with Lulu FM, a radio station on the coast of Kenya. We’ve also started partnering with “Sowing Seeds of Joy”, who will help us teach conferences in this region. These are answers to prayers to help us extend the ministry further into this region.

Personal

We have been so blessed to have Ezekiel’s adoption finalized. Everything is done, and he even has his passport, ready for Kenya! We will admit that it has been very tiring starting a family together with fundraising, but Ezekiel has been such a sweet little boy. He almost always (*kinda) sleeps through the night now. He coos at us constantly, loves standing, and he has been patient with us traveling around from place to place.

Fundraising

We are only $490/month away from reaching our budget goals for the rest of 2018 and 2019. We are so close to finishing it out. Please consider either increasing your support or becoming a monthly supporter. Do that by clicking the “Donate Now” button below. God has been so good to us during our time here in the States, and we are so grateful for how he’s used all of you to bless us! Please pray for us as we transition back to Kenya and our new life there with a baby!

- Matt and Kelly 

Please pray for:

1. Our personal transitions back to Kenya with baby Zeke, especially for Kelly starting back to work!

2.Continued growth of the ministry on the coast.

3. For us to reach our budgetary needs for the 2018-19 year.

4.Praise for our finalized adoption, for wonderful times spent with his birth family, and overall a hugely blessed time in the States. 

An Upcoming Change

Dear Supporters,

We praise God for you, because through you, we have been financially and prayerfully empowered to accomplish our goal of equipping churches to reach youth for the last 10 years in Kenya!  Some quick stats about our ministry:

* 573 conferences have been taught

* 13,522 individuals added to local churches

* 6,000+ young people have made a profession of faith

* Biblical Principles of Youth Ministry Curriculum taught in 7 Seminaries in 5 different countries and more than 20 small local Bible schools.

*  Developed and Launched KUZA, the first devotional app written by Kenyans for Kenyan youth. Over 9000 downloads and more than 3500 active readers

---

An Upcoming Change

As you know, for the past 10 years we have been missionaries with Global Youth Ministry (GYM). GYM has been a huge part of our lives, and we are so grateful for everything they have done for us. Through a time of reflection, prayer, and wise counsel, we feel that God is leading us in a different direction in regards to our sending agency. We still feel called to continue our ministry in Kenya by equipping churches to reach youth for Christ. However, we feel that shifting to a missions-focused sending organization will better maximize a long-term sustainability for ministry to continue in the hands of indigenous workers.

We believe God provided His answer through a ministry called African Christian Outreach (ACO). Through a series of conversations, ACO’s Executive Director and a good friend of ours, offered Matt the opportunity to join the team and lead ACO’s new initiative in equipping the East African church to reach youth.    

We want to stress that our move in no way reflects negatively on Global Youth Ministry. We love Global very much, and have an extremely positive relationship and history with them.

African Christian Outreach (ACO) has been focusing on Engaging with the Gospel, Equipping through Discipleship and Empowering through Life-on-Life Experiences on college campuses in East Africa for 47 Years. Tom and Kerry Stickney, the current directors, live in Nairobi with their two children. Kerry teaches with Kelly at Rosslyn Academy, both of their children attend Rosslyn, and Matt & Tom go fishing together. Tom’s parents started ACO in 1971. ACO currently supports an indigenous staff team of 27 people that are actively ministering in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan. Our goal of equipping churches to reach youth complements ACO’s vision, and the long-term success of ACO will allow for the sustainability of our ministry for years to come.

Thank you for your continued financial and prayer support (see below) as we move forward in this exciting new venture!

We are grateful for you!

Matt & Kelly Elmore
Director of Church Equipping
African Christian Outreach
matt@africanchristianoutreach.com
352-430-7181 (until July 16, 2018)
+254-714097513 (IMessage or WhatsAPP only)
www.elmoresinkenya.com  or  www.africanchristianoutreach.com

---

Changes Going Forward: Where/How you can send your financial support

(Please see below for how to continue giving to our ministry. Your continued financial support is very important in enabling us to stay on the mission field, and for that we are so grateful)

 We would like to request that you give in one of the following ways:
 

1. Online Giving - Sign up by clicking the "Donate Now" button below. You can choose either a one-time gift, or set up automatically monthly donations through your debit card or directly through an automatic deduction from your bank account. Please consider giving a monthly donation if you are currently not doing so. 

*This method is preferred due to the ease of record-keeping. 

*If you are already giving online, you do not need to change anything!

2. Checks - If you prefer to send checks, please make them out to: “African Christian Outreach" and write “Matt & Kelly Elmore” in the memo line. 

Mail the checks to: 

African Christian Outreach, PO Box 702001 Dallas, TX 75370

Please DO NOT continue make donation payments via the Global Youth Ministry website, or mail checks to Global Youth Ministry OR First Baptist Church Of Lake Wales. 

(There will be a "grace period" for a few months as we transition systems, so if you forget and give the old way to Global Youth Ministry/FBC Lake Wales, no worries! The money will still get to us.)

Please be assured that by giving to us through ACO, your gift will remain tax-deductible and 100% of your giving will go directly towards our ministry. 

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

www.africanchristianoutreach.com        www.elmoresinkenya.com

March 2018 News

Hi Everyone!

We are currently in the U.S. and enjoying being near family, eating some BBQ and Chik-fil-A, AND…

Personal - We are so excited to introduce to you the newest member of the Elmore family —- Ezekiel Edward Elmore! He was born on January 24 at 7.7 lbs, 21 inches, and so healthy! We had the privilege of being in the hospital when he was born. Kelly was the first one to hold and feed him. God moved incredibly in the hospital and really blessed us in regards to the birth family and our time spent with them. We are loving being parents! Zeke is such a joy to us, and we would appreciate your continued prayers for him, for health and for his salvation.

Kuza- Our Kuza app ministry has been doing well since we’ve arrived in the USA. Our team has helped the ministry to have over 1000 downloads, developed a new radio ministry partner named “Lulu FM,” written three devotions, and are starting to plan for a large conference for all Kuza users since we have been in the USA. Lulu FM is a Christian youth radio network on the coast of Kenya, where we currently have no marketing for Kuza yet. Lulu FM heard us being talked about on Kubamba Radio (our Nairobi radio station partners), and they loved the app and wanted to partner with us. We’re very excited about the potential to spread Kuza’s net wider. 

Conferences & Seminaries Updates- Our teaching team has flourished in our absence! Through the months of January-March, they taught 30 conferences and in 2 seminaries! At one of the conferences, 2 youth made professions of faith. At the seminary in Burundi, Sammy and Nicholas got to meet up with a pastor we had formally trained who was working at a local Baptist church. He had started a youth Bible study at his church and it is thriving! They have close to 50 youth attending! The youth were so excited about the Bible study and expressed their gratefulness for the training their pastor had received from us. It is such a blessing to see such fruit from our work!

Fundraising- One of the things we will be doing while here in the States (in addition to raising a little human) is fundraising for our ministry.  Our ministry continues to grow and we are often unable to meet the demand for trainings due to finances. Please pray for us to be successful in this, that God will raise up those who can either increase their giving or give for the first time. Matt is available to speak in churches or in people’s homes, so please let us know if you would be interested in him coming to you!

We are so grateful for you!!! Thank you so much for your prayers that both sustain us and increase God’s kingdom!

- Matt and Kelly

Please pray for:

1. Our Kenyan team to continue efficiently and faithfully working towards our ministry’s goals. 
2. For baby Ezekiel to continue to grow strong and bond well with us. 
3. For a great partnership between Lulu FM and Kuza.
4. For Matt as he travels to meet supports and fundraises.

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!

---

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.

---

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.

---

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!

---

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!