RENEWED Ministries Update – 10 August 2024

NEWS PRAYER AND SUPPORT UPDATE!

This is the RENEWED Ministries update for 10 August, as provided by Reverend Courtney Richards.

Dear friend and prayer partner. Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that you are striving towards becoming more like Jesus and thriving in fulfilling His purpose for your life.

Have you ever had one of those experiences in life that you know it’s a God moment? I had one like that on Thursday (August 8). Last year, our RENEWED Ministries Board added a Kenyan pastor Wycliff Keter who serves at a large church here in Indiana as the liaison between the church here and his denomination in Africa. The local church has an extensive ministry and outreach in Kenya. We felt that since RENEWED Ministries is expanding in Africa, it would be strategic to add him to our leadership team as an African pastor/leader to give us an African perspective as we serve there. Consequently, this past Thursday, I had a Zoom meeting to connect him with our all-Africa administrator Peter Juma Maritim who is also from Kenya so they can strategize on how our two ministries can be of help to each other. Little did we know how God had this planned a long time ago. As we talked it soon became apparent that they are from the same tribe in Kenya (because of their family names) and that Wycliff’s grandfather who was a pastor served in the same area from which Juma comes and indeed Wycliff himself is familiar with the area and used to walk past the school where Juma attended as a boy. It got better! Both of them have mutual friends serving as pastors or missionaries in parts of the coastal region of East Africa and indeed they have both stayed in the home of one of those leaders! Kenya has over 50 million people in their population. God takes one brother and brings him to live and serve in America and then to his people in Kenya and connects him years later with another brother in Kenya that he never met before but it turns out they have common friends and they are both leaders in RENEWED Ministries but none of us knew that before Thursday! WHAT A GOD!!!! HALLELUJAH!

This ministry has seen such miracles before. Over the years since we started in 1996, God told me how to pray. He said, “Pray for open doors.” Years later, I heard him say, “pray for favour.” And several years after that, I heard, “pray for unexpected financial blessings.” We don’t advertise. We don’t market the ministry. We simply listen to God, pray, share the mission, vision and needs and wait on God to do what He pleases. That’s the formula for us, not necessarily for you. Let God lead you and your ministry as He chooses.

I believe you are strategically chosen to be a prayer partner of RENEWED Ministries or a ministry partner or a financial partner or all three for a reason and for THIS SEASON of God’s time and Kingdom expansion. Next year, we have a BIG mission to Africa! We have started the process of succession planning and my retirement as the full-time international director of RENEWED Ministries in 3 years time, God willing. We have scheduled a retreat in Nairobi, Kenya, May 11-16, 2025 for all of our national leaders and our training team members for discipleship and leadership training and sports ministry. WE ARE SEEKING TO ENSURE THAT ALL OUR KEY LEADERS UNDERSTAND THE MISSION AND VISION OF RENEWED MINISTRIES AND ARE COMMITTED TO FOLLOWING JESUS AND MAKING AND MULTIPLYING DISCIPLES FOR JESUS, THE JESUS WAY! This is the DNA of RENEWED Ministries. All of us must know and constantly seek to know better the Jesus of the Gospels, what was His mission – His Kingdom mission – what He taught, how He lived, what was the Kingdom culture He transferred to His disciples/followers and what was the Commission He gave us before He left and requires us to follow. We are convinced that imitating Jesus in all the dimensions of His life and teachings is our greatest calling as Christ followers! All for the Kingdom and glory of God!

Please begin to pray for Africa missions 2025 as noted above and including ministries of healing and training counselors in RWANDA, BURUNDI and GOMA (Democratic Republic of Congo). The healing ministries are needed to help people find health and wholeness from the lingering psychological, emotional, spiritual and relational impact of the 1994 genocide. I will share more about this in a subsequent update.

Our Board has approved a budget of nearly $60,000 for all these ministries and also youth and children outreach to Eastern and Western Cape in South Africa. Please…PLEASE..pray and ask God how much you should give to our Africa missions 2025 budget. We need God’s bountiful provision. Our dates for Africa missions 2025 are May 9 to July 14.

As God leads you and provides for you, please send your gifts/check to RENEWED Ministries, P.O. Box 1229, Mishawaka, Indiana, USA 46546 or give via PayPal on our website: www.renewed-ministries.org

Thank you so much for being such a vital member of our RENEWED Ministries team. God richly bless and prosper you in every good work for His Kingdom and glory. 

Coram Deo!
Always in God’s grip,
Courtney