RENEWED Ministries Update – 18 May 2023

NEWS AND PRAYER UPDATE – AFRICA MISSIONS 2023

This is the RENEWED Ministries update for 18 May 2023, as provided by Reverend Courtney Richards.

Hello friends and prayer partners, greetings from Nairobi, Kenya, where we are resting after a very exhausting but deeply fulfilling and fruitful eleven days of ministry in Rwanda.

The training there which included pastors, leaders and youth and sports leaders from Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo was one of my best training EVER!! The discussions were robust, the questions were numerous and the participation and interactions were excellent. They had so many questions. They have so many needs. They were responsive and reflective yet some things were hard to accept for some. One of the most difficult issues was regarding my teaching, based on St. Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 4:15-17 that we should have spiritual fathers (and mothers). That was hard to accept. “How can we have spiritual fathers and mothers from another church?” asked one of the leaders from Congo, “when our pastor is supposed to be the only spiritual authority in our lives?” For over an hour, we discussed this back and forth and I am still not sure the issue has been resolved in some of their minds. Indeed, one of the young men told me a few days later that, last week Friday night, May 12 he mentioned the concept to the young people from his church at their weekly youth meeting and they objected strongly, on other grounds. For them, the issue is that spiritual fathers, as they know them, are too abusive and controlling and they hate the notion of having such persons in authority over them!! Wow!

In addition to all this, because of the genocide of 1994 in Rwanda which included people fleeing to neighbouring Congo and Burundi, many of those in attendance and in Rwanda on a whole are deeply wounded and need healing. Father wounds, mother wounds and other family wounds are prevalent. Burundi and Congo have experienced the effects of that too. So, once they learned that I was trained in psychology and counselling, they wanted me to help them. In the circumstances of limited time, I could only offer them minimal help but I promised to work on a healing conference and the training of pastoral and lay counsellors in 2025. They were not happy at what seemed to them to be a date too far for them to wait. To be truthful, there are some churches in Rwanda that have a ministry in healing to help people deal with the wounds caused by the genocide. But I have my work cut out for me – we do, not just me!! I have started to work on the 2025 healing conference by asking some friends and mentees to join the team for that and so far the reception has been good! PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GRACE AND FAVOR!

On another note, please praise God for this: One of the pastors from Burundi, pastor Thierry, after he had heard the teaching by pastor Altidor on servant leadership, said this, “I have never served my wife before. But as soon as I go home to Burundi, I am going to start serving her.” To that came a resounding applause!!! Glory to God for what He is doing here in Africa!

Thank God I have had the past few days here in Kenya to rest before a team of us from the Caribbean, Kenya and Uganda travel to Malawi for our next training on disciple-making “The Jesus Way,” leadership, ancient paths and strategic planning for disciple-making movements. I am EXHAUSTED but enjoying the rest.

Please continue to pray for us for God’s constant presence and leading by His Spirit in our lives. We NEED the Holy Spirit to equip, anoint and empower us to do what God has called us to do and to transform many lives of God’s people to make disciples and mentor and train others to make and multiply disciples for God’s Kingdom and glory. We are acutely aware that the enemy opposes what God has called us to do and how God is using us for His Kingdom and glory. So, please pray for our deliverance and protection from all sorts of evil and the evil one. Some of us are experiencing gastrointestinal difficulties with the constant change of time zones and eating times. Pray for our physical health. And please pray for safe and enjoyable travels to Malawai this Saturday afternoon from Nairobi and then to South Africa next weekend, May 27th and 28th.

Thanks so much for your faithful prayers and support. Always. We are grateful to all those who served with us in Rwanda last week in different ways: in business and financial training; in worship training; in preaching the word, in sports ministry and other ministries that I may have forgotten to mention. GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU ALL AND PROSPER YOU IN EVERY GOOD WORK FOR HIS KINGDOM AND GLORY.

Please remember that we in RENEWED Ministries constantly need and depend on you to support us financially. We welcome your prayers and financial gifts. You can send your financial gifts via check to: RENEWED Ministries, P.O. Box 1229, Mishawaka, Indiana, USA 46546. You can also send your gifts via PayPal on our website: www.renewed-ministries.org  Thanks much and may God bless you richly.

Coram Deo!
Always in God’s grip,
Courtney 🙏🏾🙏🏾😊

For more on Reverend Richards’ missionary journey, go to our Archive pages.