RENEWED Ministries Update – 23 June 2026
NEWS, PRAYER AND SUPPORT UPDATE!
This is the RENEWED Ministries update for June 23, 2026, as provided by Reverend Courtney Richards.
Hello friends and prayer partners. Greetings in the wonderful name of our LORD Jesus Christ!
I arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, last Tuesday evening for the start of Africa Missions 2026. I have been catching up on my rest. I also spent part of the weekend with some of my sons and a grandson. It was a really good time listening to their stories of personal growth, mission and ministry. Cape Town is really one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Naturally beautiful. You should come here for a visit! 😃
The grandson, I mentioned above, is the mentee of my son, Sazi Manzi from Embekweni, Paarl, about an hour’s drive outside Cape Town. I just met my grandson this weekend. He permitted me to share part of his story with you. I asked him some questions to get to know him and see where his heart and mind were. He only surrendered his life to God a few weeks ago. He mentioned that he’s had struggles with sexual immorality. Indeed, he has three women/girlfriends (unofficial wives) in a culture that practices polygamy. His grandfather had 6 wives and 15 children, and his father had 4 wives and several children. He mentioned that after he had sex as a 13 year old for the first time, he told his father who congratulated him and told him that he would teach him how to get and be with more women. What a terrible example! What a curse was being put on him by his own father and grandfather.
As we spoke, he became very serious and exceedingly attentive as I explained how God made us sexual beings to fulfil His purpose for mankind and that he was taking this gift of God and using it in a wrong way because of the bad examples and teachings of his father and grandfather. He became deeply convicted about this and said that he is committed to making things right with those three young ladies. This Friday, he plans to meet with all three of them at one time and tell them that it is over! He plans to tell them that he is now a follower of Jesus and that what he has been doing with them is wrong and selfish and displeasing to God! Please pray for him that God will anoint, strengthen and use him to speak into the lives of these young women so that they too can come to Christ properly and be free from the bondage and curse of ungodly cultural and personal practices.
This story affirms how important it is for us to know people and the cultural and family practices they come from, as these can greatly impact their faith and following after Jesus. Culture is often wrong! But culture is often strong in its hold upon people. It is not enough that we lead them to Christ or have them become “saved”. We must disciple them to change their mindset and break the chains and bondage of sins that are often rooted in their past cultural and family heritage.
Thank you for your constant prayers for me and for the team that will join me over the next few weeks, beginning next week Friday in Zimbabwe, then Kenya, then Rwanda, then Kenya (again), then Ethiopia and finally in Ghana. We need your prayer for God’s protection, covering, anointing, empowering and for Him to use us, by His Spiirt to teach, train, mentor and disciple people for the expansion of His Kingdom and the glory of His name.
Please also continue to give. Giving to RENEWED Ministries usually lessens during the summer months. We need your gifts. We depend on your generosity to help support the ministry and to support me in particular. Please consider sending us a generous gift. You may send a check/cheque to: RENEWED Ministries, P.O. Box 1229, Mishawaka, Indiana, USA 46546 or give online via PayPal at: www.renewed-ministries.org. Bank wire transfers can also be arranged. Please let me know.
God richly bless and keep you and your loved ones safe and sound. May His glory be manifested in your lives.
Coram Deo!
Always in God’s grip,
Courtney
