RENEWED Ministries Update – 28 May 2025

NEWS PRAYER AND SUPPORT UPDATE!

This is the RENEWED Ministries update for May 28, 2025, as provided by Reverend Courtney Richards.

Greetings, friends and prayer partners. What a time and ministry we have been having in Africa! Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.

We have been in Rwanda for the past two weeks and getting some rest before leaving on Friday for neighbouring Burundi. More on that in a bit! Before we came to Rwanda, we had a very informative, inspirational, instructive, challenging, transformative and fruitful retreat in Nairobi, Kenya with our All-Africa leaders and trainers. These are the ones that have been called and are being prepared to lead the ministry in various countries here in Africa for the foreseeable future. There were twenty-five of us at the retreat. Several others were absent for a variety of reasons.

We went deep at the retreat discussing the DNA of RENEWED Ministries – making and multiplying disciples, The Jesus Way, and leading disciple-making movements – as well as discussing our strategic vision to reach the entire continent of Africa. We zeroed in on the challenges of this generation, especially as we face the dawn of a new age in which Artificial Intelligence and, particularly Artificial General Intelligence, seems poised to overtake human intelligence. What are the moral, ethical and spiritual implications of this supplanting of humans created by God to rule over His creation for His glory and honour? How should we think Christianly about the world in which we live and the myriad of challenges that face us every day? Are these concerns part of making disciples going forward? And how do we finance ministry and mission in Africa and elsewhere as the ageing population in our churches pass away? These golden agers are the bedrock givers to mission in our churches in the West. Who will replace them? How do we deal with the youth population of Millennials, Gen Z, Generation Alpha and Generation Beta (to come)? So many questions and many issues to deal with.

What a world! What a God! The task and times before us seem daunting but yet we serve the Almighty, all-knowing and unchanging God, who has the answers that we need for the times, as He always does. Please join us in prayer as we seek God’s leading and guidance to disciple and mentor the next generation of leaders here in Africa (and elsewhere) to make radical disciples of their own generation to follow Jesus with their whole lives no matter the cost!

Here in Rwanda, the challenges cannot be more stark! Ninety per cent (that’s 90%) of the churches, we are told, have been closed by the government because they do not meet the requirements for pastoral training and qualifications or do not have the security and other arrangements in place for their churches and buildings to operate. So, there is a “great displacement” of church members and church people. It seems to us, as a team, that this opens doors for creative and Spirit-led engagements for mission and ministry here in Rwanda. Nothing much seems to be happening yet. People are just scattered, we are told. What great opportunities to be servants of The Most High God! Will the Church in Rwanda accept the challenges posed by the situations before them? Will churches across the world help them meet the requirements? Time will tell. More prayer and fasting are needed for this kairos moment! What is God’s strategic vision for Rwanda? Let us pray with our brothers and sisters here!

And so, we prepare to leave for Burundi on Friday to teach and train God’s people on disciple making, leadership, sports ministry and lay Christian counseling. The fields are indeed ripe for harvest! Will you join with us in prayer that God will send forth reapers for such a harvest time as this and that His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven? And remember that we continue to need your financial support to fulfil God’s call upon our lives in RENEWED Ministries to mentor, train, make and multiply disciples of the nations for the expansion of God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Please send your gifts to: RENEWED Ministries, P.O. Box 1226, Mishawaka, Indiana, USA 46546 or donate via PayPal on our website: www.renewed-ministries.org

Thanks so much for partnering with us in RENEWED Ministries. We are so blessed to have you walking with us and supporting us in our missions outreach and other ministries around the world. God’s gracious hand be upon you and your loved ones.

Always in God’s grip,
Courtney