RENEWED Ministries Update – 7 August 2025

NEWS, PRAYER AND SUPPORT UPDATE!

This is the RENEWED Ministries update for July 7, 2025, as provided by Reverend Courtney Richards.

Hello friends and prayer partners. I greet you in the Blessed name of our living Lord Jesus Christ. What a joy it is to serve Him.

Thanks for your prayers and support for our recently concluded Africa Missions 2025. It seems like each time I go to Africa, I return feeling that this is the best Mission I have ever been on. The retreat in Nairobi,  Kenya, with our all-Africa leadership and trainers team from around 15 countries was rich, challenging, fruitful and fun. (I even participated in a foot race with some of my sons. No, I did not win but I executed my race well as a true Jamaican sprinter!!!😂) We wrestled with the future of RENEWED Ministries in Africa and continued the process of preparation for them to lead the ministry there without me as the International Director of RENEWED Ministries. All this is in light of my pending retirement from the leadership of RENEWED Ministries International in 2027. Please pray for our US Board and our leadership team in Africa that God will lead us to select the right person or persons to lead this ministry into the foreseeable future.

The ministries in Rwanda and Burundi concentrated on training pastors and other leaders from various churches and denominations on discipleship and leadership, marital counselling, lay Christian counseling and sports ministry. All were well received and people are asking for more training. We also spent a day with about 45 pastors in Kigali, Rwanda sharpening their leadership skills and encouraging them. They NEED encouragement! They told me that over 90% of churches in Rwanda have been closed because they cannot meet the government requirements for pastoral training, security arrangements, parking lot requirements etc. Please remember them in your prayers. They face a challenging future! 

The believers in Burundi are asking for more counselling training and help with suicide prevention. I have started the work to source persons who are trained in counseling, psychology, suicide prevention, pastoral care etc to help them whether online or face to face. If you know of anyone who has training in those areas who can help them in Burundi and in Rwanda too, please email me with their contact information. Thanks.

As usual, South Africa Missions were many and varied. We had a four-person team, and we ministered in a local prison first. It was heartbreaking to once again visit that prison and to see so many boys and young men, ages 15 and over locked up for things as serious as murder! Most of them say they have no good relations or none at all with their fathers. Therein lies a critical factor contributing to the problem of crime and violence around the world – fatherlessness and its impact on boys and young men. God have mercy. The rest of our ministry in South Africa focused on feeding children and the poor and homeless in various communities in or around Cape Town and in Eastern Cape; ministering to senior citizens in two different Provinces; ministering to boys and their fathers at a weekend camp and ministering to children on some huge farms (we drove for miles to pick them up to take them to a church for ministry. The drive alone was exhausting!) We ministered to girls who need sanitary pads during their menstrual cycle (we distributed sanitary pads in two schools). I taught pastoral care at a church in Durban and met with several of my mentees. In all these ministries, we shared testimonies and scripture about God and His love for us. This was an exhausting but deeply satisfying schedule and ministry. Lots of lives have been changed. Lots more are being changed as our various local hosts continue to minister to these various populations.

WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT.  Please continue to pray for us. And please continue to give to RENEWED Ministries. We are currently low on funds in our account and need you to give us a gift or extra gift to provide for us for the rest of the year. We know that times are difficult but as our prayer partner and financial supporter, we depend on your continued gifts to help those of us who serve in RENEWED Ministries.

Please send your gift(s) to: RENEWED Ministries, P.O. Box 1229, Mishawaka, Indiana, USA 46546 or give online via PayPal on our website at: www.renewed-ministries.org

Thanks for your love, prayers and support. We deeply appreciate you and pray for you that God’s amazing love and grace will continue to be poured into your life now and always.

Coram Deo.
Always in His grip,
Courtney