The James Family

The James Family

Recent Blogposts

  • Kep & Debbie March 2024 Update

    Thank you for your prayers. Debbie and I got back to Cleveland last evening after a month of ESI ministry in Latin America (Facilitator Training for 20 Spanish speaking pastors in Virginia, then Uruguay and Bolivia, and finally Facilitator Training for 30 pastors in Brazil's NorthEast region).

     

    We are very encouraged to see how God is giving pastors and church leaders a hunger to study God's Word so they can see Jesus and the gospel as its main message, in order to grow in their dependence on Christ and experience real gospel transformation. This is the only way any of us can faithfully teach and preach it in our churches. Please be praying that the Lord will continue moving His church forward across Latin America and Africa.

     

    On Saturday, I travel to West Africa for two weeks to teach 40 church planting students as part of one of the missionary training outreach schools. I value your prayers for clarity of understanding in everything we will be doing there.

     

    Also, I would value your prayers as my mom continues to recover from a bad fall in which she broke a vertebra. At 93 years old, she is making good progress recovering in a rehabilitation facility in North Carolina.

     

    Thank you sincerely,

    Kep

  • Kep & Debbie March 2024 Prayer Requests

    The biggest prayer request for March is for me March 1-15 in Mali, West Africa, teaching Romans to church planting students with an Egyptian-based ministry. There are 40 students gathered for 7 months who came out of a Muslim background, later came to faith in Christ, and now are committed to make Christ known in those same communities they came out of, and to and plant churches among their own people.

     

    I value your prayers as I teach Romans there, that each one will understand clearly the gospel and experience gospel transformation, to become effective as they go out to plant churches, and that they will make a commitment to become serious students of the Bible the rest of their lives!

    -Kep

  • Kep & Debbie February 2024 Update

    Download Kep & Debbie's February 2024 Update.

     

    Greetings from Cleveland.

     

    We leave in 2 days for 6 weeks in South America and West Africa. This update gives that itinerary, as well as a special prayer request for my 93 year old mother, who fell last night breaking a vertebra and now awaits surgery.

     

    We do value your prayers,

    Kep and Debbie

  • Kep & Debbie December 2023 Trip Report

    Thank you for praying for our time in Liberia. I got back to Cleveland on Saturday night -- encouraged seeing the way God impacted so many pastors and church leaders during the time we were there.

     

    Attached are pdf photos.

     

    We thank God for your partnership in the gospel with us,

    Kep and Debbie

  • Kep & Debbie December 2023 Update

    Attached is our December 2023 Update.

     

    I'll be leaving on Monday for two weeks in Liberia with our ESI Africa team. We'll be taking 210 Liberian pastors through our ESI Facilitator Training. We would appreciate your prayers for that time together. Our December Update gives details about what you can be praying for, and what our ESI team has been doing in Brazil, Sierra Leone, and Bolivia over the past month.

     

    Thank you for praying!

    Kep and Debbie James

  • Kep & Debbie November 2023 Update

    Thank you for praying for us -- this afternoon we finish up our four days of Latin America ESI Leadership Meetings in Santa Cruz Bolivia, and then head up to La Paz. The meetings here have been really important. It has been tremendously encouraging hearing how God is working across this region, and to pray together. We have heard story after story of pastors and churches getting back on track with Jesus and the gospel as God's people make the commitment to study God's Word.

     

    One important thing that came out of the meetings is our need always to keep our quality strong as we grow outward into new countries. This is especially true as we expand through Africa. You can pray with us as we continue to concentrate on strengthening ESI leadership in African countries we currently have groups in. This also means that we will plan to hold our expansion into new new countries to just one or two more for part of 2024.

     

    Thank you for praying for the growth of the gospel in the lives of pastors and church leaders in the 29 countries where ESI currently works.

     

    Thank you,

    Kep

  • Kep & Debbie November 2023 Prayer Requests

    * Pray for the ILC Church that Kep and Debbie planted in Bolivia, that its leadership will continue honoring Christ by staying true to His Scriptures.

      

    * Pray for the 2,500 ESI participants in 220 groups meeting in 29 countries, with 2900 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God as they study His Scriptures, that they will experience gospel transformation in their lives, relationships and local churches.

      

    * Please pray for Kep and Debbie in La Paz November 1-8 working with the ESI ministry in Bolivia.

      

    * Pray for Kep and Paulo leading 2 ESI Facilitator Training Retreats in Monrovia and Harper, Liberia the last week of November and the first week of December.

      

    * Pray for the ESI groups starting in Africa, that the Lord will use the study of Romans to move each of these men and women toward Jesus and to experience real gospel transformation in their lives.

  • Kep & Debbie October 2023 Prayer Requests

    We have spent the past eight weeks helping African pastors in five countries in their study of the Bible. Many told us that this is the first time they have ever dug into Scripture to do a study for themselves. Many expressed how helpful and encouraging this has been for their personal lives, their marriages and their ministries.

     

    Please pray with us in the month of October as they organize Bible study groups in their cities for the propose of studying the Bible together, that they will experience real gospel transformation in their lives. 

  • Kep & Debbie Africa Trip Report Aug-Sept 2023

    Download a printable copy of Kep & Debbie James' Africa Trip Report Aug-Sept 2023.

     

    We're back in Cleveland after two wonderful months of ministry in five African countries. Attached is a brief report of what we did. Your prayers are so important to us.

     

    Thankful to God for you,

    Kep and Debbie

  • Kep & Debbie Africa Mid-trip Update

    A quick mid-trip update.

     

    Thank you for your prayers. We spent last week with 150 Rwandan pastors taking them through Romans 1-3. There was a genuine sense of wanting to get back to the gospel, and a commitment among many to begin studying the Bible -- which many admitted they had never done.

     

    This week we are working with 22 church planting students in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. This is a serious group of young people finishing up seven months of training, who are about to go out in small teams to share Christ and plant churches in Muslim communities. We value your prayer for the next two weeks as we work with them. Pray that they will each make a commitment to become life-long students of the Bible, to understand it (to see Jesus and the gospel as the central message), to live it (to experience gospel transformation daily in their lives), so they can teach and preach it (planting churches that look like what Jesus instructed!).

     

    You are here with us through your prayers!

    Kep and Debbie