Kep & Debbie May 2023 Update

We are thankful for your prayers during the past few months we’ve been teaching in Africa. In April, I led three 4-day training retreats in Zambia and Burundi. In our study of Romans we saw the Lord encourage many African church pastors and leaders. Many expressed that they had never studied the Bible, and even admitted that their churches have gotten off track from the gospel.

In Kasempa and Ndola, Zambia, 80 church leaders decided to study Romans in their local churches. In Bujumbura, Burundi, another 70 committed to this. One pastor from neighboring Congo decided to start doing this in his church, and another in Botswana informed us that as a result of last year’s ESI training in Tanzania, he is already taking 50 members of his church through Romans.

This week, we are in Nairobi visiting 8 ESI groups that began in Kenya in February. We always try to visit groups when they start to make sure they are on track with the plan to keep Jesus and the gospel in their center of their Bible study and group discussion.
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Kep & Debbie May 2023 Prayer Requests

* Please pray for the follow up of the ESI (Equipping Servants) training weeks we did in Zambia in April, as roughly 80 church leaders there have expressed a desire to start ESI groups.

* Also pray for the 53 church leaders we just discovered are studying the Bible with us in Botswana, and the 8 new groups that began studying the Bible with us in Kenya in March. ESI is a 3-year training process.

* Please also pray for 120 pastors and Church Leaders planning to take the ESI training in Sao Paulo and Río de Janeiro, Brazil during the first 2 weeks of June -- for each one as they prepare for those training retreats.

Thank you,

Kep and Debbie

Kep & Debbie April 2023 Update

Thank you for praying for us last month in Niger and Lebanon teaching Romans. We trained church planting students with an Egyptian based ministry. This is a huge privilege to work with these students and see them grow in their commitment to study the Bible. It was especially rewarding watching them grasp the truth that Jesus and His gospel is the central message and the point of the Bible. Pray that they will continue growing in their daily commitment to study God’s Word, to understand it, to live the transformation of the gospel, and to teach and preach it faithfully as they go out to plant churches. They have amazing testimonies of how the Lord brought them out of darkness into His marvelous light. Pray for them as they go into very difficult areas in Africa and the Middle East to evangelize and plant churches.

Our last stop was Temuco, Chile leading an Equipping Servants (ESI) pastors/ church leaders conference. It was wonderful to reconnect with our friends and faithful servants in southern Chile.

Please pray for us in April. We leave early Easter Sunday morning for one month in East Africa. The first two weeks will be in Zambia for ESI Training Retreats -- in Kasempa and Ndola. Pray for the 150 pastors and church leaders participating in these two 4 day training retreats. Then to Burundi for a one week ESI Training. Our last week we will be in Nairobi observing and doing follow up with the ESI groups that began meeting in January.

Your prayers are very important to us! Remember that when you pray–you are right there with us!

Serving Jesus alongside you,

Kep and Debbie

Kep & Debbie April 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 2,200 ESI participants in 200 groups meeting in 16 countries, with 2900 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Current ESI countries are USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spain, Sweden, Kenya. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God as they study His Scriptures, that they will stay true to Jesus, and that they will keep His Gospel at the center.

* Pray for the ESI leaders in each of the above countries-Tomas Diaz oversees ESI in Ecuador and Guatemala; Edgar Mamani in La Paz, Bolivia and Sweden; Javier Soliz in Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Edwin Callejas in Peru, Neri Rivera in Chiapas, Mexico; Edgar Rivera in Oaxaca, Mexico; Russ and Heidi Smith in Chile; Andrew and Angie James in Uruguay; Freddy Romero in Brazil; Rolando Ruiz in Argentina; Boris Arancibia in Bolivia; Sebastian Moreno in Colombia and Spain and Venezuela; Miguel Ayala in Paraguay; and Jose Gutierrez in Los Angeles, USA.

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Kep & Debbie March 2023 Prayer Requests

* Pray that the Lord will give wisdom and guidance as we focus increasing attention and time helping pastors in Africa study the Bible to understand it, to live it, and to teach it faithfully. Pray that God will use the mutual discipleship groups that are forming to get the church to focus on Jesus and experience genuine gospel transformation throughout the African continent.

* 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. ESI Latin America (Equipping Servants International – Disciples Making Disciples)

* Pray for the 2,200 ESI participants in 200 groups meeting in 16 countries, with 2900 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Current ESI countries are USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spain, Sweden, Kenya. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God as they study His Scriptures, that they will stay true to Jesus, and that they will keep His Gospel at the center.

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Kep & Debbie February 2023 Update

Download Kep & Debbie's February 2023 Update.

Thank you for praying for us and the work we'll be doing in Africa February through May. This Update describes some of those locations.

Let us know how we can be praying for you!
Kep and Debbie

Kep & Debbie February 2023 Prayer Requests

• Pray that the Lord will give wisdom and guidance as we focus increasing attention and time helping pastors in Africa study the Bible to understand it, to live it, and to teach it faithfully. Pray that God will use the mutual discipleship groups that are forming to get the church to focus on Jesus and experience genuine gospel transformation throughout the African continent.

• 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 2,200 ESI participants, in 200 groups, meeting in 16 countries, with 2,900 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Current ESI countries are USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spain, Sweden, Kenya. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God as they study His Scriptures, that they will stay true to Jesus, and that they will keep His Gospel at the center.

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Kep & Debbie January 2023 Update

Download Kep & Debbie's January 2023 Update.

Greetings from Cleveland.

Attached is our January 2023 Prayer Update, explaining ministry plans for Africa over the next few months. Also 14 ways you can be praying for missionaries.

We sincerely thank God for your partnership with us in the gospel. When you pray you go!

Kep and Debbie James

Kep & Debbie January 2023 Prayer Requests

1. Pray for the Lord’s guidance as we prepare to lead ESI (Equipping Servants – Disciples Making Disciples) training retreats in Zambia and Burundi in April. Pray for these pastors and church as they prepare for the 4-day training retreats by studying Romans 1-3.

2. Pray for the church planters we have trained with a ministry currently doing evangelism in Muslim communities in North and West Africa and the Middle East.

3. Pray for the 1,825 ESI participants in 168 groups meeting in 16 countries, with 2730 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God and their commitment to honor Christ by being true to His Scriptures keeping Jesus and His Gospel at the center.

4. Praise for the Kenyan pastors and church leaders we trained in September who are preparing to begin ESI groups in January in Nairobi and Mombasa.

5. Pray for the church in Bolivia that believers will be true to Christ in their daily lives. Pray for the ILC Church leadership in La Paz to be passionate about Jesus as they experience gospel transformation in their own lives first as they lead the church.

Kep & Debbie December 2022 Prayer Requests

1. Pray as Kep and Debbie follow up with the contacts we made with African pastors and church planters in Tanzania in April, that the Lord will guide our steps for where to focus our ministry attention in 2023.

2. Pray that the Lord will help us help African pastors and church leaders to become students of the Bible, to understand what it says, to live what it says, so they can teach faithfully what it says -- for a church across Africa that is true to Christ and that honors Jesus by being true to His Scriptures.

3. Pray for the ESI (Equiping Servants -Disciples Making Disciples) groups across Latin America, Spain, and Kenya, that God will help the participants see Jesus in Romans as they study it, and experience true gospel transformation in their lives and ministries.

4. Pray for the ILC church back in Bolivia that the pastors and leaders will be people of the Book so they can lead the congregation in a way that exalts Jesus.