Kep & Debbie October 2022 Update

Greetings from Bolivia!

We want you to know how much we have valued your partnership with us in the gospel over these many years. October 19 Debbie and I fly to Cleveland to refocus our ministry toward Africa. We value your prayers as we assist an Egyptian based ministry in North and West Africa and the Middle East, helping to train the leaders in their church-planting training schools.

We also are starting to see traction with ESI in East Africa. The group we trained in Kenya in September is organizing to start ESI groups in Nairobi and Mombasa in January. Debbie and I will be in Burundi and Zambia in April, to launch ESI, and to follow up with the ESI Kenya groups. For all this we value your prayers.

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Kep & Debbie October 2022 Prayer Requests

• Pray for us as we say good-bye to our friends and ministry partners in Bolivia and return to Cleveland on October 19, so that we can refocus our ministry toward Africa.

• Praise for Kep’s trip to Cairo in September where he trained 65 mission school leaders and missionaries who are working to train Christian workers to start churches in North Africa and the Middle East. Pray for these leaders that they will be able to help their students grow in their daily commitment to study God’s Word, to know it, to live it, to grow in their love for Jesus and experience gospel transformation in their lives – and then to teach it faithfully.

• Pray for the 1,825 ESI (Equipping Servants – Disciples Making Disciples) participants in 168 groups meeting in 14 countries, with 2730 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God and commitment to honor Christ by being true to His Scriptures with Jesus and His Gospel at the center.

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Kep & Debbie September 2022 Update

Download Kep & Debbie's September 2022 Update

Greetings from Bolivia!

Attached is our latest Update explaining Kep's recent ministry trip to Egypt and Kenya. Also our plans to return to the USA after 35 years in Bolivia.

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

Kep and Debbie

Kep & Debbie September 2022 Prayer Requests

A quick prayer update asking you to pray tomorrow as I leave to spend a couple of weeks in Egypt training missionary school trainers, and then to Kenya to lead an ESI (Equipping Servants International) Facilitator Training Retreat in Nairobi to begin ESI in East Africa. Please pray for the Lord to work in a deep way in many lives during these days.

Also, pray for Debbie as she wraps things up in Bolivia in preparation for our departure from Bolivia on October 19.

Thank you for praying! When you pray, you are there with us!

Kep

James Update August 2022

Download James Update August 2022

Greetings from Bolivia!

Our August Prayer Update explaining our new ministry focus. Please pray specifically for the 2 weeks in August and September teaching the Bible in Egypt and Kenya -- described in our August Prayer Update.

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

Kep and Debbie

Kep & Debbie August 2022 Prayer Requests

* Pray for Kep and Debbie as they say good-byes in Bolivia and return to Cleveland in October. They will refocus their ministry toward Africa.

* Pray for Kep’s trip to Cairo August 26-September 3 to train leaders who are responsible for training young men and women to start churches in North Africa. Pray for these leaders that they will help students grow in their commitment to study God’s Word, to grow in their love for Jesus, and to experience gospel transformation in their daily lives.

* Pray for the 1,825 ESI (Equipping Servants – Disciples Making Disciples) participants in 168 groups meeting in 14 countries, with 2730 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God and commitment to honor Christ by being true to His Scriptures with Jesus and His Gospel at the center.

* Pray for the 60 Kenyan pastors and church leaders whom Kep will train in Nairobi September 5-7. Pray for those who will start ESI groups in their own churches following this ESI Training Retreat.
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Kep & Debbie July 2022 Prayer Requests

* Pray for Kep and Debbie wrapping up their ministry in Bolivia from June through October so they can refocus their ministry attention toward Africa. Pray for Kep’s trip to Cairo August 25-September 4 to train leaders who are responsible for training young men and women to start churches in North Africa. Pray for these leaders that they will help students grow in their commitment to study God’s Word, to grow in their love for Jesus, and to experience gospel transformation in their daily lives.

* Pray for the 1,825 ESI (Equipping Servants – Disciples Making Disciples) participants in 168 groups meeting in 14 countries, with 2,730 total graduates since beginning in 2002. Pray that these men and women will grow in their love for God and commitment to honor Christ by being true to His Scriptures with Jesus and His Gospel at the center.

Kep & Debbie June 2022 Update

Greetings from Bolivia!

We arrived back in La Paz last Friday, after weeks away in Africa and Cleveland. Please continue to pray with us through this transition year -- which means that we are planning to leave Bolivia to return to Cleveland, so that we can refocus our ministry toward North Africa. Parkside Church has asked us to work with an Egyptian based ministry. This ministry trains local church planters and mobilizes them all across North and West Africa and the Middle East. It is a joy for us to be a part of this, and we DO VALUE YOUR PRAYERS as we move forward!

- Please pray for us as we close up our house here in La Paz with plans to leave Bolivia in October.

- Please pray for the week I will spend in Cairo in August to train the training center leaders.

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An Update from Kep James - May 2022

What God Has Done

Aren’t you amazed at the way God works? Often it seems to me that life is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, with God putting each piece in the perfect place of his choice, at the perfect time of his choosing. I think about the Bible stories of Joseph and Moses, and they clearly testify to God working in the lives of his children, bringing them into a relationship with himself and a place of usefulness in his hands. We can thank him that he still works in our lives today. God is constantly working to accomplish his purposes, directing every one of our steps for his glory and for our good.

A Heart For Missions & Help From Near and Distant Places

Debbie and I met at Wheaton College in 1979, both believers from our teen years, and were married in 1981, the same year that Parkside Church (then The Chapel) invited me to come on staff as the youth pastor. I had always felt a call to missions, but it was when Alistair and I went to the Urbana missions conference in the mid-eighties that I sensed that God was moving us to finally go.

Kep & Debbie June 2022 Prayer Requests

* Pray for us as we return to Bolivia on June 9 to wrap up our work, pack, and prepare to return to Cleveland in October. Our purpose relocating to Cleveland is so that we can dedicate more of our attention to help the a missionary training ministry in Africa, and also to encourage pastors and church leaders around Africa to honor Christ by being true to His Scriptures – which means studying the Bible to understand it, to live it, and to teach it faithfully. Pray that we will be able to encourage God’s people to be faithful in their study of God’s Word, and to grow in their love for Jesus, and to experience gospel transformation in their daily lives.

* Pray for the 1,825 ESI (Equipping Servants – Disciples Making Disciples) participants in 168 groups meeting in 14 countries, with 2730 total graduates since we began 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 with Jesus and His Gospel at the center.

* Pray for follow up after the ESI training retreat we held in Tanzania in April. Pray that the Lord will guide us as we interact with local church pastors to start ESI Bible study groups in English speaking Africa. One pastor in Zambia recently wrote, “I did not know before what I was supposed to be doing leading my church, but I now understand that my main task is to rightly teach and preach God’s Word so that believers are built up as committed followers of Jesus, and the church is mobilized to make Him known”.

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