June 2023

June 1, 2023

Hello everyone,

By the time you get this, we are hoping to be home in the U.S for one month!  However, we're still currently waiting for Matt and Zeke's renewed passports, and it doesn't look like they will be returned in time. Kelly may have to come on her own for a bit! Pray with us that Matt and Zeke's will come quickly. 

Here’s some ministry updates:

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Kuza

Ghetto Radio - Kuza now has a 7th radio partner to play our podcast weekly. The station is Ghetto Radio, which is based in Nairobi. Ghetto Radio is not a Christian station, but they have a Sunday morning DJ who plays Christian music along with our podcast. Ghetto Radio reaches the more low-income areas of Nairobi, and it’s frequently heard on buses around town. It has a reach of 1 million daily listeners. It’s been a blessing to have our podcast on this radio station because it reaches the heart of modern Kenyan popular culture. Everything from music, dance, dress, language, and pop culture comes from these lower-income areas of Nairobi. It is imperative for the gospel to be heard and understood in these cultural centers, because this is where the cultural movers and shakers come from. Ghetto Radio is a strategic partner for us to reach these key areas.

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Kuza

Zambia Team - The third most represented country that visits Kuza’s website is the African country of Zambia. Amazingly, some visitors came from there recently to visit Kuza and find out more specifically what we do. We set up tables in a room at our office, made a nice lunch, and did a presentation for them. It was exciting to have international visitors get on a plane to learn about our online ministry. The more we do Kuza, the more we realize how rare it is to have an online ministry in Africa that is reaching to other African countries.

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4:12, Kuza, SDM, & Pamoja House

Conference- Teaching at Advance Youth Ministry Conference - In April, there was a gathering of youth ministry organizations and youth pastors from around Kenya for the Advance Youth Ministry Conference. It was exciting to see many youth pastors and leaders gathered together. Matt was asked to speak about digital ministry in a breakout session and share about Kuza in the main session. Unfortunately, he got some sort of stomach bug the night before and was unable to share, but Vic (a Kuza staff member) stepped in. He did a commendable job. At the Advance YM Conference our 4:12, Kuza, SDM, and Pamoja House ministries all got to make amazing connections and develop partnerships.

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Personal

Working Out Evangelism - Matt works out with two of his staff members, Vic and Kelvin, a few mornings a week at a local gym. They have made several gym friends, and have been able to share the gospel with them. One named Nelson was a Christian, but was struggling to grow in his faith. He joined Vic’s weekly bible study that he runs out of his apartment. Nelson was so excited at how intensely they have been studying the Scriptures and how much he’s grown in his faith. We’ve also shared with two guys named Vince and Edu, and are hoping to continue developing relationships with them. Vince recently accepted Christ and has come to church with us twice. Vince also introduced us to his neighbor Esther, and we shared the gospel with her. She's not ready to receive Christ yet, but she's been coming to church with us.

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Personal

Spaghetti Bash - At Rosslyn Academy where Kelly teaches, they have an annual “Spaghetti Bash”. All participants anonymously bring in some form of a homemade pasta sauce, and then everyone votes on their favorite. Kelly’s alfredo sauce has won four times over the years, and she’s won the past two years in a row by adding bacon to the award-winning sauce. Of course, there were lots of jeers and sneers in good fun that she won. But bacon makes everything better!

We're grateful for all of you! Thank you for your continued support!

The Elmores- Matt, Kelly and Zeke

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Prayer Requests

Ministry

Pray for more wisdom to teach God’s word to our followers on Kuza.

Pray for the people who received Christ with Nicholas’s Jesus film presentations to grow in their faith.

Pray for our fundraiser to be successful on June 4th.

Personal

Pray for Matt and Zeke's passports to come quickly!!!

May 2023 News

May 3, 2023

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since our last newsletter. Please accept our humble apologies. Sometimes the time just seems to get away from you! It was bone dry in Kenya for months (to the point that every day Zeke was covered in a fine layer of brown dust!), but we finally started to get rain in mid-March. We thank God for the rains!

Here’s some ministry updates:

Kuza

Growth

We’re humbled that the Lord allows our online ministry, Kuza, to grow so much. We recently checked our analytic numbers, and without any “paid reach” (paying to advertise), we reach between 130,000 to 150,000 people weekly. If we add in the paid reach, we reach as many as 250,000 people weekly. This time last year, we were reaching roughly 80,000 people weekly without a paid reach. We thank God with a humble fear, as we feel the weight of responsibility to teach and guide in biblical ways.

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4:12

Retreat

Last month, we held our annual retreat for our 4:12 ministry on Kenya's coast. The 4:12 ministry equips churches to reach youth through teaching conferences and in seminaries. We invited a local pastor named Dan Ndungu, who taught us what it means to be a godly man, a godly pastor, and a godly leader. We had an extremely meaningful time praying for one another, sharing challenges and enjoying fellowship.

Reports & Churches Planted

We received some reports from our team members at the retreat. In the last 6 months, we’ve seen more than 200 churches start youth ministry for the first time. Many churches have seen fantastic growth in their youth and adults since doing this. One of our teachers, Nicholas, takes the Jesus film (along with a projector, speakers and a microphone) along to his 4:12 conferences. He shows the Jesus film in nearby marketplaces. He has planted 14 churches while out and about with 4:12.

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4:12 - Nicholas's Story

Great Story

Nicholas of our 4:12 ministry recently taught a conference deep inside the bush in Eastern Kenya. He planned to show the Jesus film afterwards. His host told him they had to travel to a site 50 miles down the road to show the Jesus film. This journey took nearly 5 hours because of the terrible road conditions. As they were driving, they hit a slick muddy spot, and the car fell into a ditch. In doing so, the speaker that we use for the Jesus film slammed into the back windshield and shattered it, and the car wouldn’t start. They called the village's only mechanic up ahead, and he came and fixed Nicholas’ car. They finally arrived to the village at nighttime. Nicholas set up the Jesus film equipment. The entire village of 200 people came to watch, and everyone in the entire village was deeply moved and responded, saying they wanted to accept Jesus. This is unheard of. Nicholas and his host headed back to the original village, and on the way, his car broke down again. The mechanic was unable to come, so they slept in his car on the side of the road. The mechanic arrived in the morning, and they showed the Jesus film that night in that village. So many people showed up that Nicholas was unable to count them. Hundreds and hundreds responded, and the team was overwhelmed. Knowing Nicholas, we know there will be plans to help plant or strengthen the churches in these two areas.

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Personal Story

Kelly's Parents Visited

Kelly’s parents were able to come visit us in February. Although they came during the super dry and hot season, it was fun to have them here and do a few things we haven’t done before. We went on a safari and did some fun stuff around Nairobi.

Other Pictures

Zeke on Safari with Kelly's Family

Catching Catfish with Dad

Zeke running on Field Day

Out Near Tea Fields

Prayer Requests

Ministry

Pray for more wisdom to teach God’s word to our followers on Kuza.

Pray for the people who received Christ with Nicholas’s Jesus film presentations to grow in their faith.

Pray for our fundraiser to be successful on June 4th.

Personal

Pray for Kelly and Zeke to finish the school year well.

November 2022 News

Hi everyone!

We hope everyone is doing well! It’s hard to believe we’re heading into the final bit of 2022. We pray that God will bless you and your families as we close out the year. We’ve been staying busy. Zeke is loving school and learning how to sign a “Z” on all his papers! Kelly has been helping with Rosslyn’s high school production of Radium Girls (which is a crazy true story, if you’ve never heard about it). Matt got to take a trip to the U.S. to surprise his dad on his 70th birthday. His mom and family friends arranged and paid for Matt to travel with his dad on a big hunting trip to New Mexico, which was a really special time.

Kuza

Evangelism Through Kuza
We’ve been averaging over 400 monthly clicks on our “Receive Christ” evangelism video online. Not everyone who clicks on this video actually receives Christ, but we’ve set up the video so that whenever someone does, we request that they send us their contact information. We then call them and make sure they understand the gospel, pray with them, and then direct them to download our app and read our devotional series, which helps them to grow in their newfound faith. We also connect them to a nearby church that we know and trust.

Great Story
Just this past week, a young lady named Ekra watched our Receive Christ video online and was overjoyed that we called her. She was confused about the gospel and had several questions, and at the end of the conversation, she prayed to receive Christ. She joyfully downloaded our app and has started reading devotions to grow. We’ve connected her to a nearby church and will continue to follow up with her.

Visiting Tuliza FM - A secular radio station that partners with Kuza

Kuza

Nicholas and Zephaniah, two of our 4:12 staff, were meeting with a presenter at Tuliza FM, which is a secular radio station. They were on air promoting Kuza. After they were off air, the presenter asked them more about the gospel and what it meant. After hearing what they said, the presenter said “I think I need to receive Christ”. We’ve been following up with him, and since then, he’s been actively reading the Kuza app and growing in his faith.

The Tuliza FM Radio DJ that Received Christ 

New Beginnings 

Great Story
Earlier this year, a young college student had an unplanned pregnancy. She told her father and mother that she was pregnant. Her father was very upset because here he was toiling away to pay for her college fees, and she ended up pregnant. During her third trimester, her father’s anger boiled over, and he said he would not pay for her education or housing anymore unless she aborted her baby. The girl was heartbroken. She determined to kill herself and the baby because she could not bear to have an abortion. Her plan was to travel into town and jump in front of a bus or semi-truck. On her way to town, a good friend called her and said, “Hey, how are you doing?” She responded truthfully and told her friend the whole story. Her friend then told her about our crisis pregnancy center. The young lady called our New Beginnings office, and our staff went to town to meet her. Our staff members took her to our shelter, cooked her meals, and counseled her. They even went to the hospital with her and slept at the foot of her bed during and after birth. She’s now a happy mother. Her baby is doing well, she’s reconciled with her family, and she’s back in college. She said that she was overwhelmed with the love of Christ and New Beginnings.

Our New Beginnings Staff

Other Pictures

Surprising my Dad on his 70th birthday in New Mexico

Eating lunch with all our staff members in Eldoret, Kenya

Visiting Radio Injili - Kuza Radio Partner

Prayer Requests

Ministry

1. Pray for more people to find hope in Jesus through our Receive Christ video.

2. Pray for the young lady who kept her baby to become a wise mother and raise her child to fear the Lord.

3. Pray for the leadership of Kelly’s school, Rosslyn Academy, to have wisdom, discernment, and strength as they deal with some difficulties.

Personal

1. Pray for Zeke to continue to grow in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. 

2. Pray for Matt's and Zeke's health. Matt has been having earaches, and Zeke seems to have bad allergies. 

October 2022 News

Hi all!

We’re sorry for the delay in getting out a newsletter! We had a great summer in the States but have had some challenges resettling back into Nairobi. It’s taken us a while to get back into the swing of things. We’re doing well now, and by God’s grace, the ministry has been amazing despite our challenges. We praise God for that. Kelly has had a good start at Rosslyn Academy, and Zeke started preschool there as well! He attends every day for half a day, and he loves it!

Kuza's Five Partnering Radio Stations

Kuza

Growth
In our last newsletter, we mentioned that our social media reach had grown from 522,000 to just over 1.6 million. Through the Lord’s favor, we’ve now seen that grow to just over 4 million people. This has largely happened through partnerships with Kenyan Christian musicians posting our Kuza content through their social media platforms. God has continued to add more partnerships. In addition to this, we also have five radio stations and four television stations that broadcast our podcasts. The radio stations combined reach an average of 5.75 million daily listeners. The TV stations are mostly located in the Nairobi area, but one of the stations is nationwide in Kenya and has hundreds of thousands of daily viewers.

Great Story
A young lady in northern Uganda grew up in a Catholic home but had never received Christ. She was going through a very difficult time in her life and felt like her prayers were not being answered. She did a google search for “prayer” and stumbled across our Kuza website. She clicked on our “receive Christ” button, watched our evangelism video, and received Christ. We had one of our Student Discipleship Ministry staff stationed in Kampala, Uganda, contact her, and they’ve been doing a weekly online bible study. The girl has now added 4 people to their Bible study through her own evangelism and discipleship efforts. 

Kuza's Four Partnering TV Stations

SDM (Student Discipleship Ministry)

Recently, one of our Kenyan staff members met a young man studying to be a doctor at the University of Nairobi. This young man made a few poor choices, which resulted in him getting a girl pregnant, and it rocked his world.  The Lord used this situation to bring this guy to salvation. Soon after this, he met with one of our staff members and expressed a desire to be discipled. They started meeting one-on-one, and the pre-med student was so excited he eventually began doing door-to-door evangelism with our staff member. 

4:12

Recently, some of our 4:12 staff members had the privilege to travel to the very remote area of West Pokot to minister jointly with an African Gospel Church’s mission team. They ministered to some unreached tribes called the Pokot and Karamojong. In some of these areas, the children and some of the adults are not fully clothed due to traditional living and are in desperate need of the gospel. They met with the few church leaders that were in the area and taught them how to reach youth and start a youth ministry. They distributed a few weeks’ worth of food for 100 families. With the severe drought, this food was life-saving for those families. In the evening, they showed the Jesus film in various tribal languages. Hundreds of people watched the film, and large numbers tearfully made a profession of faith. The pastors were overjoyed and excited to see what would happen with their new understanding of how to reach youth.

Showing the Jesus Film in the Pokot and Karamojong Languages

Camping with Matt's Car in Traditional Pokot Villages

Other Pictures

Fishing at Lake Naivasha

Zeke with one of his preschool teachers, Ms. Hannah

A little silliness in Nairobi National Park

Prayer Requests

Ministry

1. Pray for us to humbly study God’s word to better communicate truth through the Kuza ministry. 

2. Pray for the young lady in Uganda that received Christ to continue to grow strong in her faith. 

3. Pray for the Pokot and Karamojong people that recently received Christ to grow strong in their faith. 

4. Pray for more people to find hope in Jesus through our Receive Christ video.

Personal

1. Pray for Zeke to continue to grow in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. 

April 2022 News

Hi all! 

We are in the thick of ministry and school. Kelly is getting ready to wind down the year at Rosslyn. Zeke has really been enjoying his 3 mornings a week preschool and is set to join Kelly at Rosslyn in preschool next year!  We're starting to acquire quite the artwork collection already!

Matt has been very busy in ministry, as you'll read below. We'll be heading to the States at the end of May for family vacations and fundraising, so we hope to see many of you!

Pamoja House

Praise God with us for our Pamoja House Ministry revamp! A while back we raised funds specifically for this, as the current location was too small and it was in disarray due to a variety of factors.  We've been able to find a new and better location, and the revamp process has been ongoing after the generous support of some individuals. It's a bit of a mess right now, but we're excited for the future!

Kuza News

God has been opening HUGE doors for Kuza recently. A local radio station named Pearl Radio in Nairobi started playing our podcast regularly.  We also have our Kuza devotions from our app read daily in Swahili through Lulu FM's radio station. Pearl Radio & Lulu FM broadcast to tens of thousands of daily listeners. We've also been able to make partnerships with some Kenyan Christian musicians (See pic above). We’ve created partnerships with five musicians to post our content on their social media platforms. These partnerships have enabled us to triple our potential reach on social media. Before these musicians, we had a total following of 522,017 people. We have now added 1,636,263 followers, bringing the total to 2,158,280 potential consumers of Kuza’s content. All of this has happened in the last three weeks. It is pretty overwhelming how fast and wide God has opened the doors for us to have access to this many youth and young adults. Please pray for us as we write and record content, that all these young people will see the glory of Jesus above everything else in their lives. 

Story

Through our online ministry, Kuza, we’ve seen more people come to salvation. In the last few weeks, we’ve had five total young people from Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria receive Christ through watching our gospel videos. After watching the video and receiving Christ, they are prompted to send their contact information. We then, in turn, send them an automated email that gives them the next steps in their journey with Christ. We also call them on the phone to encourage them on their next steps in faith in Christ. Please pray for these five young people that received Christ. 

New Beginnings Crisis Pregnancy Center

New Shelter
New Beginnings (NB) has recently seen some "new beginnings". We were able to start a shelter for some young women that are pregnant and uncertain about their futures. It has been a prayer of our staff to help these young pregnant ladies struggling financially and unable to get the basics like food, during their most desperate times. We are grateful that we could host our first young lady in our new shelter this past month. 

Story

One young lady came into NB earlier this year. She had attempted five abortions, but all of them failed to kill the baby. Eventually, she realized that this baby was strong and that God himself wanted it to survive. She decided to come to NB to meet with our staff. She spent several hours pouring her heart out to one of our counselors and eventually realized that she needed Jesus. Her outlook has changed entirely and has decided to keep her baby. The baby was born healthy and is doing well by God's grace. Her mother is also thrilled to have a healthy baby in her arms despite everything.

Hiking at Aberdares National Park

Hanging Out with Student Discipleship Ministry Staff

Hanging out with Matt's Mom and Dad over the Christmas Holidays.

Prayer Requests

Ministry

1. Our 4:12 ministry, which equips churches to reach youth, teaches 33 conferences this month. Please pray for the churches they train to start youth ministries. 

2. Pray for our Student Discipleship Ministry staff as university students return back to school from their holiday break, that they will continue to have boldness to share the gospel with students one on one. Pray for the students in their Bible studies. 

3. Pray for more people to find Pamoja House's new location and hear the gospel preached. 

4. Pray for our Kuza staff to be humble and focused on Christ, with a renewed passion as we walk through the new doors that God’s given us. 

5. Pray for New Beginnings to reach more ladies through their crisis pregnancy ministry. 

Personal

1. Please pray for Zeke- he's developed some asthma since we moved back to Nairobi. It's not too bad (no real asthma attacks), but he does seem to have minor issues almost all the time and we've had to use an inhaler quite a bit. Pray for healing and a good way forward.

October 2021 News

Hello all!

We've been busy living every day life over here! Zeke has started "school"! He's with 3 other kids, and they meet at one of the families' houses. All the parents chipped in to hire a private teacher to teach them for 3 mornings a week (similar to the learning pods that developed through COVID). He's having a blast, and comes home with artwork and singing the songs he's learning! We're grateful he has this chance to interact with others and learn. We also had a visitor- a friend from college came out for a week, so Matt got to show him around Kenya and let him get a taste of life and ministry here. 

4:12 News

Simeon (who works with 4:12), recently happened to meet with a pastor that attended our very first conference, which Matt taught more than 10 years ago (see pic above). This pastor said that our conference really helped his church reach young people. Before the conference, they didn’t have a weekly youth ministry. Afterwards, they started ministering to youth weekly, and have maintained a youth ministry since then. These stories are so encouraging to us as reminders that God's principles lead to transformational changes and growth within the church.

Another wonderful story that I heard recently is about an older pastor that came to one of our conferences on youth ministry. He returned to his church and challenged his members to make an emphasis in youth ministry. His church is thriving and has seen an increase of over 100 new adults and youth coming to the church in the last few years. 

Kuza News

Kuza has a newly renovated podcast and video studio, created by a local interior designer who did a phenomenal job (see pics above). We’re very grateful to all who have helped support us to build this studio. What was an echo chamber is now a fully-functional, sound-proofed room! Our online ministry continues to grow, and we hope to produce even more quality content with this studio. 

We recently had a young lady watch our “Receive Christ” video on KuzaApp.com. She sent us an email afterwards, so we were able to follow up with her on the phone. She has since began attending a local church that Justus, our Kuza staff member, helps pastor. 

We posted this “Receive Christ” video on Facebook and paid a bit for it to be advertised. We had over 20,000 people in Kenya watch the entire video from start to finish. We’re not sure how many people received Christ, but we’re excited about the engagement. It only costs  $139 to advertise this video, which is less than one cent a view. We plan on doing more Facebook posts like this across the African continent to try and reach as many people as possible. Thank you for empowering us to spread the gospel with this online ministry. 

Student Discipleship Ministry (SDM) News

Matt had the privilege to preach to 130 students who were involved in our Student Discipleship Ministry (SDM) retreat in Eldoret, Kenya. He was asked to preach on the sovereignty of God in salvation and man’s response because students had been asking lots of questions on it. during discipleship groups. It was quite the task, but the students were very grateful. Our SDM staff is doing an incredible job running college bible studies on 23 campuses in countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.

The SDM staff is currently writing their own curriculum for our college bible study ministry. The desire is that we will empower the staff to teach a uniform curriculum that makes sense in a local context. Please pray for wisdom on what to write and how to write it.

Other Pictures

Matt preaching in a high school this past weekend

Matt having fun with kids after preaching

Zeke out with daddy looking at lions

Prayer Requests

Ministry

1. Pray for the 20,000 people that watched our Receive Christ video to be saved. 

2. Pray for the young lady that received Christ through our website to grow in her faith. 

3. Pray for more churches to make an emphasis on reaching young people after attending our conferences.

4. Pray for SDM to effectively and passionately write our curriculum in order to equip college students. 

Personal

1. Pray for Matt's wisdom on how to deal with some administrative issues.

2. Pray for wisdom for us as we parent Zeke. 

August 2021 News

Hello from Kenya!

We arrived back to Kenya on July 24, and have spent the last few weeks sorting through and organizing our new house! We are back in a house on Rosslyn Academy’s campus. Zeke has really been enjoying playing with other kids close to his each! Kelly has started back at Rosslyn Academy, and Matt is back working with at the Kuza office, so we are all adjusting to new routines. Zeke in particular is having to get used to a completely new place, new people, and not being with Mommy all day!

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4:12 Staff Members Zephaniah, Sammy, and Fondo (Left to Right)

4:12 News

The 4:12 ministry has done a phenomenal job keeping the ministry moving forward since we’ve been in the USA. Last year 4:12 was only able to teach conferences for 3 months due to Coronavirus. This year we’ve been fortunate to be able to teach every month of 2021, which is a blessing. So far the team has taught 133 conferences, which has led to over 1700 people being added to local churches. This is all a result of our training pastors and church leaders to start youth ministries. Our conferences have been much smaller in terms of attendance, but God has been faithful. We’ve taught in three seminaries in Kenya , and we hope to resume teaching in other countries in the near future.

One of the 133 Conferences taught!

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The New KuzaApp.com website!

Kuza News

Kuza has a brand new app and website! You can download the app on your smartphone, or visit our website to check it out. The website and app have an amazing evangelistic video provided by our partnering ministry, Spread Truth, out of Bloomington, IN. We have their video named “The Story”, which shares the gospel story from creation to the cross in 6 different languages. We're also setting up the website in such a way so that whenever someone receives Christ, they automatically receive an email and a text message about the next steps in their faith. We’re grateful to God for this amazing tool for evangelism and discipleship. It was extremely helpful for Matt to be in the USA this past year to get these new tools up and running. Kuza was reaching as many as 25,000 people a week in January of 2020, but in March, April, and May of 2020, we reached as many as 75,000 people a week. Since things have settled down to roughly 50,000 people a week. God has been good to us. We’re also adding in some new tools with a Google Ads grant, which gives us $10,000/month in free advertising credit on Google. This will enable our Kuza content to be more easily found on Google searches. We’re grateful for this and we’re praying that in the next year that we will double our weekly reach.

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We are grateful for all of you, and pray for God's provision and grace for you during this time. 

God bless you!

The Elmores- Matt, Kelly, & Ezekiel

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Prayer Requests

Ministry

1. Pray for God to use our new radio program for his glory.

2. Pray for God's wisdom and blessing as we write new curriculum for our college ministry named SDM (Student Discipleship Ministry).

3. Pray for the 23 conferences this month to produce youth ministries and salvations of young people.

4. Pray for two Kenyan staff members who have COVID.

Personal

1. Pray for Zeke especially in his transition and wisdom for us as we work with him.

2. Praise for Kelly's headaches- after years of near daily headaches, they have significantly reduced!

3. Pray for all the friends and family we know in the States battling COVID. Matt's sister's family is currently dealing with COVID.

March 2021 News

Hello Everyone! Hope you are doing well!

4:12 News

We've unfortunately had some sad news recently. One of our staff members from the coastal team named Nzomo Bithoya died this month from colon cancer. He was 63 years old. He had been teaching conferences with us for the last couple of years and was doing an amazing job. His faithfulness was amazing. For some reason, the church that he planted and pastored for many years never really grew that big. Despite the small number of congregants, Nzomo was faithful. He was a dynamic preacher of the word and an amazing teacher. He taught conferences with us for hundreds of people. He led many people to Christ throughout his years. He was also a translator for different bible languages and Christian materials. His faithfulness and consistency in the Lord was very encouraging. During his burial, the family placed a sheet over his coffin that had our ministry logo and his church logo on it. He was a faithful man and he will be missed by our staff.

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Kenya Opening Up

Amazingly, God is blessing our team right now to teach many conferences. Between January and February, we’ve taught 43 conferences on how to start and run a youth ministry to pastors and church leaders. Since Kenya opened up after the initial COVID shutdown, pastors and Christians alike are hungry for the word. We've had so many requests for conferences to reach young people. We thank God for this and are so grateful for our incredible and proactive staff.

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Kuza News

We are so grateful for all of you who financially supported us to start a radio show in Nairobi. We were able to hit our financial goal by the end of 2020 and are now working in partnership with Pearl Radio in Nairobi. We're currently doing an ad campaign with them to hype up our KuzaApp.com online ministry and will soon start a radio broadcast. This partnership will provide us with access to hundreds of thousands of youth and young adults in the Nairobi area.

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Expansion Of The Ministry News

After some discussion and prayer with our ACO board of directors, we are changing a bit of how we function. What has been functionally happening on the ground in Kenya is now more explicit in Matt’s “title”. The title has changed from “Director of Church Equipping” to “International Director of Ministries.” Matt will now be helping to coordinate all of the ministries on the ground in East Africa for African Christian Outreach. Nothing will really change about his day-to-day job, but now our ministry will be more all-encompassing of what African Christian Outreach is doing. So if you start hearing about additional ministries in future newsletters, this is why! Here are some of the other arms of the ministry you’ll be hearing about:

1. Student Discipleship Ministry (SDM)-SDM does evangelism and discipleship on college campuses in East Africa. We have a team of 30 Kenyan staff members that minister in 23 college campuses in 3 different African countries. They have around 600 students actively participating in Bible studies.

2. New Beginnings Crisis Pregnancy Center- After many years of ministering to college students on campuses with SDM, our staff members frequently encountered young ladies who were pregnant and unsure if they wanted to have an abortion or have the baby. One of the young ladies we work with felt God call her to start New Beginnings and we now have a very amazing holistic ministry with these young women. In 2019, New Beginnings served 90 ladies.

3. Pamoja House-One of our SDM Kenyan staff members had a heart for the unsaved communities around his university. He lived in a predominately Muslim neighborhood, and felt God calling him to reach out to this community with thestudents from his Bible study. Out of this, Pamoja House was started (Pamoja means “together”). Pamoja House teaches courses on basic computer skills, baking, resume writing, and chess to the local community with the goal of sharing the gospel and discipling people. In 2019, we had 120 people consistently coming to the courses, and 4 people from a Muslim background receive Christ (they are still actively involved in discipleship).

We are excited about these ministries and the opportunities that they bring. Please pray with us as we move forward together with African Christian Outreach.

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Personal News

Not too much new on our end. Zeke turned 3 in January! Matt is continuing to work on ministry, and Kelly and Zeke hang out at home! We’re beginning to make preparations to return to Kenya in mid-July. It’s amazing how fast this year is going! Kelly is planning on going back to work at Rosslyn full-time next year, so we are sorting out housing options and other things.

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We are grateful for all of you, and pray for God's provision and grace for you during this time. 

God bless you!

The Elmores- Matt, Kelly, & Ezekiel

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Prayer Requests

1. Pray for God to use our new radio program for his glory.

2. Pray for directions and blessing on all the ministry arms of ACO.

3. Praise- Kelly’s dad update- Immunotherapy appears to working to kill the cancer. He is still dealing with the side effects of cancer and previous treatments.

4. Kelly’s health and headaches to get better.

5. Pray for us as we begin preparations for returning to Kenya in July.

6. Matt’s uncle passed away from COVID last month. Please pray for his family.

October 2020 News

Hello Everyone!

It's hard to believe that October is almost over. We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this cooler weather! Florida is still pretty warm, but we are definitely having some cooler moments! It's been fun to experience "fall" for the first time in 12 years. Kelly was able to meet up with some girlfriends who formerly worked at Rosslyn Academy in Michigan for a few days. And Zeke has been so excited to carve a pumpkin!

Opportunities on KuzaApp.com

One of the unique privileges we have through our online ministry is the ability to counsel youth and young adults. One recent example of this is a young man who contacted us. He is out of college and living on his own, but is struggling. He told us he had significant problems with pornography in high school, but was able to move away from it during his college years. His current problem is that he has difficulties interacting with young ladies without thinking or saying something sexually inappropriate. He fears now to even talk to young ladies, and wonders how he will ever get married. He is broken about it. We texted back and forth with him, and scheduled a phone call to follow up with counseling for him. He was very moved that our staff showed such concern and care for him.

We frequently have young people reach out to us like this, and these opportunities have increased during the slowdown of COVID. In the last few months, we’ve been sent questions about everything, including dating, struggles with various sexual sins, apologetics, and general Bible questions.  

4:12 Distrtriuting Food

COVID19 has obviously put a dent in our ability to teach in conferences and seminaries. It has also slowed down the economy, causing increasing poverty and hunger. As always, God has been faithful to open other doors to take care of people in unique ways. Sammy is our Kenya Director for the 4:12 ministry. One of our ministry partners called "Spread Truth" gave him 10 tons of food for food relief distribution. Sammy was able to distribute the food in various locations, using some of the money that would normally go towards conferences. They have shared the gospel during the distributions and have seen several receive Christ, and others cry tears of joy for receiving the food.

4:12 & The Jesus Film

As many others have around the world, our staff has gotten more creative during the COVID quarantine! As you may remember, we were gifted a Jesus Film backpack a few years ago, which includes a screen and solar-powered projector along with the film. Nicholas is our staff member in charge of the backpack, and has been showing this film to people in fields and backyards. He has had hundreds of people make a profession of faith to follow Jesus. He reported that he sees an unusual hunger for the Lord during this pandemic.

Fundraising Update

My staff wanted us to pass along to all of you who have faithfully supported us from March until now that they are VERY GRATEFUL! Poverty and hunger have reached the middle class and, in some instances, even the upper-middle class of Kenya, but our staff has been able to remain steady financially because of your faithful support! Many of them became emotional as they expressed their thanks. Your generosity has also allowed them to be generous to their neighbors and friends around them, which has been such a witness for their ministries. Know that you have some big fans in Kenya! 

We are grateful for all of you and pray for God's provision and grace for you during this time. 

God bless you!

Matt, Kelly, & Ezekiel Elmore

Prayer Requests: 

1. Pray for our Kuza staff as they return to our office for the first time since March.

2. Pray for more opportunities to counsel and share truth with young people online through KuzaApp.com.

3. Pray for the hunger and slow economy in Kenya to improve quickly.

4. Pray for more people to receive Christ through the showing of our Jesus film. Pray also for them to be discipled through our app and online ministry.

5. Pray for Kelly’s headaches and health. Still working through some stuff!

6. Please continue praying for Kelly's dad. He's undergoing immunotherapy, and we are praying that it will work to kill the cancer. Hoping for an update soon!

7. Pray for all of our staff, for their walk with Christ and personal lives.

August 2020 News

Hello from Florida!

We apologize for the delay in checking in…we've been busy adjusting to life in the U.S. It’s amazing the things that seem unfamiliar after you’ve been away so long! We also have been able to spend lots of quality time with family, which has been so much fun!

Kenya & COVID-19

The Kenya government has begun to roll back a few of the COVID19 restrictions. Churches are allowed to meet again, but with a cap of 100 people. As a result, the small and medium-sized churches have been meeting, but large churches are just continuing with online services. A few days ago, Kenya hit their all-time daily high of COVID19 cases. Despite this, we are encouraged that the death rate has been relatively low and the recoveries have been relatively high. Around 80% of those that have tested positive for COVID19 in Kenya have been either asymptomatic or had very mild symptoms. Please keep praying for Kenya because, at the moment, the biggest threat to Kenya is not COVID19, but hunger and poverty.

Kuza

In July 2019, God led us to start KuzaApp.com. There was no way we could know at the time what 2020 would hold for us and the rest of the world. Having a digital ministry like Kuza has been very strategic during this time of limited physical movement.  When Kuza first began, we were reaching around 10,000 people a week, largely through the app. As of July of 2020, we’ve hit numbers as high as 75,000 people a week, through our blogs, videos, app, and podcast. Social distancing has pushed more and more people online looking for answers. By God’s grace, Kuza has helped many find biblical answers. We are also currently averaging 45 clicks a month on the “Receive Christ” button on kuzaapp.com.  This takes them to a video that explains the gospel, from creation to the cross. They can then talk to a counselor to help them understand more. We pray that those clicking the button are following through with it, and have genuinely confessed Christ as their Savior. The director of the Nairobi Area Youth Network told us recently that he’s seeing and hearing about Kuza’s ministry and impact on youth everywhere in Nairobi. Very encouraging to hear that!

4:12 Ministry

4:12 has not been able to go out and teach conferences or in seminaries at the moment due to government restrictions. But, we believe that with the lift of the ban of church gatherings, this will soon change. Our staff is planning to teach smaller local conferences starting this month. Assuming that COVID19 news in Kenya remains relatively positive, we will continue expanding our reach of conferences. 

Family

Several of you have reached out to us and are asking how we’ve been doing settling into Florida. We are doing well. We are staying in a rental house that Kelly’s parents own, which has been a huge blessing. We’ve been able to spend lots of time with our families. Please continue praying for Kelly’s dad. The last round of radiation and chemo for his cancer were unfortunately unsuccessful. He is currently undergoing immunotherapy, so we are praying that this will be successful. He continues to be in a lot of pain and is dealing with several side effects of the cancer and radiation. However, there’s a lot he can still do, so we’re grateful for that. Zeke has been a great distraction for all of us. He’s talking up a storm and so excited about life. Matt has an office at Christ Community Church in Ocala, and goes to work 4 days a week to continue working on ministry from the States. Kelly finished up with Rosslyn at the end of June, so is a full-time homemaker for now!

Hanging out with Kelly's brother, Donald, and his wife, Shallon.

We know that times are difficult right now for many of you- physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually. Now more than ever, people around the world need to hear the truth and hope of Jesus Christ… and nothing but that. We are grateful for your continued support and prayer as we seek to share His truth and hope specifically in East Africa. We pray for you and the rest of the Church worldwide as we all seek to do this in our own communities!

We are grateful for you!
Matt, Kelly, & Ezekiel Elmore

Prayer Requests: 

1. Praise God with us that Kuza is reaching more people and seeing more people receive Christ. 

2. Pray for those in Kenya who are struggling with hunger and poverty to see their situations turn around. 

3. Pray for 4:12 conferences in August to be impactful and lead to the start of youth ministries.

4. Pray for Kelly’s dad, George, to be healed of cancer and relieved of pain. 

5. Praise God with us that none of our staff in Kenya has gotten COVID19. Pray that continues to be the case. 

6. Pray for God to bless our time in the USA to be fruitful and meaningful for His kingdom.

April 20202- We're Coming to America

Dear All, 

Since our newsletter last week, our circumstances have changed quite a bit! 

One thing we have not yet shared with you is that in February of this year, we decided to take a year-long furlough (or sabbatical) in the States. There were several reasons for this, one having to do with Kelly’s contract with Rosslyn and financial considerations, and the other is Kelly’s dad’s health. As many of you know, he has been battling cancer for the past year. After going through treatment last summer, it resurfaced in another area in December. After being here for 12 years, and only coming home for short visits and the 6 months when Zeke was born, we decided it was time for us to come home for a bit. This will also allow Zeke to get to know his family in person, rather than just over video chat (at least when all this social distancing dies down!). We were planning on coming back in June, but had not bought tickets yet due to COVID-19. 

As we said last week, the government banned all international flights in and out of Kenya. We were notified a few weeks ago that there was a possibility of a U.S. Embassy chartered flight that may be coming to remove some of their Embassy staff and other Americans who wanted to leave. We prayed about it for several days and decided that if a flight became available, we would like to be on it. We didn’t know when the next opportunity to leave Kenya would be, and we wanted to spend this next year with family. 

It’s been a rollercoaster week of being told there was a flight coming next week and there were seats available, then being told they weren’t available, and then finding yesterday there were seats on a “first come, first serve” basis. It was absolute madness (imagine a virtual Black Friday sale, combined with the Hunger Games, except all of your competitors are your friends). Somehow, and we’re not really sure how it happened, we were able to get tickets on the flight. I think there were only 30-some seats available, and there are a lot of Americans in Kenya. 

*Please note that we are not trying to leave because of civil unrest or anything. It has been very calm here and the government is doing a good job of containing things while still allowing life to continue. However, as with living in any foreign country, there is always a bit of trepidation about what might happen. 

So, next week, God willing, we will be boarding a flight to come back to the U.S. for about 14 months. We only have a few days to make sure our house is all packed up for the year, as new renters will be moving in. Please pray for us! And please pray for Zeke… we have an 18 hour flight to the States… with a 2 year old....

We have already set up ways for ministry to continue while we’re gone. Kelly was approved to take a sabbatical from Rosslyn. Because so much of Matt’s ministry has moved to a digital format, his work can continue seamlessly. He will continue to collaborate with our guys who do the preaching and teaching in conferences and seminaries, once everything opens back up. The Kuza team will continue working on the app devotionals, blogs, videos, and podcasts. Last time we spent 6 months in the States, the Kenya team was actually more productive and effective while we were gone (not sure what that means, ha!), and we are praying that this will happen again. 

God has blessed us with an amazing team, both our supporters Stateside, and our Kenyan team on the ground. We are so thankful to partner with all of you in equipping churches to reach youth for Christ. We hope (eventually) to see many of you Stateside!

Prayer Requests: 

1. Please pray for us as we get ready to leave Kenya. 

2. Pray for our staff and colleagues' safety. 

3. Pray for protection as we travel. 

4. Pray for Zeke during the long flight (and for all of us during our 2 week quarantine afterwards).

5. Pray for Zeke to adjust well to our new house and schedule. 

April 2020 News

Dear all, we hope you are keeping safe and well during this crazy and unreal time! We wanted to send an update to give you a glimpse of how ministry is continuing on and what life is currently like here in Kenya. 

Kenya & COVID-19

The Kenya government has tried to “flatten the curve” for the country by initiating some strict measures. After the third case of COVID-19, the government immediately shut down all schools. Soon afterwards, they cancelled all international flights both coming and going. Currently, we’re in the middle of a 30-day curfew, requiring the entire nation to be indoors from 7 pm-5 am. They are tracking down all connections of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to prevent its spread. As of today, they are also requiring everyone who is out for their "essential business" to wear masks. So far, the number of confirmed cases is just above 100, and almost all of these were ones already in quarantine. We are praying for Kenya to be spared what we've seen in other countries.  However, we are concerned for the people that live on day-to-day income or “hand-to-mouth” lifestyles. If people like this cannot go to work due to shut downs and social distancing measures, then they don't just stop making money... they go hungry. The government is doing their best to help out with these issues of hunger, but we need God’s mercy in a unique way here in Kenya. The problem is not just COVID-19 and a collapsing economy- it is also hunger.

Kuza

Social distancing has led to the shut down of many businesses in Kenya. Lots of people are at home and on the internet to either work or fill their day. As a result of this, our online ministry through KuzaApp.com has more than doubled in the last two weeks. Our average reach was 30,000 people per week. In the past two weeks, our numbers have shot up to 61,000 per week. We’ve also seen a lot more clicks on our “Receive Christ” button on our website. One of the videos that we shot in our backyard had 39,000 views on Facebook in five days. Marvin, who is one of our Kuza staff members, wrote a blog entitled “A Biblical View of COVID-19”. This blog had more than 5000 clicks (which according to our standards, means it went viral!).  We interpret all of this activity to mean that people are looking for God. They're at home, scared, and looking for hope in the Lord. We’re praying that this will lead to a revival and a resurgence of people coming back to to the Lord.

4:12 Ministry

Due to government measures, no churches or large gatherings are allowed. Therefore, our 4:12 ministry is not currently happening. We’re not teaching any conferences or training in seminaries at the moment. However, we have been meeting on Zoom like most of the world, to pray together. We’re also planning to record someone teaching all of our conference materials to put online as a resource to churches. 

Family

We as a family are doing well. Matt is working in his home office Monday-Friday writing more materials for KuzaApp.com, together with his staff who are at their homes. Kelly is also working online for Rosslyn Academy, often right next to Matt in the same office. It has been kind of fun to work side-by-side. Zeke is living his best life as usual, playing outside and being a two year old. (No, my and mine are his favorite words). He's loving dinosaurs, drawing (or "draw pen" as he says), playing with balls, torturing Chewy our cat,  and Florida State (raise 'em right). He’s also enjoying seeing Mommy and Daddy more frequently.

Prayer Requests: 

As we list our prayer requests, please know we are praying for the States and for all of you. We know these are such uncertain times, but we praise God we know the one who KNOWS. To close, John Piper has written words of hope far more eloquently than we could, so please see his article here.

1. Please pray for God’s mercy in Kenya to keep COVID-19 from spreading.  Pray for those who have the potential to go hungry. 

2. Pray for COVID-19 to spark a revival in Kenya. 

3. Pray for our staff, colleagues, and their families to not get sick. 

4. Pray for 4:12 staff members to remain encouraged, even though they’re not teaching conferences or in seminaries.

February 2020 News

We hope that all of you had a great Christmas and a great start to the new year! 2019 was an amazing year for our ministry and we want to thank you for all that you did to support us both financially and prayerfully. Here are some stories and stats about what God did in 2019 through us!  

2019 was Year Eleven on the ministry field for us, and has been our most fruitful year by far! We have seen more people make a profession of faith, more conferences taught, and more people discipled than ever before. We have seen God do amazing things. I would call 2019 the year of grace. I say that because despite our family having to slow down on ministry and travel, and spend more of our time and energy on raising our little boy, the ministry is thriving like never before!

We’ve seen the grace of God lead our Kenyan staff take on more responsibility and see them do a wonderful job managing the ministry. It was also His grace that allowed us create an office space for our Kuza members in the month of July, which has really led to a booming Kuza online ministry. By the month of November, we were reaching 25,000 people per week through our blogs, podcast, app, and videos. We were blown away at how fast this online ministry has been growing in Kenya. It was also God’s grace to see more than 5000 professions of faith and 7080 people be added to local churches after we taught them in our conferences. We know that not every missionary gets to see fruit like this from their ministry, and we know it's God's grace to see such an amazing harvest.  We are so grateful for your support which enables all of this!

See some more 2019 statistics below for both of our ministries- 4:12 and Kuza.

Goal: Create Digital Discipleship Materials for Youth
 

• 556- Total Daily Devotions Written as of November 2019 for Kuza App.

• 4 - Local Kenyan staff who write & develop blogs, videos, devotions, and podcast.

• 20,000 - Total App Downloads as of December 2019

• 25,000- Average number of people reached weekly through blogs, videos, podcasts, and app as of December 2019.

• Office- Started Full-Time Office July 2019

• Website- KuzaApp.com 

Goal: Equip Churches to Reach Youth
 

Conferences

• 2019- 300 Conferences 

• 2018- 176 Conferences 

• 2017- 128 Conferences 

• 2016- 100 Conferences

Conference Types

• Momentum- Two levels of training. There are both a one and two day versions for pastors and church leaders encouraging them to start a youth ministry or Bible study for the first time. 

• Kuza Seminar- Two day seminar for youth, to build on and support the work our Momentum-trained pastors and church leaders are doing. 

All-Time Ministry (since 2010)

• 1069- Total Number of Conferences Taught from 2010-2019. 

• 23.6- Average Number of people added to the churches per conference

• 25,228- Total Number of people (youth & adults) added to churches between 2010-2019 most of whom are first time believers.

• 15- Local Kenyans who teach

Seminaries

• 2019- Taught in 25 seminaries and local Bible schools

• 7- Different countries taught in- Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, & Zambia.

We celebrated Ezekiel's second birthday on the 24th of January! We had a fun party with a borrowed slip-n-slide, a kiddie pool, birthday cake that Kelly made from scratch, ice cream, and lots of friends his age. Zeke was a little scared to get into the water and go down the slip-n-slide (although he made one trip sitting on Daddy's lap!), but he loved being around everyone at the party.

Prayer Requests: 

1. Pray for us to reach our goal of reaching 50,000 people per week through Kuza. 

2. Praise God with us that Ezekiel is two years old and doing so well. 

3. Praise God with us that we reached our financial goals for 2019 with our end of the year fundraising.  

4. Prayers for Kelly's dad's health as he battles cancer and is currently undergoing treatment.  

5. Pray for funds to continue to keep pace with our new ministry and staff growth.

6. Pray for our 4:12 staff to reach our goal of 300 conferences once again for 2020. 

7. Pray for Matt to make wise administration decisions for the ministry. 

November 2019 News

Hi Everybody! God is doing some amazing things right now, and we just wanted to give you a quick update as to what is going on.

Kuza:

As of a month ago, we had reached just over 15,000 people with our Kuza ministry. Two weeks ago, over 20,000. Last week, over 22,000. God is blessing our online ministry of Kuza. We are so humbled and amazed by that. Most of the people are being reached through our app, which is the "original" form of the discipleship material. Our videos on Facebook have also had more than 3,000 views.  Recently one pastor I met found out that I was behind the Kuza  ministry, and he was so excited to meet me. He said that every time he leads a young person to Christ, he has them download our app and read our Kuza devotions to disciple them.

Please pray for Kuza. Towards the end of year, we will have several opportunities to promote Kuza at very large youth ministry events. It will be expensive for us to do it, but has the potential of adding a great number who will be familiar with our app and blogs.

Click here to see our Kuza website.

Kuza & Spread Truth:

Kuza partners with Spread Truth, a youth-oriented evangelistic ministry, and we joined together for a week-long sports evangelism tournament. Together with volunteering churches, we were able to lead more than 1000 people to Christ. More than 100 youth basketball teams and 100 volleyball teams competed as the gospel was preached. Kuza staff were fortunate enough to be on the evangelism teams, and as we were evangelizing, we had people download the app to help them be discipled. Spread Truth did a fantastic job organizing everything, and we were grateful to be a part of the event. The Kenyan government, churches, and community leaders were all involved. Thousands of people heard the gospel and drew the attention of the entire county it was in. 

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for us to maximize our opportunities to promote Kuza this year. 

2. Praise God with us for the success of Kuza in the last one month. Pray for more people to start following Kuza.

3. Praise God with us for the success of the Spread Truth & Kuza events. Pray for people that made a profession of faith to be get involved in churches and be discipled. 

4. Pray for funds to keep pace with our new ministry and staff growth.

5. Pray for us to find a quality (and inexpensive) English to Swahili translator for our blogs and website.

October 2019 News

Hi Everybody! Hope you are doing well. Our most exciting personal news is that we cut Zeke’s hair! :) Kelly cut it with scissors. He did great and looks so grown up now! It was sad to lose the beautiful curls, but was very difficult to manage!

4:12 Ministry

Our Tanzanian staff has seen God do some incredible things as they’ve been teaching. One incredible incident was among the Sukuma tribe of Northwest Tanzania. Many of the Sukuma are churchgoers, but they still hold firmly to witchcraft, as we would soon find out. While our team was teaching a conference there, they kept feeling uneasy and like they were not breaking through with any of the people. They fasted and prayed for a whole night, asking God to move. Someone informed them the next morning about the whole region being deeply involved in witchcraft. The community did not trust God’s ability to actually help them in their lives. They finally realized why it had been so hard to teach! They continued praying and fasting. Finally, at the end of the conference, God brought a breakthrough. The entire conference of 400 people came forward and repenting, confessing sins (sometimes embarrassing ones) out loud to God. Pastors and church elders came forward. Almost everyone there came to Christ completely.

4:12 Administrator:

Matt mentioned in our previous newsletter that our 4:12 teaching ministry has grown from 8 members to 15 members since Ezekiel was born (20 months ago). This massive growth in our staff has been incredible. But with the growth of the ministry, there must be growth in administration. Matt, together  with the leaders of the 4:12 team, decided to lift Sammy to become the full-time administrator of the ministry. Sammy has already been handling a lot of administrative responsibilities, but it was made official. After announcing the rest of the 4:12 team, they commissioned Sammy by laying hands on him in prayer. This delegation of administrative responsibilities has been a burden lifted off of Matt’s shoulders, allowing him to focus more on the growing Kuza ministry.

Kuza Office Launch:

We officially opened our Kuza offices at the end of July this year, but had not made this opening public to our friends and ministry partners in Kenya. So, we held an official launch of our Kuza office and showed our partners some new Kuza developments on September 26th. We had snacks, tea, and a presentation. They were all very impressed and recommitted themselves to continue partnering with us moving forward.

Kuza:

Since we started the four-member Kuza team in July, we have been able to expand Kuza beyond just an app to a more full-fledged digital ministry. We currently have videos called “Soma,” which means “to read” or “to study” in Swahili. We also have a podcast that we record in our office, as well as continuing  with our blogs. The Soma videos are very similar to the “Look at the Book” videos by DesiringGod.com, but we use local examples and Swahili to present it.  DesiringGod.com graciously permitted adapt their concepts to a Kenyan context and create videos like this. The goal of these videos is for Kenyan youth to focus on the scriptures and learn how to interpret them. Check out a video and podcast. below.

Massive Opportunity: 

Please continue praying for us as we, together with our ministry partner Spread Truth, have officially signed an agreement with the government of Kenya to minister amongst the National Youth Service (NYS). NYS has 23 stations and  60,000 young adults between the ages of 18-25 involved in the program. The plan is to do a survey of all 23 stations and then create a plan of action for 2020. Please pray with us to find staff, and prayerfully consider supporting this fantastic ministry opportunity.

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for Matt to gain wisdom in administration, especially with the growth of the ministry.

2. Pray for the people that have made a profession of faith this year through our ministry.

3. Pray for the Kuza office to generate lots of biblical, meaningful, and relevant content, and for more partners to help promote Kuza.

4. Pray for a new opportunity for Kuza involving a partner ministry and the government of Kenya!

5. Pray for funds to keep pace with our new ministry and staff growth.

6. Pray for Zeke to continue to develop and grow well, especially for his speech (it’s coming!)

7. Pray for Kelly as she begins this new school year working part-time, and tries to balance work and homelife.

8. Pray for us to find a quality English to Swahili translator for our blogs and website.

April 2019 News

Hello Everyone!

Our apologies for the delay in getting a newsletter out! Life with a toddler...

Malawi Ministry

We’re officially teaching in a new country now- Malawi, in the southern part of Africa. Nathan, who has been ministering with us since 2012, became Facebook friends a few years ago with Pastor Braswell, a pastor from Malawi. Pastor Braswell came to Kenya for a conference and to meet Nathan. Soon after their meeting, we sent Nathan & Zephaniah down to Malawi to teach at 2 different seminaries. The students wholeheartedly received the teaching and we’re excited to hear stories of what will happen in their churches. We now have 6 countries that we’re continuously teaching in! (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Ethiopia, & Malawi)

Coast Teaching Team & Tanzania Teaching Team

We have two new teaching teams- a Kenya coastal team and a Tanzania team. It took the coastal team a little while to get going, but after some organizing and delegation, they are teaching our curriculum very effectively. The Tanzania team has been doing amazing work. With just three members, they have already taught 65 conferences within the past 6 months that encourage pastors to start youth ministries. They have led more than a hundred people to salvation in the first quarter of this year.  One of those people that received salvation was a blind young man. He struggled to walk to our Kuza seminar and struggled to walk back home, but he came early and stayed for both days they taught.

The Coastal Team

The Blind Young Man

Jesus Film Muslim Salvations

A partnering ministry called "Spread Truth" gifted us a Jesus Film backpack. Inside the backpack is a projector, a screen, two microphones, and two speakers, all allowing us to show the Jesus film to crowds of up to 1500 people. The whole system is powered by solar power, so can be shown anywhere. Our Tanzania team fearlessly showed the Jesus film to several hundred people, most of whom were Muslims. Afterwards, 4 Muslims publicly prayed to receive Christ! Many others were trembling and had tears in their eyes. We believe that others surrendered their lives to Christ privately. Please pray that we continue to have opportunities to show the Jesus film after teaching our conferences. 

Kuza

We’ve been blessed with office space to run our Kuza ministry from. We’re planning to hire a couple of Kenyan staff to write part-time for our Kuza website and app. They will also develop video content and podcasts to help youth grow stronger in the Lord.

Personal

We are all doing well! Zeke is 15 months old, walking and running everywhere and jabbering. Kelly will be going part-time next year at Rosslyn to spend more time at home with him, so we will be moving off Rosslyn’s campus this summer. We appreciate your prayers for Kelly’s migraines, they have been much better recently! We had a great time celebrating Easter with both Kenyan and American friends with a camping trip and by going to our church. We are grateful for you and your partnership in the gospel!

Easter Sunday

—Matt, Kelly and Zeke

Prayer Request:

1. More opportunities to show the Jesus Film at our conferences.

2. People to grow closer to Christ through the Kuza app and new Kuza staff.

3. For effectiveness for our Coastal and Tanzanian teams, seminaries in Malawi, and open doors in the country of Zambia.

4. For us during our move and transition this summer.

5. Pray for the Malawi ministry to continue to grow stronger. 

6. Praise God with us that Ezekiel is walking and saying a few words now! Pray he continues to be healthy and will be saved whenever he is older. 

Financial Support:

If you feel that God is leading you to support our ministry of equipping churches to reach youth for Christ, please see one of the options below. 100% of all financial gifts come to the mission field & are tax deductible: 

1. CHECK- Please make a check out to "African Christian Outreach" and write "Matt & Kelly Elmore" in the memo line to be sure it goes to us. Mail the check to African Christian Outreach at P.O. Box 600275 Dallas, Texas 75360. 

2. ONLINE- You can give a one time gift or set up a reoccurring gift by hitting the "Donate Now" button below: 

September 2018 News

Hi Everyone!
Well, we are back in the swing of things here in Kenya! We’ve been enjoying some frigid temperatures here- lows in the 40s, highs in the low 70s, although it’s starting to warm up- highs in the low 80s, lows in the 50s) 

Conferences:

The month of August is always a busy month for us, since Kenyan schools are closed for a holiday and churches love to host conferences for youth and church leaders during that time. We taught 26 total conferences and trained more than 3000 people! This month we also taught our largest conference ever - a Kuza Seminar to 700 high school and college students in Bomet, Kenya. After teaching our lesson on salvation, Simeon and Evans gave an opportunity for the students to receive Christ. They said there were so many hands that went up, there was not room at the altar to accommodate them. God really moved in that conference, and we are grateful.

Kuza:

Matt is continuing to work hard on the Kuza app. We are planning to start posting weekly articles on https://kuza.africa. The radio station we’ve been partnered with, Kubamba Radio, has been going through some tough times financially, so please pray with us for God to raise up someone in the gap for them, and for a continued fruitful partnership. 

Personal:

The first few weeks of starting school and leaving Zeke were a little hard on Kelly. Thankfully, we have someone watching Zeke while Kelly is at work. Her name is Sarah and she is doing SUCH a great job taking care of him. He’s just starting crawling, and wanting to pull up to stand. He is so much fun! He’s got two teeth and is starting to feed himself. We also took him camping for the first time and he did great!  

Good Story:

Matt happened to run into a pastor called Nicholas, who had been trained by us in youth ministry. He shared that they started with 8 youth, and have 29 that faithfully come. Several parents of the youth have also started coming to the church. One of the youth is studying to be a music pastor, and another takes the church’s projector to show the “Jesus Film” in various parts of their home area. This film ministry they’ve started has led to a few thousand salvations. You never know how powerfully God can use a conference to see His church grow! 

Thank you for your partnership in the gospel! —Matt and Kelly

Prayer Request: 

1. Pray for our Kuza ministry to continue growing stronger.

2. Pray for the 12 conferences we have planned this month to be well- attended and for future fruit.

3. Pray for Kelly’s health- she is fine, but dealing with migraines, some persistent neck pain, and eczema (yes, I’m falling apart. Thank you mid- late 30’s...it’s always something.) 

Matt had the privilege to preach to children at an elementary school. 

Intestines, cabbage, meat, & rice. Lunch for the hungry visiting teacher. 

Nicholas preaching to 500 kids at a children's camp. 

300 youth at one of our Kuza Seminars. 

Nathan taking a selfie with some middle school-aged kids that he taught at a Kuza seminar.

July 2018 News

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are enjoying your summertime! We are wrapping up our last two weeks here in the States.

Hard to believe it’s almost over! Here’s some highlights from the past couple months.

Kuza Seminar

As you may know, last year we started a conference for youth only, called “Kuza Seminar”. One incredible story from last month- Zephaniah was hosting a Kuza seminar, and a group of 6 youth walked 30 miles through dry and arid terrain to get to it, since there was no other transportation available! They started walking at 6am and arrived at 6pm. Zephaniah was so humbled that these young people would walk so far. They slept on the ground at the church for two nights and then walked back 30 miles (without any food and water on the way). Two out of the 6 made a profession of faith.

Working Hard

Our teaching team has been working very hard teaching conferences ever since we left. When we compare how many conferences they have taught from January-June this year compared to last, the team has taught 20 more conferences this year! We are so humbled that God answered our prayers to see the work not slow down but speed up in our absence. The curriculum side of our ministry, (which includes the Kuza App) isn’t growing quite as strong, but we recently started a patnership with Lulu FM, a radio station on the coast of Kenya. We’ve also started partnering with “Sowing Seeds of Joy”, who will help us teach conferences in this region. These are answers to prayers to help us extend the ministry further into this region.

Personal

We have been so blessed to have Ezekiel’s adoption finalized. Everything is done, and he even has his passport, ready for Kenya! We will admit that it has been very tiring starting a family together with fundraising, but Ezekiel has been such a sweet little boy. He almost always (*kinda) sleeps through the night now. He coos at us constantly, loves standing, and he has been patient with us traveling around from place to place.

Fundraising

We are only $490/month away from reaching our budget goals for the rest of 2018 and 2019. We are so close to finishing it out. Please consider either increasing your support or becoming a monthly supporter. Do that by clicking the “Donate Now” button below. God has been so good to us during our time here in the States, and we are so grateful for how he’s used all of you to bless us! Please pray for us as we transition back to Kenya and our new life there with a baby!

- Matt and Kelly 

Please pray for:

1. Our personal transitions back to Kenya with baby Zeke, especially for Kelly starting back to work!

2.Continued growth of the ministry on the coast.

3. For us to reach our budgetary needs for the 2018-19 year.

4.Praise for our finalized adoption, for wonderful times spent with his birth family, and overall a hugely blessed time in the States. 

An Upcoming Change

Dear Supporters,

We praise God for you, because through you, we have been financially and prayerfully empowered to accomplish our goal of equipping churches to reach youth for the last 10 years in Kenya!  Some quick stats about our ministry:

* 573 conferences have been taught

* 13,522 individuals added to local churches

* 6,000+ young people have made a profession of faith

* Biblical Principles of Youth Ministry Curriculum taught in 7 Seminaries in 5 different countries and more than 20 small local Bible schools.

*  Developed and Launched KUZA, the first devotional app written by Kenyans for Kenyan youth. Over 9000 downloads and more than 3500 active readers

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An Upcoming Change

As you know, for the past 10 years we have been missionaries with Global Youth Ministry (GYM). GYM has been a huge part of our lives, and we are so grateful for everything they have done for us. Through a time of reflection, prayer, and wise counsel, we feel that God is leading us in a different direction in regards to our sending agency. We still feel called to continue our ministry in Kenya by equipping churches to reach youth for Christ. However, we feel that shifting to a missions-focused sending organization will better maximize a long-term sustainability for ministry to continue in the hands of indigenous workers.

We believe God provided His answer through a ministry called African Christian Outreach (ACO). Through a series of conversations, ACO’s Executive Director and a good friend of ours, offered Matt the opportunity to join the team and lead ACO’s new initiative in equipping the East African church to reach youth.    

We want to stress that our move in no way reflects negatively on Global Youth Ministry. We love Global very much, and have an extremely positive relationship and history with them.

African Christian Outreach (ACO) has been focusing on Engaging with the Gospel, Equipping through Discipleship and Empowering through Life-on-Life Experiences on college campuses in East Africa for 47 Years. Tom and Kerry Stickney, the current directors, live in Nairobi with their two children. Kerry teaches with Kelly at Rosslyn Academy, both of their children attend Rosslyn, and Matt & Tom go fishing together. Tom’s parents started ACO in 1971. ACO currently supports an indigenous staff team of 27 people that are actively ministering in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan. Our goal of equipping churches to reach youth complements ACO’s vision, and the long-term success of ACO will allow for the sustainability of our ministry for years to come.

Thank you for your continued financial and prayer support (see below) as we move forward in this exciting new venture!

We are grateful for you!

Matt & Kelly Elmore
Director of Church Equipping
African Christian Outreach
matt@africanchristianoutreach.com
352-430-7181 (until July 16, 2018)
+254-714097513 (IMessage or WhatsAPP only)
www.elmoresinkenya.com  or  www.africanchristianoutreach.com

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Changes Going Forward: Where/How you can send your financial support

(Please see below for how to continue giving to our ministry. Your continued financial support is very important in enabling us to stay on the mission field, and for that we are so grateful)

 We would like to request that you give in one of the following ways:
 

1. Online Giving - Sign up by clicking the "Donate Now" button below. You can choose either a one-time gift, or set up automatically monthly donations through your debit card or directly through an automatic deduction from your bank account. Please consider giving a monthly donation if you are currently not doing so. 

*This method is preferred due to the ease of record-keeping. 

*If you are already giving online, you do not need to change anything!

2. Checks - If you prefer to send checks, please make them out to: “African Christian Outreach" and write “Matt & Kelly Elmore” in the memo line. 

Mail the checks to: 

African Christian Outreach, PO Box 702001 Dallas, TX 75370

Please DO NOT continue make donation payments via the Global Youth Ministry website, or mail checks to Global Youth Ministry OR First Baptist Church Of Lake Wales. 

(There will be a "grace period" for a few months as we transition systems, so if you forget and give the old way to Global Youth Ministry/FBC Lake Wales, no worries! The money will still get to us.)

Please be assured that by giving to us through ACO, your gift will remain tax-deductible and 100% of your giving will go directly towards our ministry. 

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

www.africanchristianoutreach.com        www.elmoresinkenya.com

March 2018 News

Hi Everyone!

We are currently in the U.S. and enjoying being near family, eating some BBQ and Chik-fil-A, AND…

Personal - We are so excited to introduce to you the newest member of the Elmore family —- Ezekiel Edward Elmore! He was born on January 24 at 7.7 lbs, 21 inches, and so healthy! We had the privilege of being in the hospital when he was born. Kelly was the first one to hold and feed him. God moved incredibly in the hospital and really blessed us in regards to the birth family and our time spent with them. We are loving being parents! Zeke is such a joy to us, and we would appreciate your continued prayers for him, for health and for his salvation.

Kuza- Our Kuza app ministry has been doing well since we’ve arrived in the USA. Our team has helped the ministry to have over 1000 downloads, developed a new radio ministry partner named “Lulu FM,” written three devotions, and are starting to plan for a large conference for all Kuza users since we have been in the USA. Lulu FM is a Christian youth radio network on the coast of Kenya, where we currently have no marketing for Kuza yet. Lulu FM heard us being talked about on Kubamba Radio (our Nairobi radio station partners), and they loved the app and wanted to partner with us. We’re very excited about the potential to spread Kuza’s net wider. 

Conferences & Seminaries Updates- Our teaching team has flourished in our absence! Through the months of January-March, they taught 30 conferences and in 2 seminaries! At one of the conferences, 2 youth made professions of faith. At the seminary in Burundi, Sammy and Nicholas got to meet up with a pastor we had formally trained who was working at a local Baptist church. He had started a youth Bible study at his church and it is thriving! They have close to 50 youth attending! The youth were so excited about the Bible study and expressed their gratefulness for the training their pastor had received from us. It is such a blessing to see such fruit from our work!

Fundraising- One of the things we will be doing while here in the States (in addition to raising a little human) is fundraising for our ministry.  Our ministry continues to grow and we are often unable to meet the demand for trainings due to finances. Please pray for us to be successful in this, that God will raise up those who can either increase their giving or give for the first time. Matt is available to speak in churches or in people’s homes, so please let us know if you would be interested in him coming to you!

We are so grateful for you!!! Thank you so much for your prayers that both sustain us and increase God’s kingdom!

- Matt and Kelly

Please pray for:

1. Our Kenyan team to continue efficiently and faithfully working towards our ministry’s goals. 
2. For baby Ezekiel to continue to grow strong and bond well with us. 
3. For a great partnership between Lulu FM and Kuza.
4. For Matt as he travels to meet supports and fundraises.