Kep & Debbie Mid-Trip Report 2

Thank you for praying for our time in Brazil two weeks ago with the ESI leaders in 7 Brazilian states. Then this week we met in Colombia with 20 South America Spanish speaking ESI leaders. We thank God for the committed people He has given us to work with. We heard many reports of how the Lord is using the study of His Word to move pastors and church leaders to experience deep gospel transformation in their own lives, and how this is impacting others leading local churches.

Please pray for the flight tomorrow to Liberia to work with Paulo training 100 pastors and church leaders in Monrovia. We VALUE your prayers that each one will experience gospel transformation as they commit to study God's Word,

Kep and Debbie

Kep & Debbie Mid-Trip Report

Thank you for praying for us during the past 2 weeks.

Debbie and I have been in Brazil for the past 2 weeks visiting ESI (Equipping Servants International/ Disciples Making Disciples) groups in Rio and Sao Paulo. We helped with pastors conferences that Billy King (Christianity Explored) led on the topic of Evangelism. We are deeply encouraged seeing the impact that the study of God's Word is having on so many pastors and church leaders in Brazil. Please keep praying as they study Romans in this 3-year ESI process! ESI is currently in 7 of the 27 States of Brazil.

Our next stop is Colombia. Debbie and I will be there with 20 of our Latin America ESI Country leaders for a week (October 22-26) of meetings to plan and pray and evaluate how to better help local churches and church leaders to honor Christ by being true to His Scriptures and to experience deep gospel transformation in their lives.

Please also pray for our trip over to Liberia, West Africa after that. We'll be with Paulo October 28- November 1 in Monrovia taking 100 Liberian pastors through further training that we have designed to help teach how to effectively study the Bible to understand it more clearly, to live it, and to teach and preach it more effectively in their local churches.

We sincerely value your prayers for this work to impact lives for Jesus. When you pray, you are there with us! Its an amazing truth!! Colossians 4:2-4

Love to each of you,

Kep and Debbie

Kep & Debbie October 2024 Update

Gospel Drift – a shift away from the message of the whole gospel. This happens when people stop reading their Bible, understanding its true message, and living according to it. Focus gets distracted away from Jesus and onto worldly pursuits (self). The resulting spiritual slumber puts Jesus in the back seat and changes His message -- often imagining that Jesus came primarily to make our personal life more pleasant, or to strengthen our position in the world – rather than to save us from our sins and reconcile us to God so that we would be more useful instruments for His purposes. Gospel Drift leads to a life of unbelief (doubting God), or bitterness of heart, or infighting with fellow believers over non-essential differences. The end is our spiritual coldness and a life that dishonors Christ.

Everywhere we go in the Americas, Africa and Europe, we meet pastors and church leaders who come to recognize how far they have fallen into this – straying away from Jesus and His Word.

The Bible warns against drifting away from our relationship with God and His gospel! Hebrews 2:1-3 urges, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For since the Word proved unalterable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

Please pray for Equipping Servants/ Disciples Making Disciples as men and women in North and South America, Africa and Europe set time aside to study the Bible to understand the Bible and to live the Bible, so that they can faithfully teach and preach the Bible in their local churches. Pray that the Lord will help each of us experience deep transformation in our lives through the power of the gospel.

Pray that God will keep us vigilant and alert to the wiles of the Devil and to every current straining against God’s work:

 • Through prayer, talking to Him honestly and earnestly, pouring out our hearts, and seeking His guidance and presence.

• Through reading and meditating on His Word, allowing His truth to permeate our minds and hearts, and applying it to our daily lives.

• Through fellowship with other believers, walking humbly together with Biblical friends and holding each other accountable in love.

• By seriously and intentionally living out our faith every day, aligning our lives with the reality of who Jesus is.

Ministry Travel plans October/ November

• Oct 3 – Kep and Debbie to Brazil (ESI pastors conferences Rio and Sao Paulo with Elias and ministry partner Billy King – GET his newly released book The Gospel Uncompromised – it will seriously encourage and challenge you in your own walk with God)

• Oct 13 Kep to Uruguay ESI; Debbie to Bolivia for Women’s Conference

• Oct 22-26 – ESI Latin America country-leader meetings in Colombia

• Oct 27-Nov 2 – Kep to Liberia with Paulo for ESI Facilitator Training in Monrovia

• Nov 13-16 – Kep and Debbie to Cowen, West Virginia to lead first-ever English ESI Facilitator Training in USA

Thank you for praying!

Kep and Debbie

ESI (Equipping Servants International/ Disciples Making Disciples) is a ministry of Parkside Church, 7100 Pettibone Rd, Chagrin Falls, OH 44023.

Kep & Debbie September 2024 Update

Download Kep & Debbie's September 2024 Update with photos.

Thank you for praying for the three weeks we spent in Egypt and Portugal. We arrived back home last evening. Attached is our Update of what we saw God doing, including photos. God worked in such amazing ways! We know you are praying, and that He is faithful to answer your prayers!

Our love in Christ,

- Kep and Debbie James

Kep & Debbie September 2024 Prayer Requests

Pray for the 80 Church Planting School leaders we will be training in Egypt September 1,2 in Cairo; followed by the Equipping Servants International (ESI) Facilitator Training we will be leading in Lisbon, Portugal September 4-7. We are expecting 70 key Portuguese pastors for that ESI training.

Also, pray for ESI in Brazil as 15 new groups start in the NorthEast region in September.

Thank you,

Kep

Kep & Debbie August 2024 Update

Download Kep & Debbie's August 2024 Update

Thank you for praying! We NEED your prayers for our time in Cairo the last week of August, and then Lisbon the first week of September. I've included an update from the North African church planters, amazing gospel growth in Rwanda, and Equipping Servants (ESI) progress in Brazil.

It means so much that you are praying for us.

Thank you,

Kep and Debbie James

Kep & Debbie August 2024 Prayer Requests

* We hear good reports from the African students we took through Romans earlier this year. Pray as they now work in small teams in difficult Muslim communities in North and West Africa making Christ known and planting churches. Pray that they will continue to study the Bible every day, to understand it, to live it, and to teach and preach it faithfully.

* Pray for the 290 lead-pastors in Rwanda that Paulo is helping, as they lead Equipping Servants/Disciples Making Disciples groups in their local churches.

* Pray for the Equipping Servants/Disciples Making Disciples groups that started in recent months in Norfolk, Virginia and Los Angeles among Spanish speaking pastors. Pray that each will grow to deeply understand and live the gospel. Pray that they will love Jesus more and experience genuine gospel transformation in their lives.

 Read more...

Kep & Debbie July 2024 Update

Download Kep & Debbie's July 2024 Update with photos.

Thank you for praying for our Equipping Servants (ESI) Training in London last week. Attached is our report and PHOTOS of that Training. Also an update on the ESI work in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. And what the Mali and Senegal students we trained in April with Streams of Living Water Ministry are now doing.

Kep and Debbie James

Kep & Debbie June 14, 2024 Update

1. In a few days Debbie and I leave for London to lead an ESI Facilitator Training for 70 African pastors.

WHY LONDON?

Ever since we started ESI groups in English speaking Africa, church leaders there have requested that if we want to see the best traction for the gospel, we need to get the African pastors living and working in London on board with what we are doing – for influence, leadership and funding.

Please pray for gospel impact in the life of each participant during our time with them June 25-July 2. In almost every place we go in Africa and Latin America, we find that pastors and church leaders have drifted away from the Bible and the gospel core – leaving the church without a Christ-honoring purpose and direction, without gospel transformation, and without 2 Timothy 1:13,14 impact. Pray that the Lord will use our time together to encourage each one to make a commitment to study the Bible (John 8:31,32), to understand the Bible, to live the Bible, so they can preach and teach the Bible in their local churches – so that Christ will be honored.

2. Pray for the 10 ESI groups that have started recently in South Africa and in Brazil, that the Lord will help pastors and church leaders grow in gospel transformation.

3. Pray for the Streams of Living Water students we have trained in Senegal and Mali as they head out in July to start planting churches in small teams in very difficult villages where they face great resistance to the gospel.

Kep James

Kep & Debbie June 2024 Update

Just a short note thanking you for praying for ESI (Equipping Servants International is a 3-year mutual-discipleship process) as it continues to expand and deepen through Latin America and Africa. Please pray for Elias, giving oversight to 20 groups in nearly every major city in Brazil. Many participants in these groups have expressed sincere thanks to God for growth they are seeing in their personal lives as they study Romans together with Biblical friends. Also pray for many groups meeting to study the Bible in Africa (West, East and South).

Pray for our next ESI Facilitator Training June 26-29 – this time in London -- with 70 African. Many church leaders we work with in English speaking Africa have urged us to start ESI in London, which they believe is strategic to reach English speaking Africa. So we agreed to do this. Please pray for each participant as they prepare 6 studies in Romans to get ready for the Training. Pray that each will have a genuine encounter with Jesus as they do this, and that during the Training, God will lead each one to make a commitment to study the Bible as their life-priority (John 8:31,32)!

Your prayer is SO important for us! When you pray, you go with us!

Kep and Debbie