Happy New Year to all our Prayer Partners!
Thank you for continuing to join us in prayer as we enter a new year. Below you will find the prayer requests by region as reported by our staff and ministry partners. We are grateful for your participation in God’s work through FFICM’s global outreach in Nigeria and Ethiopia. May God bless you and your homes with grace through every circumstance in 2021.
Ethiopia
Prayer for the training will be held on Jan 18-22. About 120 people are expected from local churches. New Ethiopian staff member Ayele will be helping.
The Sudanese military, which is collaborating with the Egyptians, invaded northern Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government is negotiating. We need to pray for those negotiations and for peace.
Many killings in Northern Ethiopia. The federal government had solved the issue with the Tigray people wanting to separate, but the attackers (the Tigre people, a group which used to be in ruling power) are continuing to kill people there while wearing Ethiopia military uniforms, and blaming them. The situation is complicated, but the major prayer request is for peace in Ethiopia in the midst of all the fighting and struggle.
Pray for continued planning for the big conference that will be coming 25-28 March 2021. They are working on finalizing the location for the upcoming conference for 15,000 there in Southern Ethiopia.
The training event in Sudan which will be held in April. We need to print books. Please pray for the preparation process.
Pray for the remaining $5,000 needed for the vehicle purchase there in Ethiopia.
Nigeria
Praise God for seeing us through this new year.
This week has been dedicated to prayer in the Nigeria-FFICM office. Prayer from 8-10, then break, pray again at 12. We pray for the activities for this year, especially for the conferences and trainings.
We are praying for safety for the traveling because travel is becoming increasingly unsafe due to kidnapping. The kidnappers attack people associated with foreign partners (like our FFICM-Nigeria team members!).
Last year, we had significant health challenges – Valentine’s children, Sam’s family, and Margaret (Peter’s wife). We are praying for everyone’s health. Praise God for Sam’s healing, for healing for Valentine’s children, and for healing Margaret’s sickness.
We are praying for new openings with Fellowship of Christian Students. They want us to train their students. We are praying that God would give us open doors. We want to work with churches locally too and are praying for more invitations.
There will be a planning meeting for the HBB conference which will be held in January and the conference in Jalingo (no date set yet).
Pray for the final preparations of the new office space for the team there in Nigeria. It was supposed to be ready by January 1, 2021, but still needs to be painted and needs some electrical work. Pray for wisdom as we negotiate with the landlord about the completion of the repairs of the new office.
Pray for the FFICM Nigeria board of trustees as they meet and work on plans for 2021.
Pray for the ongoing TV and radio programs in Nigeria that are being aired on 4 radio stations and 2 TV stations.
USA
Rick is flying to Nigeria for a four month trip, working with FFICM and other partners there.
Pray for Rick’s eye surgery that will be happening this morning in a few hours.
Continue to pray for our Murdock Grant application. We expect to hear a decision next month.
Continue to pray for Dara and Mercy’s health. Dara had to go to the emergency room again this past week. Pray for wisdom for the doctors as they try to figure out her various health issues that seem to be eluding the doctors.
Pray for David’s mother-in-law who has been in severe pain and hasn’t hardly been able to get out of bed the past few days. She is waiting to see a back doctor and probably needs surgery again, but hasn’t been able to get in to the doctor due to doctors being out of the office for the holidays.
Pray for Courtney as she starts classes again this week and David as he starts his next class for his Master’s degree next week.
Pray for wisdom as David works on getting all the year-end donations processed and the year-end donation summaries processed and sent out. We praise God for all the prayers and finances that he provided in 2020 in the midst of all the other challenges.
Continue to pray for the recruitment of new International Trainers for FFICM. We hope to add 2 or 3 new International Trainers in 2021.
Pray for continued preparation for the Mission ConneXion conference that will be held on January 15th and 16th. Pray for Rich’s preparation for the lecture/discussion he will host during the event. Pray also that we would have many good contacts at our virtual display at the event.
