Nigeria
Ishake Pate, one of the Nigeria trainers praises God for the progress that his local church has made and for the training they have been doing with the FFICM new believer follow-up materials. Pray also for his wife’s pregnancy which is her fourth!
Peter Wash praises God for the evangelistic success through the radio and TV programs. Yusuf will travel to visit and encourage the people who have given their lives to Jesus through these radio programs.
The MBB conference committee will meet as they continue to plan for the big conference from tomorrow through Friday.
Pray for the new FFICM Africa office in Jos, Nigeria which is almost finished, hopefully they will be able to move in at some point during the month of February. They are waiting for the painting to be finished.
The training Sam led last week was very successful. The trainers now understand how to use the FFICM materials and were encouraged.
Pray for comfort for FFICM trainer Sam’s father-in-law and his family. Their house was burned Thursday of last week and almost completely destroyed. Pray for comfort after this trauma and loss and for provision of a new house!
FFICM trainer Zainab’s cousin Joy died on Friday. Thank you for praying for her last week. She knew Jesus so she’s with God in glory now. Pray for Zainab’s family as they grieve her death, specifically for Joy’s children.
We praise God for Zainab who celebrates her birthday this week. Pray that God would continue to lead and guide Zainab in both her role with FFICM as a trainer and also her own ministry she does with women in need in Nigeria.
Pray that God would stop the ongoing kidnappings in Nigeria.
Pray for wisdom as we continue to communicate and coordinate with many different churches in Nigeria. We need wisdom to know how to best use God’s resources as we fill our schedule with trainings in Nigeria.
Ethiopia:
Pray for the coming election.
Pray for peace between Ethiopia and their neighbors: Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, etc. There continues to be unrest along its borders.
Eskindir’s son will return to university this week. Pray for safe travel and their return to university after one year away from school.
Thank God for the successful training last week. The trainers came from 6 denominations. Many people came to know Christ! Already those who attended the training will start to train 300 people.
Continue to pray for the preparations for the big conference coming up in March.
Pray for wisdom as we look for the right vehicle to purchase for the FFICM ministry in Ethiopia. Praise God for his provision of finances that we hope will be enough.
While Rich is in Ethiopia, the team will meet with the leader of a large denominational leader.
Praise God that Eskindir’s home will finally be getting an internet connection soon. Lack of internet at his house has made working from home over the past year with all the COVID lockdowns very difficult. He applied for home internet access over a year ago and is finally getting connected!
USA:
Pray for Rich Gardner’s Ethiopia trip (Friday February 5th – Monday February 22nd)
Pray that the timing of Rich’s COVID test pre-travel to Ethiopia goes smoothly (unlike the stress of the delayed COVID test results from Rich’s last Ethiopia trip!)
During the first week of that trip Rich will be helping train 20 potential national trainers from different language groups at a center near Addis Ababa. During the second week they will train 60-80 pastors, evangelists and church leaders in evangelism and follow-up, including at least 5 of the people from the first week who will be mentored by Rich and Eskinder in training using our materials.
Praise: Rick Cordell got his COVID test results and they are negative so he can travel to Nigeria tonight.
Pray: Rick Cordell flies tonight to Nigeria and will be there till the end of May. He will be helping the Nigeria office with their trainings during that time. Pray that he gets an empty row on the plane for his flights so that he can get sleep on his flights as well as be distant from others.
Pray that God would provide a volunteer to coordinate our Spring Fundraiser.
Pray for health and healing for Dara and Mercy. They both continue to have ongoing medical issues. Pray for Dara’s breathing trouble to be resolved. Dara still needs a clear diagnosis in order to make strides towards recovery.
Pray for wisdom as we prepare our 2020 year-end donation summaries for mailing. We plan to mail them out tomorrow.
Pray for wisdom as we prepare our 2020 annual report as well as our January 2021 prayer letter that we will be mailing out later this week.
This afternoon we will be recording our second FFICM podcast. Pray that the recording would go well and that the end result would be encouraging to people as they listen to all that God is doing through their partnership with this ministry and that God would be glorified in all that we do.
Pray for the meeting that Rich and David have with an Ethipian pastor here in Portland, OR on Friday. The pastor is excited about the possibility of using FFICM’s materials in the Ethiopian Oromo language to train his Ethiopian congregation in new believer follow-up using their own language! There are very few good spiritual materials and resources available in their language.
We praise God for FFICM USA Director of Communications Dara Searcy-Gardner who celebrates her birthday this week! Pray that God would continue to provide wisdom to Dara as she has a big responsibility with this organization while also caring for her two young children at home.
Rich Gardner’s daughter Lydia in California has coronavirus. Pray for quick healing.
