(Photo credit: Rich Gardner, posted to Facebook on March 14th, 2021, “About 100 received Christ today. They were followed up by FFICM staff in the evening. 1,500-2,000 are attending the conference despite the 100 degree weather.”)
Dear FFICM Prayer Partners,
Thank you for sharing in our joy this week as we celebrate the first of four major conferences planned for this spring! Join with us in praying for the conference, for Rich’s safety during this event, and for God’s Spirit to empower the believers with greater zeal, hope and faith. Your partnership in prayer sustains the work of the ministry, opens doors for transformational encounters with Jesus and closes doors to attacks from the enemy. We need you and are deeply grateful for your collaboration!
Below you will find a prayer guide to support you as you accompany us in pray and worship this week. May God bless your time in the quite place with hope and peace.
Nigeria:
- The HBB Conference was last week. It was an amazing conference attended by over 1,500. We praise God for the amazing fruit!
- Praise: God protected all the conference participants! Many were concerned that the dangers of kidnapping would be too great for Rich to attend. Even during the conference, the kidnappings continued so the fears were quite legitimate. God protected Rich and we are grateful!
- Praise God for the impact from this event! Thank you for the audio bible players which were distributed! Thank you God for the many, many participants who recommitted to following Jesus with boldness and faithfulness. Pray for wisdom for ongoing follow-up from this conference. Pray for courage and zeal among the Church in Nigeria.
- Pray for grace and peace for the FFICM-Africa team in Nigeria. The work of the ministry is exhausting and the opportunities for future ministry keep on growing. Pray for wisdom on when to rest and when to work.
- Praise: The FFICM-Africa team in Nigeria did a new believer follow-up training event last week at Gindri Theological Seminary for 120 students. Thank you Jesus for the Seminary’s commitment to new believer follow-up! The Seminary requires all of its students to complete FFICM’s training as a graduation requirement.
- Please continue to pray for the ongoing TV/Radio ministry in Nigeria. They plan to record the next 13 TV episodes in April.
- This week the Nigeria team is doing a new believer follow-up training event for 130 pastors and leaders from the COCIN church denomination in Jos, Nigeria. Continue to pray for this training throughout this week. Pray for Peter, Rick, Isaku, and Samwel as they lead the training. The board members of FFICM-Africa in Nigeria are attending the training in order to better understand and share about the ministry. Pray that their participation this week would bring the team into greater unity and shared vision for FFICM-Africa in Nigeria.
- Pray for the preparations for a training next week for former drug addicts on how to follow-up new believer. The program will be aimed at the 70 people who gave their lives to Jesus during a previous training. Peter Wash, the National Director, and Priscilla will lead this training in Kaduna state. They will also offer strategies and teaching on maintaining sobriety.
- Pray for the MBB (Muslim Background Believers) conference preparations. Pray for wisdom on which speakers to invite. Praise God for the unity established among the diverse Christian organizations which are collaborating to bring about this important conference!
- Pray for Valentine this week as he completes his final exams for a Masters in Computer Application. Valentine serves FFICM-Africa as the Director of Operations.
- Praise: Peter completed his application forms for D.Min. program at Multnomah University. Peter will graduate with his Master’s in Missions and Evangelism program in May. Praise God for Peter’s diligence, commitment to learning, and openness to continue this long journey towards the top degree in his field. In Nigeria, the significance of terminal degrees grants leaders exceptional, unparalleled influence. We are grateful for Peter’s eager willingness to pursue this advanced degree as it will open new avenues for preaching and teaching the Gospel.
- Report from Comfort, an FFICM trainer located in Maidugri, a city in northern Nigeria and home to the Boko Haram, a jihadist terrorist organization:
- Pray for safety for the people. The kidnapping and killing of people on the roads continues and everyone is still very afraid. More detailed information about the history and violent impact of Boko Haram can be accessed easily on Wikipedia.
- Comfort will lead a training event for 50 women in the Baptist Church next week. May this be a time of refreshing and deep understanding. Give them courage and wisdom about sharing the good news of Jesus with others.
- Report from Prisca, an FFICM staff in Nigeria:
- She met with a group of prostitutes to share the gospel. She will return to meet with them this week. Pray for more women to come to hear the gospel and learn from the FFICM follow-up material.
- Report from Zainab:
- Pray for a program for women which she’s leading at the church this weekend.
- This past weekend, 8 people graduated from Zainab’s baking school! They will go start their own businesses with funds raised by family and friends. Pray for their success in their new entrepreneurial ventures which serve to support their families for financial independence and health.
Ethiopia:
- Pray for Eskinder, our National Director in Ethiopia, who just contracted COVID-19. He is really really struggling so please pray for his swift recovery. Pray for his entire family since his wife and daughter are now sick. He may miss the entire mega-conference. Pray for comfort from the Holy Spirit and assurance that nothing surprises our God who is able to do far more than we imagine in and through our weakness.
- The Mega-Conference:
- The mega-conference that is happening this week (Thursday-Saturday) in Southern Ethiopia. We are expecting 20,000 – 25,000! The primary focus of the conference will be strengthening the church with a vision of the true gospel. We are striving to give the people a ‘firm foundation’ in Christ so that they do not fall away from their faith as has been happening.
- Since there will be no COVID-19 safety measures in place please pray for protection for all those attending!
- Pray for the singers, translators, the stadium preparations (built from scratch!).
- Pray for Rich’s safe traveling in Ethiopia. He will be taking a flight tomorrow to the conference location, if by God’s grace the airline doesn’t cancel the flight again. (He was supposed to have flown today but the airline abruptly postponed the flight until tomorrow.)
- Pray for the conference speakers Dr. Simon (the General Secretary for EKHC) and Dr. Jeremiah (the Deputy General Secretary for EKHC). The EKHC denomination supervises 10 million people!
- Continue to pray for Tesfye as he transitions out of his previous position with the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church (EKHC) and trains his replacement employee so he’ll be able to begin working with Eskandir.
- Please continue to pray for the vehicle search in Ethiopia. Unfortunately we’ve come up against more challenges towards finding a vehicle. The Ethiopian government halted all imports of used vehicles and is only allowing new vehicles to be imported. This means that the price of used vehicles will only increase. Pray for wisdom and direction for the team. Until we find a vehicle, the team has been renting one to do the essential work of the ministry.
- Pray for the re-printing of 10,000 copies of the FFICM Follow-up booklet in Amharic. They have had a delay and many people are waiting to get copies. Praise God that there are so many new believers who will be equipped with this essential training and materials for starting their life with Jesus strong.
- Pray for peace and security in the nation of Ethiopia. There is a party election coming up. There are 107 parties in Ethiopia and the winning party will elect the Prime Minister. There have been rumors of wars with neighboring countries.
USA:
- Continue to pray for wisdom as we prepare to hire a Communications Coordinator and Development Director for FFICM here in the US. May God direct FFICM’s hiring team with hope and insight as we seek to grow our organization to keep up with the profound global impact of our partners in ministry.
- Please continue to pray for healing for Dara and Mercy. Dara continues to have threatening anaphylactic responses to a wide array of allergens. Pray for Dara’s breathing which is constantly labored. Pray for wisdom for Dara’s family as they seek direction regarding financial provision.
- Please continue to pray for the next $5,000 needed to cover the second 100 solar powered audio Bible players for Nigeria! We are grateful for the $5,000 we got last month which provided 100 solar audio bibles for Nigeria ($50/each) and the people who received them are so very grateful!
- Pray for wisdom as we continue to prepare for the upcoming FFICM Spring Fundraiser on Saturday May 22. www.fficm.org/spring2021 The theme is: Oaks of Righteousness. We will be sharing about the impact of the three conferences in Nigeria and the mega-conference in Ethiopia this Spring as well as all the trainings that have been happening as well as sharing about plans for this Summer and Fall. We will hear video testimony from our staff overseas as well as reports from our US staff.
- Pray for the ongoing work of the Website Update Team that is continuing to work on fixing some issues with www.fficm.org and working to make it more useful and easy to navigate for our partners.
- Pray for the family of Stacey Lloyd, our Director of Multimedia. His brother is on hospice and the family is praying for wisdom and comfort as they manage the challenges of the transition at this time.
