(Photo detail: The MBB and former Imam, who recently accepted Christ through listening to the audio bible players. Prayer requests for these new believers are below.)
Dear FFICM Prayer Partners,
Grace and peace to each of you in Christ Jesus. Thank you for your prayers on behalf of our brothers and sisters in the US, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Cameroon.
During our weekly global prayer meeting, Dr. Rich Gardner shared a brief meditation on 2 Peter 1:5. The verse reminds us that faith is not the end of the journey with God, but merely the beginning! From a foundation of faith, we add many important qualities: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. To live a life of faith, we must add these qualities. Faith is not an end point, but a starting point. We remember this as believers and as teachers of the gospel.
Below you will find a prayer guide to support you as you accompany us in prayer and worship this week. May God bless your time in the quiet place with hope and peace.
Nigeria:
- Ongoing Ministry
- Radio and TV Ministry:
- The FFICM Nigeria team produces broadcasts designed to reach predominantly Muslim area on public radio stations with teaching about the gospel and the Bible. The teachings address myths commonly believed by Muslims and offer the truths about the Bible. Praise God for this profoundly impactful ministry! Continue to pray for the impact of those who are listening to the TV and Radio broadcasts.
- Protection from kidnapping:
- There is an ongoing risk of being kidnapped while driving on the roads in Nigeria to conferences, training events, etc. Pray for wisdom as our team maneuvers around and goes to and from the various conferences and training events. Please pray for God’s protection.
- Radio and TV Ministry:
- Updates from Past Events
- Danladi, Sam, Prisca and Ishaku led a training using our Follow-up Booklet for 85 staff from our partner New Life For All in Akwanga. Praise God for the opportunity to equip the local church! After receiving FFICM’s training in evangelism, these believers are better equipped to lead people to Christ. They are mobilizing themselves to evangelize as a group in the neighboring state.
- Rick Cordell led a two-day training for 10 pastors in Abuja using FFICM’s Follow-up Booklet. Praise God for the opportunity to equip those pastors to shepherd new believers! Continue praying that their fellowship with one another would strengthen the local church in Abuja.
- Current/Future Events
- The team is hosting two training events. One in Sumana, Kano state and another in Tsiga, in Katsina State. These events will provide training in Evangelism and New Believer Follow-up
- for 100-150 pastors and church leaders. Pray for the organizing process. Pray for protection for the trainees and their families.
- Pray for wisdom and discernment regarding all the invitations to provide FFICM’s training events. The Nigeria team continues to receive many requests and are working with leaders throughout the country to evaluate the opportunities.
- Prayer for our Ministry Partners
- Baba, the primary organizer of the HBB conference was paralyzed and couldn’t walk. Thank God for his safety and recovery!
- Praise: One of the MBB’s who received a solar audio Bible we provided invited a Muslim imam (religious leader and teacher) to listen to the Bible with him. The imam listened and God spoke to his heart. He decided to follow Jesus! Our team is now working to do follow-up with him and to train him. Pray for this man and that God would work in and through him.
- UPDATE: The MBB who attended FFICM’s conference in Kano as well as the Imam whom he led to Christ need to relocate due to persecution because of their conversion. The Imam has four wives and 12 children, all of whom may not want to leave Islam or their families. They will move to live with believers in Jos. Pray for their safety as they flee the danger. Pray for their families, for salvation, unity in faith among the family.
- Sam’s Family – pray for healing for his daughter who hurt her hand. Also a relative of Sam’s wife died and so his wife left for the memorial. Pray for comfort and encouragement for the family as they mourn. Pray for grace for Sam who has been charged with total care of his children while his wife’s away.
- Ongoing serious food scarcity! – Many families are not able to eat even twice a day. Due to COVID, the food production declines. Bandits are also attacking the farm workers. Due to these stresses on the Nigerian agricultural system, there is now widespread food scarcity. Pray for provision.
- Pray for Peter Wash, the National Director in Nigeria
- Praise God that Peter has recovered from malaria! Thank you for praying for his healing.
- Peter has many school assignments to complete by Friday this week for his final semester of his Master’s program! Please pray for energy, discernment and time to finish these amidst the full ministry schedule.
- Samuel Gwom – the FFICM driver in Jos is sick. Pray for healing and protection. God, encourage him during his sickness.
Ethiopia:
- Safety and health:
- Continue to pray for peace and security in the nation of Ethiopia.
- Many thousand Muslims gathered in Cross Square (a centuries old Christian gathering place) in Addis Ababa, the capital city, demanding the government change the name of the square to Eid (the Muslim word for Fasting). Pray for peace and wisdom for the government officials.
- There is a party election coming up in late May 2021. There are 107 parties in Ethiopia and the winning party will elect the Prime Minister. There have been rumors of wars with neighboring countries as well as much division and fighting between tribes, language groups, religions, etc.
- There are threats of violent protests, and there has been burning of houses and cars.
- There is also the threat of Islamic terrorist movement. 36% of the country are Muslim, according to the most recent census.
- Egypt and Sudan have agreed to fight Ethiopia over the rights to water from the Nile. There is an imminent threat of open war. This has led to open violence and destruction. Please pray for reconciliation.
- Continue to pray for peace and security in the nation of Ethiopia.
- Strategic Development:
- Eskinder’s internet has failed. Please pray for the restoration of his internet access!
- We have decided to wait on the purchase of the vehicle in Ethiopia until after the coming election due to the violence and destruction that is happening there at this time! We praise God for his provision of the funds and we ask for His wisdom in timing.
- Programs and Materials Development:
- Eskandir and Tesfye and Fekadu (a leader recently trained by Rich and Eskinder) will be training 40 church leaders and evangelists in Assella, Ethiopia.
- This event has been repeatedly postponed due to violence related to the upcoming elections. Eskandir and the team will have to use public transportation to get there. This is dangerous so please pray for them.
- Pray for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and guidance as they teach using FFICM’s Follow-up Booklet. Those 40 church leaders will then return to their churches and offer the FFICM Follow-up training using 300 Follow-up Booklets.
- Praise God for the exponential growth in new believer follow-up made possible by the excellent training and the simple, reproducible lessons contained in the material.
- There is a group of 80 women seeking training in New Believer Follow-up. We’re praying about all the opportunities presented to FFICM-Ethiopia for ongoing ministry. We are hoping to do this training just before or just after the time of the Sudan training mentioned below.
- Elias, an Ethiopian missionary in Sudan, wants FFICM to lead a follow-up training in Sudan. The proposed date for the training has been changed a couple of times, but now it is scheduled for June. We pray that God will work out the details and give us wisdom in how to proceed.
- Eskandir and Tesfye and Fekadu (a leader recently trained by Rich and Eskinder) will be training 40 church leaders and evangelists in Assella, Ethiopia.
Cameroon:
- Update from Florence – The lead coordinator for the training events we have held in Cameroon.
- Pray for peace and healing in Cameroon
- Cameroon has been suffering through a devastating civil war since 2016 and there contine to be many killings, kidnapping and torture.
- At the start of the insurgency in Cameroon, it was declared that people needed to remain at home on Mondays. This has continued for 5 years now! Schools in rural areas have been closed for security since the beginning of the violence.
- In Bingo there has been a lull in shooting so expats and missionaries have begun to return.
- The people are suffering. The UN has been trying to send food, but the country needs peace! Pray for a divine intervention.
- Pray for Florence’s ministry
- Pray for a team to work with Florence in ministry. Ministry has been very challenging in the midst of civil war when so many people are just trying to survive.
- Florence has felt called to build a retreat center. She’s currently raising money by selling household goods in order to have money to build the retreat center huts. Pray for funds to pay for the workers at the site. Pray for grace and wisdom. Pray for a reliable, trustworthy team of workers.
- Pray for peace and healing in Cameroon
USA:
- Prayer for our Ministry Partners:
- UPDATE! Dara Searcy-Gardner, former FFICM staff — Please continue to pray for Dara’s precarious health condition. She fighting a serious infection caused by one of her medications but needs to be symptom-free by Thursday in order to receive her next Xiolar shot. Xiolar is the only medication currently addressing Dara’s anaphalaxis. Thank you for surrounding Dara in prayer as she struggles through this ongoing health crisis.
- Stacey Lloyd, International Director of Multimedia — Continue to pray for his family. His brother Gary is in hospice and is slipping away slowly into death. The family is praying for wisdom and comfort as they manage the challenges of the transition at this time. Pray for Arlene, his wife as she loves him courageously all the way to the end.
- Pray for Materials Development:
- We plan to purchase and distribute 900 3D printed solar powered Audio Bible Players before the end of 2021 which cost $11/each (instead of the ones we were previously getting at $50/each) to distribute in Nigeria and possibly Ethiopia later this year! Pray for wisdom as we continue to move forward with this new opportunity.
- Pray also for wisdom as we continue work on revising our new believer follow-up materials in several different languages including Urdu and Arabic. We are also looking at how to better adapt our materials for use here in the US.
- Pray for Strategic Development:
- We continue to 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. We have had about 8 different people apply for these positions and we have begun to do phone/Zoom interviews with them.
- We are also looking to add to our team of International Trainers. Pray that God would bring along the right people who are willing to be part of this ministry and are willing to raise their own support. These would be people who can be trained and mentored by Rich Gardner and can help us as we expand the impact of this ministry to new countries and languages as we mentor national leaders.
- Pray for wisdom as we continue to prepare for the upcoming FFICM Spring Fundraiser on Saturday May 22 at 4pm (Pacific Time). 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 training events 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. We are praying that God will provide at least $48,000 through the event, including at least 20 new monthly donors and that we will get at least 30 new prayer letter sign-ups. Pray specifically as we work to get ready the scripts, video content, and prepare the electronic and print invitations.
