(Photo detail: FFICM’s ministry leader, Tesfye, teaching follow-up materials in Ethiopia).
Dear FFICM Prayer Partners,
We are humbled as we gather in prayer this week by God’s faithful, loving care for each of us, for FFICM as an organization, and for our dedicated partners in ministry. At the completion of our Spring Fundraiser last Saturday (see details at the bottom of this letter), we are all overcome with gratitude for God’s mercy. You and all those who share the vision of FFICM for equipping national leaders to follow-up new believers have sustained this young and growing ministry over the last seven years. We could not send follow-up booklets to 700 Ethiopian pastors this week without your help and God’s provision. We could not have encouraged and equipped 450 MBBs last week without God’s guidance and your shared vision to preach the forgiving love of Jesus with Muslims. We would not be FFICM without you so thank you for your prayers, your partnership, and your steadfast hope that the Holy Spirit is indeed establishing God’s kingdom among us.
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:
- Impact — 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.
- MBBs turning to Jesus — Yusuf and Ahamed continue to lead many MBBs to Christ through the radio teachings. Praise God! Yusuf teaches about how the Koran points to the Bible, points to Jesus as the Savior, and how the Koran talks about life after death.
- A broader reach — The recordings will soon be broadcast in another state (Kano State, the heart of Muslim cities). Pray for those who hear the message of the gospel.
- Wisdom for leadership
- Pray for the hiring of a Nigerian accountant. Our current accountant will be moving on and we have been looking for a replacement. We have interviewed several people and a decision will be made this week as to who will be chosen.
- Radio and TV Ministry:
- Prayer for Current Events
- New vehicle — The office in Nigeria sold their small car and bought a newer used car with better off-road capability for the office in Nigeria. The vehicle was purchased in another city and is currently being driven to our office location in Jos, Nigeria. The journey will take a couple of days. Pray for safety on the roads, and that this vehicle would last a long time and be helpful in the ministry. We praise God that this vehicle was paid for mostly by the money from the sale of our old car, local contributions in Nigeria, and with a little bit of assistance from the US.
- This week the Nigerian team is focusing on setting up future training events. Pray for wisdom as they coordinate with many different churches across Nigeria to schedule upcoming training events for the next few months.
- Update from Past Events
- Last week FFICM led two training events as follow-up from the HBB and MBB conferences hosted in March and April:
- HBB Conference Follow-up Training – Last week 195 pastors were trained to evangelize Muslims in Kano State by our Nigerian staff (Sam, Ishaku, Danladi and Ahamed). These are the Hausa Background Believers. During the training, the participants shared the gospel with 20-30 new converts from Islam. Many who heard the gospel did not accept Christ because of fear of retribution and rejection by their relatives and community. Pray for the seeds of the gospel that were planted in their hearts!
- MBB Conference Follow-up Training – In Katsina State, the FFICM team (Zainab, Yusuf, and Peter) led a week-long training in new believer follow-up and evangelism. The week-long training began with 157 people and ended with over 450 attenders! HBB and MBB Conference trainees returned for this training. Yusuf taught about issues specifically important to MBBs, such as what the Koran teaches about Jesus, life after death, etc. Muslims gave their lives to Christ!
- Last week FFICM led two training events as follow-up from the HBB and MBB conferences hosted in March and April:
- Future Events
- Due to the overwhelming numbers of MBBs who attended the MBB Conference Follow-up Training last week (450 people!), the Nigerian team will host an additional training in August.
- There is one new believer follow-up training scheduled for next week and three new believer follow-up training events scheduled for June.
- Pray for the continued work happening now to prepare for these trainings.
- Pray for both the FFICM team and the church leaders we are working with to prepare for these trainings.
- Pray for those who will be attending. Pray that God would prepare their hearts now for what they will be learning when they attend.
- Prayer for our Ministry Partners
- Pray for the MBBs who committed to share the gospel with 10 people before the end of the year.
- Pray for Peter Wash, the National Director in Nigeria
- Peter’s final presentation for his Master’s program starts tomorrow and continues through Thursday! Please pray for Peter.
- Praise: Dr. Tim Robnet agreed to sponsor Peter for the DMin program at Multnomah University. Pray for wisdom as Peter finishes all the paperwork for the application process.
- Praise: Ishaku was able to purchase a new motorcycle due to the generous gift of an FFICM supporter! He and his whole family are overwhelmed with gratitude. Praise God for the community of believers who can share our resources to provide for each other!
Ethiopia:
- Peace and security in the nation of Ethiopia
- Ethiopian Election — There is a party election coming up in early June 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.
- Threat of War — 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.
- Strategic Development
- Internet access — Eskinder’s internet has been coming and going. Please pray for a strong internet connection so that he can work well.
- Pray for a Vehicle — We have decided to wait on the purchase of the vehicle in Ethiopia until after the coming election (June 2021) 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. All current ministry transportation has been through public busses. Traveling and transporting supplies (such as the 700 booklets) this way is incredibly cumbersome and slow, not to mention less safe.
- Praise: Eskinder is registered for the Doctorate of Ministry (DMin) program at Multnomah University. Praise God for his successful application process! The program will begin in June.
- Current Ministry
- This week Eskandir and Tesfye and Fekadu (a leader recently trained by Rich and Eskinder) are training 45 individuals representing 20 local churches and evangelists in Assella, Ethiopia.
- Pray for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and guidance as they teach using FFICM’s Follow-up Booklet. Those 45 church leaders will then return to their 20+ churches and plan to use the FFICM Follow-up materials to train at least 700 from their churches (200 Amharic and 500 Oromo language booklets).
- Each time we do our week-long training, the participants go out and share the gospel after receiving FFICM’s lessons in evangelism and follow-up. Pray for those who hear the gospel this week!
- 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.
- Pray for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and guidance as they teach using FFICM’s Follow-up Booklet. Those 45 church leaders will then return to their 20+ churches and plan to use the FFICM Follow-up materials to train at least 700 from their churches (200 Amharic and 500 Oromo language booklets).
- This week Eskandir and Tesfye and Fekadu (a leader recently trained by Rich and Eskinder) are training 45 individuals representing 20 local churches and evangelists in Assella, Ethiopia.
- Future Programs
- There is a group of 80 Ethiopian 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 October. We pray that God will work out the details and give us wisdom in how to proceed.
USA:
- Prayer for our Ministry Partners
- Rick Cordell – Rick will fly out of Nigeria this week. Pray for his travel out of the country. Pray that the customs office doesn’t
- Dara Searcy-Gardner, former FFICM staff — Dara continues to struggle with debilitating asthma. She asked us to pray that the medication (Xolair shots) would conquer the asthma. Pray for complete healing.
- 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
- Pray for our hiring for new FFICM staff:
- Development Director – Thanks to the grant we were approved for through the Murdock Trust, we are hiring a Development Director. Pray for guidance as we grow our organization to keep up with the profound global impact of our partners in ministry.
- Communications Coordinator – We’re looking for a part-time staff (20 hrs) to fill the role that Dara left. Pray for wisdom as we make a decision about the right person to help communicate about the amazing things we are seeing God doing around the world. We have several interviews we will be doing this week.
- International Trainers – We’re looking for new team members to be trained and mentored by Rich Gardner to help us as we expand the impact of this ministry to new countries and languages as we mentor national leaders. We have a couple people considering
- Praise God for the successful completion of our Virtual Spring Fundraiser!
- The event is available on our YouTube Channel.
- We shared about the impact of the three conferences in Nigeria and the mega-conference in Ethiopia this Spring.
- Pray that many are encouraged by the full-length video testimonies shared by Peter Wash (FFICM Nigerian National Director) and Eskinder Alymayhu (FFICM Ethiopian National Director).
- Goal/current status report:
- Pray for our hiring for new FFICM staff:
| Goals | Current Status |
| $48,000 total | $24,539 total |
| 20 new or increased monthly donors | 2 new or increase monthly donors |
| $1000/month in new or increased donations | $220/month in new or increased donations |
| 30 prayer letter sign-ups | 6 prayer letter sign-ups |
