Praise and Prayer ~ June 7, 2021

(Photo Credit: Nigerian students at a training with Rich in April, 2021).

Dear FFICM Prayer Partners, 

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. 
      • We just started a new 13-week series of TV broadcasts yesterday.
      • The current 13-week series of radio broadcasts has just 4 weeks left. Pray for wisdom as we prepare to record the next 13 episodes.
    • 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. 
  • Safety amidst growing violence
    • Ongoing security issues make it difficult to travel and do ministry. You never know which road will be closed or where the bandits will be. There are very frequent attacks and insecurity in the land. Please pray for safety for the trainers.
    • Pray for wisdom as we work with our MBB trainers Ahamed and Yusuf. There have been some challenges in working with them and communicating well together. Pray also for the safety of both of them as they are often in great danger as they refute the teachings of Islam.
    • There have been increased attacks in and around the city of Jos, Nigeria where our office is located. There are rumors that Jos in the Abuja area are going to be attacked. Continue to pray for God’s protection.
    • People are living in fear because the attackers take people unaware. In the villages it is especially dangerous at night so people have sleepless nights. 
• Prayer for Current Events
  • The training event that was planned for this week was cancelled due to the weather.
  • Those that we trained in Kano (Northern Nigeria) are doing a 4-day training this week to train people how to follow-up new believers. 
  • Tuesday and Thursday this week Pankyes will be doing new believer follow-up training with former drug addicts in Jos, Nigeria. 
• Future Events
  • They have a new believer follow-up training planned for Borno state next week and they expect 100 people to attend.
  • We plan to have 2 or 3 new believer follow-up training events this month. It is hard because this is a busy month for those with gardens. 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 both the FFICM team and the church leaders we are working to prepare for these training events.
    • 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
  • Zainab, FFICM volunteer trainer in Abuja, Nigeria — Please pray for the members of her church. Many of the people are struggling and have wrong motives for coming to church. The new believers are doing well and staying strong.
  • Prisca, a full-time FFICM trainer — Prisca was accepted to Multnomah University’s Masters program in Evangelism. She begins her program this week! 
  • Valentine – Please pray that he is able to meet with his thesis advisor to approve his Master’s thesis so he can begin to work on it. 
  • The FFICM Nigerian Board of Trustees – We praise God that the board is taking an active role in fundraising for the work in Nigeria, and we pray for wisdom for them as they seek to have greater engagement. They are planning an open house event at our office in September to connect with present and potential future donors and ministry partners. 
  • Ahamed – He had left our staff for a time, but we are glad that he has returned to be part of our staff. He focuses on evangelism and MBB follow-up and training in new believer follow-up for Muslim Background Believers. .  
  • Peter Wash, the National Director in Nigeria 
    • Congratulations to Peter for the successful completion of his Master’s program in Discipleship and Evangelism! 
    • Peter (and Eskinder) begin the online DMin program in Evangelism at Multnomah University this week! Pray for Peter as he tried to balance his time between his role as director at the office, his DMin program and his family.

Ethiopia:

• Peace and security in the nation of Ethiopia
  • Ethiopian Election — There is a party election coming up on June 27, 2021. Please pray for peace in the country. 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 was an imminent threat of open war, but this past week has been more peaceful. 
• 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. This week it was out again.
  • Pray for the right timing for the purchase of a vehicle — Eskinder has been informed that it might be better for us to purchase the vehicle prior to the upcoming elections. 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 (often hundreds of booklets at a time) this way is incredibly cumbersome and slow, not to mention less safe. 
  • Praise: This morning Eskinder begins classes in his Doctorate of Ministry (DMin) program at Multnomah University. Praise God for his successful application process and sponsorship! 
• Future Programs: 
  • The team continues to receive an overwhelming number of requests to provide new believer follow-up training. Pray for wisdom in knowing how to plan.
  • October – Rich plans to travel to Ethiopia in October to assist with four weeks of new believer follow-up training, including the following:
    • A group of 80 Ethiopian women seeking training in New Believer Follow-up. They want to establish a team of women from this training who will be trainers of trainers. They have a plan for exponential growth as women are prepared to go out and train other women. 
    • 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: 
  • 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. She can’t go out of her house for more than 2 minutes without having trouble breathing.
  • Rick Cordell, ministry partner – Rick safely returned to the US after spending 4 months in Nigeria. Praise God! He will continue to remotely support his ministry contacts in Nigeria. 
• 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. We are working on continued interviews and trying to discern who God would have us to hire for this strategic role.
    • Communications Coordinator – We just hired Gabrielle Wisot as FFICM’s new Communications Coordinator! Gabrielle is a recent graduate from Hawaii Pacific University. Her experience working in communications for other Christian non-profits and her passion for new believer follow-up make her a great fit for our team. We are grateful for her enthusiasm about partnering with FFICM and excited to see how God’s plans for collaboration unfold. Thank you for your prayers for us! 
    • 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. Rich is asking for everyone to pray that we will be able to find international trainers soon! We really need more people on the team to help with the training load. 
  • 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). 
    • Pray for our follow-up and thank you phone calls.