Praise and Prayer ~ June 22, 2021

(Photo detail: During a TV recording of FFICM’s teaching in Nigeria).

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7

Dear FFICM Prayer Partners, 

Thank you for joining us in prayer this week! During our staff devotional, Rich reminded us of the Philippians 4 passage which encourages us to trust God. We come before God now thanksgiving for providing for new staff in the US, Ethiopia and Nigeria. We are grateful for God’s protection of our Nigeria team amidst the staggering violence. We are amazed at the profound impact of our ministry to Muslims in Nigeria. As we come to God in prayer this week, we trust the Father’s heart of mercy and pray with peace and confidence that the Spirit intercedes with 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:

• Muslim Outreach Ministry — Radio and TV
  • Praise: Profound 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 continue broadcasting a 13-week TV series.
    • The current 13-week series of radio broadcasts has just 3 weeks left. Pray for wisdom as we prepare to record the next 13 episodes.
  • Praise: Muslims turning to Jesus — Yusuf and Ahamed continue to lead many Muslims 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. 
  • Pray: Wisdom — the team continues to strategize for effective evangelism and follow-up ministry among Muslims. Pray for wisdom as FFICM partners with Ahmed and Yusuf to develop these plans. Pray that God will give us wisdom on how to work with them.
  • Pray: Follow-up new converts — Yusuf and Ahmed will visit the converts we made last month in Katsina and the Imam from Kano. Pray for God’s protection, for wisdom, and for divine favor. 
    • 20 people came to Christ! Praise God for their new faith. 
    • There is also a significant threat of violence in Katsina state. Pray for safety and peace. 
  • Pray: Advanced Training for MBBs —  We are hosting an advanced training for 5 MBBs whom we want to partner with Yusuf and Ahmed as a team to expand our ministry to Muslims. 
  • Praise: A broader reach — the radio recordings will be broadcast in Kano state, (the heart of Muslim cities) and Niger State (where it will broadcast to 5 states!). Pray for those who hear the message of the gospel. 
• Upcoming Events
  • Praise: a new training opportunity — We have been invited to train seminary students from the United Methodist Church of Nigeria (UMCN) in Bambur! Peter will discuss details of the training today with their leadership. We are very excited about this new partnership.
• Growing Violence
  • Pray: Safety while Traveling — 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: Safety for MBB trainers — Pray for safety for our MBB trainers Ahamed and Yusuf. They are often in great danger as they refute the teachings of Islam.
  • Pray: Attacks in Jos — There have been increased attacks in and around the city of Jos, Nigeria where the FFICM-Nigeria office is located. There was another attack at Kuru where 10 people were killed. Please pray for God’s protection!
  • Pray: Ruthless kidnappers — The kidnapping in Katsina State has increased. This is the location of the HBB conference earlier this year where 2000 people were trained in March. Previously this was just happening in the rural areas, but it is happening even in the city now. Those who are kidnapped are violently tortured and forced to get their family members to send funds to the kidnappers. We will not be able to return to follow-up the newly trained HBB leaders until there is more safety. 
  • Pray: Safety in Villages — 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. Local farmers struggle to care for their land because they are under siege and are vulnerable to attack while out in their fields. Several of the FFICM staff come from small villages and have families living in this danger. 
  • Pray: Sam’s home village – In Sam’s home village there has been increased violence and disastrous theft. The military is falsely threatening the people. The Fulani farmers pose a serious threat of violence. Pray for peace and justice.
  • Praise: Rain — Praise God for rain in Plateau State! It finally started raining this week. It is planting time, but it had not been raining as it was supposed to. The price of food in the market is increasing daily. The region is approaching a famine, and is one of the main sources of fresh food for all of Nigeria. 
• Prayer for our Ministry Team
  • Praise: Mercy’s Partnership — Mercy is FFICM-Nigeria’s new full-time Finance Director. Mercy is the newest staff member to the Nigerian team. We praise God for bringing her onto the team! Pray for wisdom and discernment for Mercy as she takes full responsibility for the finances of the FFICM team. 
  • Pray: Famine affecting Zainab’s ministry — Zainab is a FFICM volunteer trainer in Abuja, Nigeria. Zainab travels to meet with new believers to disciple them. Many are not able to meet because they are seeking food due to the approaching famine. She has asked us to pray regarding the famine and that people would not stop seeking God. 
  • Praise: Peter Wash’s DMin program — Peter, the National Director in Nigeria, just completed the first two weeks of his online DMin program in Evangelism at Multnomah University last week! Pray for Peter as he balances his time between his role as director at the office, his DMin program and his family. 
  • Pray: Healing for Sam’s wife — Sam is a full-time FFICM-Nigeria trainer. Please pray for Sam’s wife who is sick. Pray for her complete healing. 

Ethiopia:

• Peace in Ethiopia
  • Praise: The Ethiopian Election was June 21 — There are over 100 political parties in Ethiopia and the winning party (or coalition of parties) will be able to choose the next Prime Minister for the country. 
    • The election process went much smoother than expected and there has been relative peace in spite of the expected violence.
    • Please pray for a peaceful transition of power in the country.  
  • Pray: Continued 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. There has also been division and fighting between Ethiopian tribes, language groups, and religions.
  • Pray: Suffering in Northern Ethiopia – The people are suffering because of lack of basic food necessities, exacerbated by the pandemic. Please pray for provision through NGOs and for a compassionate government response. 
• Strategic Development
  • Praise: Tesfaye’s Partnership — Tesfaye is our new full-time FFICM staff. We praise God for Tesfaye’s contributions to the ministry! He has been a tremendous help to Eskinder with their continued training with pastors and connecting with those they have already trained. We are thankful for his dedication to learn English so we can collaborate more easily. Pray for Tesfaye’s English language classes. He is really improving!
  • Praise: Eskinder’s PhD program — Praise God for the successful completion of the second week of his Doctoral program in Evangelism at Multnomah University! Please pray for his ongoing reading and writing assignments.  
  • Pray: 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 has been working, but we pray that it will continue without interruption.
  • Pray: Purchase of a vehicle — Now that the elections are over, we are praying for wisdom as to the right time to purchase the vehicle for the office in Ethiopia. We praise God for his provision of the funds and we ask for His wisdom in timing and the right vehicle. 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. 
• Current Ministry
  • Praise: Dedicated Trainees from Asella — Two weeks ago Eskinder and Tesfaye trained 50 people in Asella. These trainees are now preaching the gospel! 
    • Last week they trained 620 local leaders in their churches. 
    • They are going out and doing weekly outreach meetings through each of those churches! 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.   
  • Praise: 2,000 Follow-up Booklets — Back in February, Eskinder and Rich trained 113 pastors in Waliso. This week we will send 2000 copies of the FFICM Follow-up books to those pastors, which will be distributed through the EKHC evangelism coordinator. 1,600 in the Oromo language 1600 and 400 in Amheric.
• Future Programs
  • Pray: Training 10 Churches in Addis — In Addis Ababa, 10 local churches will gather to receive training in New Believer Follow-up from Eskinder and Tesfye. 
  • Pray: Training 80 people in Jimma — The team will train 80 people at Jimma after the election (dependent on local peace post-election in that area). Pray for the preparation work and for God’s protection over those planning to attend.    
  • Pray: October Training Marathon — Rich will travel to Ethiopia in September/October to assist with four weeks of new believer follow-up training, including the following:
    • 1) Asella Evangelical Churches Fellowship and more than 14 denominations will participate. 
    • 2) Genet Church denomination
    • 3) Women training at Ethiopian Kele Heyet Church – We will train 80 Ethiopian women in New Believer Follow-up. This team of women will become trainers of trainers. They have a plan for exponential growth as women are prepared to go out and train other women.
    • 4) Sudan Khartoum training – we will partner with Elias, an Ethiopian missionary in Sudan. 

USA:

• Prayer for our Ministry Partners
  • Pray: 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. 
  • Praise: Elle Wisot joins as FFICM’s Communications Coordinator — Please pray for Elle as she transitions into the position of Communications Coordinator. We are deeply grateful to welcome her onto our staff team! Prayer for sister Katherine getting set up with disability services in Oregon. 
  • Pray: Rick Cordell, FFICM ministry partner — Rick is trying to resolve an identity theft issue. Someone was trying to steal his money. Please pray it resolves quickly. 
• Pray for Strategic Development
  • Praise: New International Trainer hired! 
    • We have offered the position to a woman who has been a youth pastor for more than 20 years. Her passion for missions and training others brought her to FFICM. Her vision for encouraging new believers in faith and leadership make her a great fit for this position.  Please pray for her transition out of her current role as Youth Pastor and her support raising efforts over the next several months. She will be trained and mentored by Rich Gardner to help us expand the impact of this ministry to new countries and languages as we mentor national leaders and prepare to begin ministry in several new countries.
  • Pray: More International Trainers — Pray that God would provide one or two more people to join the FFICM US team as International Trainers.  
  • Pray: Development Director search — 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.
  • Pray: Wisdom regarding church status — Pray for wisdom as FFICM applies for church status here in the US. Most large mission organizations have applied for and been granted church status in the US. This would allow us to be able to have all of our staff receive the ministerial housing allowance and would have other tax and finance benefits for us as an organization. 
  • Pray: Plans for U.S. based-training — Pray for the upcoming virtual training via Zoom for individuals who are interested in serving as both part time and full time trainers with FFICM from the US. Pray for all the details and plans that are needed for having a successful training.