January 24, 2022
Dear FFICM Prayer Partners,
This week, David shared with us from Psalm 33. He encouraged us to have courage because of God’s goodness, to be reminded of God’s faithfulness, and to praise God in everything. We encourage you this week to take the time to stop and thank God. We thank you for being with us on this weekly prayer journey.
New highlights from prayer updates (noted in blue below):
- Pray for the FFICM Nigeria team as they are traveling around working on setting up several upcoming trainings in new believer follow-up this week.
- Pray for preparations for the HBB conference where we expect over 2,000 attendees in March.
- Continue to pray for the northern part of the country of Ethiopia
- Pray that our team will be able to get visas for Nigeria and Cameroon.
Nigeria:
Nigeria Program Updates
- Pray for the FFICM Nigeria team as they are traveling around working on setting up several upcoming trainings in new believer follow-up this week.
- Pray: Peter is working with Rich on a strategic review of the Firm Foundation new believer follow-up training process. We are looking at how to continue to improve the current week-long training program that we have been using for a number of years as well as praying about developing a “next level” training that could help improve the effectiveness of the training that we do. We have started to invite people back that have been trained by our staff to do new believer follow-up, to come to a refresher training. We have seen much fruit from these refresher trainings. People have been able to get help in areas they have struggled and have been encouraged to continue to practice what they have learned. Pray for wisdom as we look at how these new ideas can impact our ministry in 2022.
- Continue to pray for the churches that are being forced to close and being persecuted in Northern Nigeria.
- Pray for HBB (Hausa Background Believers) Conference preparations. Preparations need to be finalized this week for this conference.
- Pray for preparations for the HBB conference where we expect over 2,000 attendees in March.
- Please pray for traveling mercies as this is a dangerous area to be driving through with frequent kidnappers and bandits.
- Pray that they will be able to contact all of the right people.
- Pray also for wisdom in establishing the budget that is needed to be able to make this event happen. We are excited to see more and more funds coming from sources in Nigeria.
Prayer for the Nigeria Ministry Team
- Rick Cordell, Adjunct Trainer
- Rick is currently traveling to Nigeria from the US to spend several months there (until early June) helping with new believer follow-up training. He had some challenges with getting his approval to travel with all the COVID regulations, but we praise God, at the last minute he got all the paperwork and was able to travel as planned.
- Peter Wash, FFICM Nigeria National Director
- Doctoral studies work — Peter is continuing to work on his Doctorate in Global Evangelism. Pray for wisdom as he divides his time between work at the office, going out and helping with training events, doing school assignments, as well as personal and family responsibilities. Pray for wisdom in allocating time to his studies in the midst of his busy ministry and leadership schedule.
- Samuel Chungwom, Trainer
- Praise: Samuel’s wife Jessica who is expecting a baby on February 11th and has been experiencing some complications. Please pray that God will continue to uphold her and others who are expecting babies. Many of the doctors and nurses have COVID, so pray for protection for the hospital staff. Samuel and his wife will return for an appointment on January 10. Currently Jessica is doing well, but pray that she and the baby will be able to remain healthy.
- Yusuf:
- Please continue to pray for Yusuf, former FFICM staff member who has been questioning his faith. Yusuf was doing follow-up with new believers from a Muslim background and training others to do the same. Yusuf has been going through a difficult time of persecution and this has caused him to question his faith and relationship with Jesus. Pray that God would draw him back and whatever is pulling his heart away from God would be made powerless.
- Comfort:
- Praise God that she has been feeling much better. She has been sick since October.
- Zainab:
- Praise for healing after she slipped in her home earlier this week, injuring herself.
Muslim Outreach Ministry
- Pray: TV and Radio Ministry — We continue to broadcast the TV and radio episodes that have been recorded to share about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus, and are specifically made for people coming to Christ from a Muslim background. Continue to pray for the impact of these recordings, and for the FFICM staff as they work to follow-up those who are coming to Christ. The FFICM-Nigeria team is meeting in-person with these converts to support them in their new faith.
Safety amidst Dangerous 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 and kidnappings are reported daily. Please pray for safety for the trainers.
Ethiopia:
Program Updates
- Pray for neighboring country Sudan. The Prime Minister has stepped down and this has a huge impact on the safety and security in that country.
- Pray: Uncertain Political Future — Civil war is continuing in the northern part of Ethiopia between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray people. Please pray for political resolution, for peace and for provision for the people whose lives had been devastated by the violence and loss of access to basic resources. People are displaced from their villages to other parts of the country due to this war. This ongoing unrest is mostly in the northern and western parts of the country. The economy is suffering because of all the fighting. Please continue to pray for the northern part of the country.
- We praise God that things are safe in the central and southern part of the country and that we are able to continue to do the new believer follow-up training there that is so crucial to equipping the church. Eskinder shares that much of what the International news is reporting is not true or accurate. It is very biased against the Ethiopian government and sensationalists. Pray that the truth would be made known and that the Ethiopian government and the International news community would report accurately on the ongoing situation in Ethiopia.
- Prayer: Vehicle search – Keep praying! We continue to look for a vehicle for the team to use in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government is looking at stopping the import of used vehicles in the country, which would squeeze an already very tight market. We might be able to purchase a vehicle from another department at the EKHC church denomination, our main partner denomination there. Pray for wisdom and God’s provision. It has been over a year now that we have been looking for a suitable car to purchase there. We have had many vehicles that we almost purchased, but the purchase didn’t go through for one reason or another. If you want to donate to the fund for this vehicle purchase, you can do this at: https://fficm.org/ethiopiavehicle
- Pray for Eskinder going to Durame on Friday for the General assembly of the Genet denomination.
- Tesfaye, Ethiopian Trainer
- Pray that internet connection will be made available in this village so that he can join us for our weekly prayer calls and have the ability to work from home.
- Pray for his English language learning that he is working on regularly. As his English skills improve, it will help him to be able to be used to train people with our materials in countries around Ethiopia as the work of FFICM expands.
United States:
Ongoing:
- Pray that our team will be able to get visas for Nigeria and Cameroon. We are planning a ministry trip to Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Kenya in March/April 2022 and we have several people on our team who are needing visas to be able to participate in that trip.
- Praise: Mission ConneXion opportunity — FFICM served as the “Discipleship Basics” workshop track coordinator for Mission ConneXion’s NW 2022 conference. The workshop track was amazing! We saw many from all over Oregon and Washington at the conference in our workshop track and at our booth on January 21-22, 2022. You can watch the recorded plenary sessions at: https://missionconnexion.com/ and soon our four workshops will be available there. We made some good connections there that might be able to help us get into some new countries.
- Pray for Rich and Jerel as they prepare to take an East coast tour to share with churches about FFICM and the many exciting things we have planned for 2022.
Ministry Partners
- Carly Powne, US Based International Trainer — www.fficm.org/carly-powne
- Continue to pray for Carly to be at 100% monthly support by the end of February 2022 — We pray that God will continue to bring a full team of prayer and financial partners for Carly before the end of December so she can focus fully on her role as an International Trainer with FFICM. Praise God for those who have already signed up to be part of her prayer and financial support team. Praise God for the new monthly donor that just committed this past weekend! She is currently at 55% of her needed monthly support.
- Pray for wisdom: As we look at what Carly will be able to take on in 2022, a lot of that is tied to how much time she will need to devote to ongoing fundraising. We currently have her scheduled to help with 2 training trips overseas of about four weeks each. Once she gets up to full support we can look at increasing that to 4-6 trips per year.
- David Moore, Director of Operations
- Continue to pray for wisdom in parenting. Pray for spiritual protection of his children and for good ability to communicate as a family. Pray especially for his son Andrew (aka: Benjamin) who has been having a hard time making wise choices. Andrew will be coming back from San Diego this week on Saturday after being there for several weeks with his aunt and uncle. He will start at a new school in Hillsboro at the beginning of the second semester in February. Pray for these transitions.
- Pray for his continued progress on David’s MA in Nonprofit Management. David has just one two-month class left that starts this week and then two months to write the final research paper.
- Pray for his wife Denise who is pregnant and due in May 2022. She continues to feel a lot of discomfort during the pregnancy. In preparation for the baby’s arrival, they are working on adding a second bathroom to their house. Pray for wisdom, finances and all that is needed will come together in the coming months.
- Praise for healing from COVID for daughter, Hannah, and for protection for the rest of the family in the house. They will be going to the doctor to get a covid test today.
- Pray for the bathroom addition project that David has been working on during the weekends in preparation for the arrival of the new baby.
- Rich Gardner, President
- Rich’s daughter, Dara Searcy-Gardner, continues to struggle with debilitating asthma. With the failure of the first medication, she’s needed to try a new medicine; however, the insurance is refusing to pay for it. Pray that the insurance company would change their response so Dara could receive the treatment she needs. She’s unable to work and barely able to function. She is asking us to pray that the medication would conquer the asthma. We pray for complete healing.
- Praise for a good time with family over the holidays. His kids all came to Portland to celebrate Christmas together and had a wonderful time.
- Jerel Skeith, Director of Strategic Relationships
- Pray for healing as Jerel is feeling sick with a low fever and not sure if it is COVID or just a cold.
- Rick Cordell, Adjunct International Trainer
- Pray: Rick is currently on his way to Nigeria. He will arrive on Tuesday and be there for 4 months.
- Pray: For patience as he waits on finalized training schedules.
- Praise for donations and support coming through that are helping to pay for his last trip as well as future trips.
Strategic Development
- Praise/Pray: Church status — FFICM has applied for church status here in the US. The application is complete and has been submitted! Pray for wisdom for the IRS as they consider our application. 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 financial benefits for us as an organization.
- Pray: International Director of Prayer — We are praying that God will provide a volunteer International Director of Prayer for FFICM. We would love to have someone to take charge and develop this crucial area of ministry even more. Pray that God would raise the right person up for the job.
- Pray for Rich and Jerel as they prepare to travel around the midwest and east coast to share about FFICM in February 2022.
God’s love surround you, God’s Spirit guide you,
God’s whisper cheer you, God’s peace calm you,
God’s shield protect you, God’s wisdom arm you,
wherever God may lead you.
Amen.
