February 22, 2022
Dear FFICM Prayer Partners,
“One of the fruits of prayer is that as we pray God begins to grow within us a greater sensitivity and compassion for suffering–the suffering of others, the suffering of the earth, the suffering within us, and the suffering of God. God is nothing if not a deep wellspring of compassion. We see this in Jesus as he offers kindness and care to the Roman soldier, the cheating taxman, the questioning prostitute, the sickly lepers, the hemorrhaging woman, the needy children, and the countless others he encounters. Jesus reveals to us that the deepest truth about God is that God feels and unrelenting compassion for human beings. To be a friend of Jesus is to share God’s compassion with everyone we meet.”
Mark Yaconelli
Wonder, Fear, and Longing
New highlights from prayer updates:
- UPDATE: No New News. Continue to pray for the father of Rashida and her sister, Hinbatu, who is still negotiating with their captors. The girls say they are doing fine, and we continue to pray for their release and safety.
- Pray for conference and training preparations for our Spring Training. There are a lot of moving pieces that need to be put together. Pray for visas to be returned, the travel involved, and the groups that we will be working with as they work to put final pieces together.
- Praise for so many successful trainings last week between Ethiopia and Nigeria.
Nigeria:
Nigeria Program Updates
- Praise for last week’s training at the COCIN headquarters. Pray for the discipleship that continues from here.
- Continue to pray for HBB (Hausa Background Believers) Conference preparations. Preparations continue to come together for the upcoming conference planned for mid-March.
- 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.
- UPDATE: No New News. Continue to pray for the father of Rashida and her sister, Hinbatu, who is still negotiating with their captors. The girls say they are doing fine, and we continue to pray for their release and safety.
- Pray for one of the Muslim Background Believers that FFICM staff has been discipling named Ado from Kano State Nigeria, who lost his mother last week Wednesday.
- Praise for Rick Cordell and FFICM Nigeria staff Prisca who trained 154 students last week at Gindiri theological seminary on how to do new believer follow-up. It went wonderfully and they are very excited to continue the training in the future as well as train faculty and staff.
- Praise: Ishaku and Ahmed had a great week of training in Nasarawa State, Nigeria this past week. Praise for the great response and the excitement of those who were trained.
- Praise for FFICM Nigeria staff Peter and Pankyes are in Makodi, Nigeria this past week where they trained 100+ people in how to do new believer follow-up. Pray for the participants who came from 20 different churches around the area and they have little experience in evangelism and discipleship. All were very encouraged and challenged and now have plans to do outreach and new believer follow-up.
- Gas prices in Nigeria have shot way up and there are now lines that take at least 3 hours to get through in order to buy gas. Pray for the price to stabilize and for patience in the mean time.
Prayer for the Nigeria Ministry Team
- Samuel Chungwom, Trainer
- Praise: Samuel’s wife Jessica had their baby last week. The mother and baby boy are healthy. They will be getting the first immunizations done this week.
- Praise: All their kids are well after having measles recently. Praise for healing.
- Zainab
- Pray for electricity to be returned to her areal
- Pray for a crusade in the village of Barde. They will be sharing the gospel Thursday – Saturday. Pray for the message to be shared and for the follow up that will happen in the following 6 weeks. The people of the village are very eager for the word of God.
- 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.
- Rick Cordell, Adjunct Trainer from US
- Rick is currently in Nigeria and will be there and in surrounding countries until early June helping with new believer follow-up training.
- Pray for Rick as he will be traveling to Abuja, Nigeria this coming weekend to speak at a large youth conference.
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.
Cameroon:
- Pray for continued preparations for the upcoming trainings and for the translation of the FFICM materials into French for the upcoming trainings there.
Ethiopia:
Program Updates
- 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 We praise God for those who have contributed this past week to the vehicle fund.
- Praise for the new believer follow-up training that FFICM Ethiopia staff Eskinder and Tesfaye are leading this week in Sidama, Ethiopia. They ended up training 115 people. On Wednesday they shared the gospel in the market 476 people. 58 people accepted Christ, 79 repented and gave their lives back to Christ, 92 people agreed to follow up and come back and receive Christ. 7 people came out of a bar to receive Christ. 1 man gave up chat, which is a drug, and cried with relief from being released from the drug.
- Praise for the new dam on the Nile started generating energy yesterday. Very many people are so happy to have electricity.
- Pray an upcoming training in Bishoftu, which may change to go to the Yem area as they need priority for training.
- Pray for the upcoming conference and trainings as a part of the spring training.
United States:
Ongoing:
- Continue praying 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. The embassy made a mistake on our visas that has to be corrected, the visas have been returned to the embassy. We have 2 weeks and 2 days to get them back before we head out, so please pray that they will be corrected and returned quickly. Because the embassy is holding our passports, no travel can be done until they are returned.
- Praise for the opportunity to share with 4 new churches and for those who are excited to partner with FFICM. Rich and Jerel had a successful East coast trip and are very excited about how God is moving through this time together and with partners around the US.
- Praise/Pray: This coming Sunday the FFICM team will have a time of prayer at Cedar Mill Bible Church after the second service to pray together with those who want to stay and pray for the upcoming 4 country ministry trip in March/April. Pray that many would stay after the service and join for this and that God would hear the prayers of those gathered and would lead, guide and provide for the upcoming 8 week trip.
- Pray/Praise: We thank God for the service of Wendy as she has faithfully served as our accountant for many years. We pray for her as she moves on to her next position and for FFICM to find a replacement that will understand the heart and the mission of FFICM. We pray as we search to find someone who will be able to take care of our accounts and administration.
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 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 60% 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 to eight weeks each. Once she gets up to full support we can look at increasing that to 4-6 trips per year.
- Pray for the many things to close out before the spring training trip. She has her final class of her 2 year cohort a few days before she leaves for the Africa spring training, then will return and go straight to the closing retreat. Pray that she is able to get done what needs to be done before leaving for Africa and for wisdom in what can be let go.
- Pray for the opportunity to share the mission of FFICM and invite families into partnership at an upcoming dinner on February 27.
- 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 continues to find ways to access drugs and alcohol and threatens self harm. Pray for wisdom as David and Denise work to get him the help that he needs. Ben will be starting the Drug Court Keys to Success program this week.
- Pray for his continued progress on David’s MA in Nonprofit Management. David is in his last class, and then has two months to write the final action 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.
- Pray for the bathroom addition project that David has been working on during the weekends in preparation for the arrival of the new baby. The chimney began last weekend, and electrical work is progressing. They are hoping to finish the project before the baby arrives in May!
- 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.
- Rick Cordell, Adjunct International Trainer
- Pray: Rick is currently in Nigeria and will be there till early June helping with various new believer follow-up trainings and other ministry opportunities.
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. We are still waiting for a response from the IRS. Keep praying about this…
- 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.
Lord, make me and instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
St. Francis
