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More Than a One-Time Prayer: 5 Lessons on Nurturing Faith from the Frontlines

Dara Searcy-Gardner | Vice President, Firm Foundation in Christ Ministries

To survive and thrive under extreme pressure, faith must be nurtured! Here are five surprising lessons from the frontlines on what cultivating faith looks like.

Lesson 1: Faith Has To Be Stretched Daily

Dr. Richard Gardner, founder of FFICM, often uses a simple rubber band to illustrate a strategic theological truth: for faith to be strong, it must be stretched. Just as a runner is born with muscles but cannot finish a marathon without grueling training, every believer begins with an infant faith that must be strengthened through a conscious daily practice of trusting God.

New believers need to be coached through this process as stretching requires moving directly against “natural” human responses. When instinct wants us to react, God wants us to trust Him and turn the other cheek. Culture rewards tribalism, but a life of faith means loving your enemies and forgiving “70 times 7”. We cannot do these heavy lifts of faith if we have not been practicing faith consistently in our daily lives. FFICM equips church leaders to cultivate a life of faith in new believers.

“Faith…is not something occasionally or intermittently used in our lives. Faith must be nurtured. Faith must be stretched. Faith must grow.” — Dr. Richard Gardner

Lesson 2: Faith Is For Everyone

Everyone deserves a chance to receive the healing power of a life of faith in God through relationship with Jesus, and this faith can spring gup even in the hardest environments. At Hawassa Prison in Ethiopia, FFICM conducted a training for 66 prisoners in November 2025. These Christians were strengthened in their own faith by our training and sent out to evangelize and follow up with new believers themselves. The results were staggering: by April, 297 new believers had been baptized, and hundreds more were enrolled in follow-up classes.

Many of these prisoners had suffered or had committed terrible sins, and were not sure that God would forgive them. Their fellow prisoners, equipped with their life experience and with the training FFICM gave them, by God’s grace were able to break down these doubts and lead hundreds of people who did not think they deserved a place in the presence of God into a faith-filled relationship with Him!

Lesson 3: Faith Inspires Creative Ways To Reach for God

In South Asia, nurturing faith requires radical creativity. One of our trainees, a young woman, faced a home environment where her parents would burn any Bible she brought inside. To grow in her faith, she began photocopying chapters of the Bible, disguising them as schoolwork so she could study the Word of God under her parents’ noses.

Her faith prospered, and after she completing her education, she walked away from a high-paying career to serve children in the slums. She began developing simple and creative ways for kids to understand salvation.

With half the population in South Asia under the age of 14, the region is at a generational pivot point. She is now helping us develop a specialized children’s curriculum. Children benefit from the creative and problem-solving faith she embodies, that FFICM is also striving to cultivate! We serve a creative God, who works through faith in beautiful ways.

Lesson 4: Faith Overcomes the World

We often assume that pastors and established leaders have finished their faith journey, but the frontlines tell a different story. At a conference in Bedessa, where 25,000 people gathered, a deep-seated crisis was unfolding: church members were literally killing other Christians due to tribal disputes.

During a training session for 70 pastors, FFICM posed a hypothetical: “If a fellow Christian stole your phone, would you treat him differently than a non-Christian?” One pastor admitted he would still beat the thief. However, when asked if he would beat his own biological sister for the same crime, he admitted he wouldn’t. The lesson hit home: they were not seeing their fellow believers through the eyes of faith as true family. One lead pastor pounded his chest and admitted, “This training is not for new believers only. It’s for me.”

Miraculously, after FFICM’s conference in that area, we have gotten credible reports that Christians have ceased fighting, and there is peace in the region.

Nurturing faith is a lifelong process of dismantling cultural prejudices and tribalism and coaching each other to resist the temptations of the world and live lives of sacrificial love.

Lesson 5: Our Strengthened Faith Blesses Others

Naima’s testimony from northern Nigeria defines the upper limits of what a nurtured faith can endure. After converting from a Muslim background, she and her husband were placed under house arrest and offered massive bribes to recant. They refused. Naima was later captured, separated from her infant son, Joseph, and pressured by Islamic scholars to deny Christ.

Tragically, her son died during her captivity. Yet, Naima used her knowledge of both the Bible and the Quran to defend her convictions against every teacher they brought to her. Her faith remained absolute, eventually leading her sisters to Christ, who later helped her escape. Today, Naima and her husband work in an unshakable partnership to train others. She is uniquely qualified to walk alongside those in war-torn areas because her faith has been tested and tried.

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Conclusion: A Cloud of Witnesses

These stories are more than just reports; they are a “cloud of witnesses” proving that faith must be stretched and cultivated, and this cloud of witnesses represents exactly the kind of people we are seeking to equip and empower to reach their own nations for Jesus. As FFICM looks toward the next six months, we have set a strategic goal to raise $100,000 to reach these areas for Jesus:

• $15,000 for Sri Lanka: A nation devastated by civil war and natural disasters (including a massive tsunami that killed 10% of the population), where 270 pastors will be trained this August.
• $40,000 for People: Supporting our tested, faith-filled staff overseas and hiring new staff!
• $30,000 for Trainings and Conferences: Funding 15 planned sessions for hundreds of church leaders.
• $15,000 for Materials: Printing the visual, picture-based tracts and children’s curriculum necessary for reaching pre-literate populations.

Nurturing faith is not a luxury—it is a survival mechanism. In your own daily life, are you keeping your faith in a “resting state,” or are you allowing it to be stretched by the difficult commands of Christ?

To donate to our goal of nurturing faith across Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Asia, click HERE!