Season greetings in the name of Jesus. We are thankful to God for
bringing us to the last month of the year 2012. As usual, we took stock of all
God did in our lives and ministries and through us and lack adequate words to
appreciate Him for His unmerited interest in us. We are also mindful of the
fact that your prayers, financial input and moral encouragement made the work
easier for us. Thank you for your consistent partnership, loyalty and trust you
have for us.
We have come across several wounded
soldiers as we labour on the front-line and found ourselves
trying to help them. It could have been us but your prayers shielded us. Our
Medical Missionary in Niger Republic, Blessing Boubacar pointed this out during
one of our recent chat and since then it looked like the Devil multiplied its
attack around us. We have seen the mighty fallen. We have received report of
some passed on. We have helped wiped away many tears and attended to many
seriously sick ones around us. These calls for more prayers and we plead with
you to kindly intensify your prayers for every one of us.
At Furaka, we were engaged in several activities aimed
at accelerating the impact of our many years of reaching out to the
tribal communities and settlers.
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| Furaka Widows recently clothed by GF Women |
The climax was our integral missions’ effort during which 30
widows were clothed with brand new wrappers. One of the widows whose husband
died in a motor accident could barely control her tears when she testified of
the help received to enable her little boy enroll in a private
school. According to her, after her husband died, it was like the whole world
closed up on her. Her initial anger with God for allowing her husband to die
was that she locked herself up and refuse to go to church for over a year.
Today, the young widow now see herself as god's own bride and thankful to Him
for His care. We have had several persons gave their lives to Christ and many
others rededicate their lives to their maker. Please, pray for our
missionaries, Nathaniel Udalor, Ezekiel Ganagana, Florence Showemimo as they
anchor this work along with Michael Omale, Georgiana Chigbu and other leaders.
We again want to
register our apology for our inability to complete the building of Mama
Kasuwa before the rain became heavy. We made effort but the rain messed us up
as most of the mud blocks got damaged. Our earlier constrain was lack of male
missionary to supervise the project. The converts we were using to handle the
project never seems to grasp the urgency. The project has resumed again. The
cost was reviewed upward because of the damages. Our missionary, Mary Ojile
is on ground there to ensure that the project is fully completed. As at the
time of this report, she said new blocks are being molded and that Mama
Kasuwa is not feeling fine. Pray for speedy recovery. We strongly hope
she will move into her new house before Christmas and also trust God that God
will provide fund for bed and furniture as her Christmas gift. We are glad
that she is strong and healthy.
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| South Korean believer |
Most of my foreign mission works during
the month under review are in closed nations. Most of the report cannot be
shared publicly but we are glad that God is moving very strongly especially in
the Middle East. While in the Middle East, I had the privilege of bringing
encouragement to God's choicest servants labouring under cover. Some of the
encouraging reports is the good work going on in the UAE on campuses. Also,
an indigenous church has been born in the country. Pray that the
converts will continue to wax stronger and that God will give them wisdom to
share their faith. In Saudi, a sister had her tongue cut off and later killed
but that still did not stop the other believers. At Qatar, there are only three
known indigenous believers. At Oman, there are only 10 known indigenous
believers. Most of the churches located in those countries are servicing
settlers. A senior colleague called them flower pot churches. Please, pray that
God will bring strong revival in these nations. Just recently, the Arabian Peninsula
Consultation (APC) at our last meeting formally appointed me as the Nigerian
Representative. Part of my mandate was to
kick-start a consultation that will generate more missionaries and
prayer support for that region of the world. Pray for me as I embark on that
new assignment.
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| Middle Easterners waiting to be harvested |
On my return from our annual Middle East Initiative (MEI) trip, I
proceeded to an Asian country where 230 mission leaders selected from
across the world focusing on Unreached people met to assess, review and
strategise again how we can get the job finished. Reports received from the
hardened closed South East Asian countries are equally encouraging. One of such
is the testimonies of a young man that broke into a church and stole a Bible.
He read the Bible and surprisingly, he gave his life to Christ. Since then, he
has been quietly labouring to advance God's kingdom. As at last count, he has
already won no fewer than 800 converts. We have more
reasons to be praying for the Middle East nations as we watch how the Holy
Spirit is rising within the world’s most radical Islamic nations. Mission
researchers estimate more Muslims have committed to follow Christ in the last
10 years than in the last 15 centuries of Islam. Yet Islamic governments make
up some of the worst persecutors of Christians,
according to
the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF). Despite the persecution, reports indicate
God is moving dramatically in Islamic strongholds such as Indonesia, Pakistan
and the following Middle East hot spots:
At the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 at Iran, there were only
about 500 known Muslim converts in the country, according to missions almanac
Operation World. By 2000, there were a reported 220,000 believers, including
Muslim converts. Even children of government ministers and mullahs have been
converting to Christ. In Iraq, it’s estimated that before 2003 there
were only about 600 known born-again followers of Jesus Christ in the
country. By the end of 2008, Iraqi Christian leaders believed the number had
risen to more than 70,000. Meanwhile, millions of Arabic New Testaments and
Christian books have been shipped into Iraq since the ouster of Saddam
Hussein in 2003. Revival in Egypt is reportedly widespread among nominal
Christians within the nation’s historic Coptic Church, whose members number
about 10 million. Yet Coptics are under severe attack, according to Voice of
the Martyrs. Also, the list of
“Countries of Particular Concern” now includes Egypt, where since
January 400 Christians have been murdered, hundreds more injured and multiple
churches burned.
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Grace Foundation may not be able to send in missionaries to all the dark
nations of the world but we have resolved to partner with agencies and help
send in more Bibles to closed nations. We are praying for funds to sponsor the
production of Kurdish Bibles in 2013 and will want to start with 100 copies in
the first quarter. One of our friends have been labouring among the Kurdish
people in Iraq for over one decade now. We trust that it will strengthen our
partnership. God is answering our prayers for more indigenous labourers
which we considered as the key to reaching the Amazon. Please, pray for Denis
as he still await his visa to come to Nigeria in June 2013. Pray also for
Adroaldo as he plan to spend one year in Nigeria with us. Godwin Ogwuche has
just returned from Brazil to Nigeria. Pray for him as we together pray for the
next phase of his assignment.
Our work in Chad, Niger and Nigeria fields are progressing but more
prayers are needed especially for the staff and converts. Abigail Liman has continued
to lose very close relations. Pray for God's comfort. We are sourcing for
new missionaries to replace our missionaries in Cameroon. Approval has been
granted us by the Federal Government for two expatriate missionaries.
Hopefully, Fatima from Malawi and Emily Nhachi from Zimbabwe will resume fully
before the end of this year. Pray that God will provide the resources needed
for flight ticket and other logistics.
Forms are on sale for admission into School of Cross-Cultural Missions
against March 2013. Please, pray and mobilise more prospective missionaries.
The current students are still on the mission fields for their practicals.
March 13-17, 2013 has been fixed for the 18th African Missions Summit. Enter it
in your diary now and work out time to join us so we can pray together and
encourage one another. The theme is Missions in Unparalleled Times.
The very urgent needs requiring your prayer we have now are:
1. Continuous peace in Jos, Nigeria where we operate from and divine
protection for all our missionaries in volatile areas and success of all our
Discipleship Training Campmeetings in all security porous fields this month.
2. Visas for all our foreign staff who are due to resume in Nigeria this
December.
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| Some of the Home of Grace(HOG) Kids |
3. Funds for our kids in the Home of
Grace (HOG). Pray particularly for Ayuba Ajikovi who just completed his degree
program that the Federal Government will post him to the right place for his
National Youth Service Corps and for fund for the foodstuff. We desperately
want to buy substantial quantity of foodstuff now in view of the anticipated
inflation as a result of the flood and drought.
4. Pray for funds for the registration for West African Examination
Council(WAEC), NECO, JAMB and
the
consolidated school fees of four of our the children in the HOG ~ Salisu,
Blessing, Racheal & Mary.
5. Pray for fund for our missionaries’ upkeep, their children school
fees/other needs and other family responsibilities. Some missionaries’ parents
are sick and desperately need medical cares. Others were affected by recent
flood and their houses collapsed/farm crops eroded away.
6. Pray for funds for all abandoned and new projects on the fields especially
the Dir reconstruction project and the completion of Niger Republic mission
houses requiring N160,000.
7. Pray for all our friends and partners. Leon Merwe at Meyerton, South
Africa was recently admitted in the hospital for gastroscopy. He has been a
very close friend to this ministry and our family since July 1997.
Thank you again for your partnership. Stay blessed.
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