Chronicle of 35 Years of Laboring in the Dark Places




Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.
(1 Samuel 7:12)



Grace Foundation Inland Missions has existed for 35 years, and we are grateful to God for helping us

Kamberi work in the early 90s
navigate and work in some of the darkest regions of the world. The ministry started without a defined form but with the singular focus of ensuring that those who sit in this region would see great light and that light would dawn on those who are resident in the shadows of death, as captured in Matthew 4:16.

The labor began with consolidating the result of the earlier work carried out in Benue and Niger State by the team and others. The Aiona work in Benue state came under very severe persecution and the only way out was to formally hand it over to Christian Life Evangelical Ministry (CLEM). Pastor Freedman Akor took over and did excellent work. Pastor Mike Agada who was directly leading the work in several villages at Owukpa took over the leadership of the work in that axis and named it Christian Fellowship Center. 


The Kamberi work in Kwara State came under Niger State when the Ibrahim Babangida administration carved out that section of the state and merged it into Niger State making it difficult for the Kwara State Christian Corpers Fellowship(KCCF) under which the work started to have jurisdiction whereby all efforts to get other mission agencies to continue with the work failed.



After much 
prayers, the passion and burden received many years earlier at Irimto dispel darkness began to see the light of the day as the need to continue with some of the pre-GFIM labor became inevitable. The ministry today operates under five departments. They are Media and Mobilization, Missions Training, Field Operations, Home of Grace and Relief, and Homefront/Research.

Media Broadcast


Media and Mobilization

GFIM recognizes the need for laborers who would serve as agents of light to dispel darkness from all the places where the prince of darkness still dominates. To recruit these laborers, we engaged in praying that God would supply them. In addition to prayers, we mobilize the body of Christ not to be passive but to actively get involved.


The department travels extensively both locally and
internationally to conduct mission awareness teachings in churches, fellowships, conferences, and other 
platforms.


GFIM also used national televisions such as the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) to mobilize the church as well as our YouTube channels.


The department is also involved in print media mobilization efforts where the department publishes a magazine quarterly: God’s Heartbeat and has published over 20 books which include: Agony of Unreached People, Toiling in Dark Places, My Journey into the Dark Nations, Nursing Your Missionary Vision, Understanding African Missions, etc.


Missions Training

Advanced Missions leadership Candidates

GFIM has been very much committed to training and retraining missionaries bearing in mind the mission work requires intense preparation and failure to prepare is preparation for woeful failure. 
This department has for over two decades run one-year pre-field intensive missions training under her School of Cross-Cultural Missions(SOCM) and has graduated hundreds of missionaries laboring in different countries around the world under various mission organizations. The School had a campus in Cameroon which serviced the Francophone countries but has to be suspended for now because of inadequate funding.


Missions & Exposures and Training, Pretoria
The department is also involved in retraining missionaries with pre-field training under the Advanced Missions Leadership Institutes (AMLI) who have labored for over 10 years and would be required to upgrade their capacities. This was held bi-annually and had graduated four sets of key leaders already. The graduates cut across various mission agencies and denominations including national leaders, founders/chief Executives of ministries.


In collaboration with other ministries like the
Kingdom Bride in the Cross-River State of Nigeria, we have conducted mobile short-term mission training and 
we have provided leadership for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada’s Missions Exposures and Training(MET), Pretoria to train pastors from across Africa for missions for close to two decades now.


Field Operations

Pioneering effort via River Niger

The core of our work is centered on this department and off-shoot of our work among the Kamberis. The Kamberi work cut across Niger and Kebbi State as well as Benin Republic. It has also given birth to work among other tribes such as Achipawa, Boko, Gungawa, Fulani, and Dukawa.

We have four mission Stations in Kebbi Statesnamely, Woruworu, Samadobi, Tugan-Gboka, and Bayan Dutse.


In Niger State, the work has spread to Samunaka, Tugan Haske, Tugan Ali, Ishi, Igbeshi, Kubule, Angwan Borgu, Rama, Angwaru and Lambu.


In the Benin Republic, the work spread to Libante, Tugan-Yakubu, Morou, Maidaji, Magaji, Shagiya,

Indigenous Believers Campmeeting

Badelu, Kwalaye, Segbana, Kawuya and Morou II.


From the axis of the Northeast of Nigeria, the GFIM is working among the Beru, Dir, Bolu, Bum, Zull, and Sangawa people in Bauchi state. Before we began our pioneering efforts, all these places and people groups either had no believers or a negligible number of believers.


In Benue State, GFIM works at Oma among the Aiona people of the Idoma tribe. We attempted to extend the work to a diasporan community at Ade-Igwu but had to suspend it because of increased tension and insecurity.


At the Niger Republic, the GFIM labors among the Gobirawa people, the Bankoula people, Tibiri, Ahole and Salkam people.


Kamberi convert

In Plateau State
, we work among the Furaka and Zarazong people.  Our work among these people groups includes evangelism, discipleship with scores of Discovery Bible Study (DBS) groups, and pioneer church planting where none exists.


At Chad, we had fruitful work in Bonghor where Samuel Benuoji and his team labored for many years before his demise. The work is suspended pending when God provides a replacement.


In Zambia, GFIM registration certificate was Business Name and not Incorporated Trustees as agreed and paid for so the work has to be suspended to avoid future challenges.


In Brazil, GFIM recalled her missionary because he hesitated to allow his family to join him after serving for over one year.


Home of Grace(HOG) and Relief/Helping Hands

This department is a byproduct of the field operations department. The GFIM encounters several needs

Receiving New Kids from IDP Camp

on the mission fields that cannot be ignored. This includes victims of cultural practices and intense persecutions as well as banditries and Jihads. A young girl lost her mother when she was six months old. In the process of burying the mother, they placed her by the mother’s corpse to bury both of them together.


Our missionary plucked her from untimely death from the grave. She is 24 years old now and an undergraduate at the University of Jos. The Jihadist visited a home and slaughtered a man and his wife in the presence of his son. Thank God they did not kill the boy. He is today in his final year in High school and several others in that category. The HOG has scores of orphans and vulnerable kids across three mission bases as well as missionary kids whose parents are laboring in very dangerous mission fields without access to education.


Benin Republic
We also have Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs), widows, and other orphans who are not in the HOG and whose needs cannot be ignored. Through the Helping Hands, Soteria Ministries, Tabitha Arise Foundation, and several of our partners, God has helped us to put eternal smiles on faces beyond the four walls of Grace Foundations.


We have drilled boreholes to provide water for various communities such as Sanga, Bum, Samunaka, Zarazong, Furaka, etc. We provided foodstuffs to many displaced communities at Taraba, Benue, Kaduna and Plateau States.


Homefront/Research

Dukawa Convert

This department is sometimes ignored but is one of the most important departments. It is the pillar
carrying the weight of the first four departments. The department handles all the logistics needs of the missionaries. It comprises the finance and administration departments and coordinates the work nationally and internationally. It carries out research and planning as well as enforcement and over the years has provided prayer cover through mission prayer squads for all the missionaries, and
 member care/pastoral oversight for the missionaries.


Collaboration/Networking

GFIM has been able to survive and make such a huge impact because of friends and partners that have over the years collaborated with us.  We are ever grateful to God for blessing us with one of our earliest corporate partners, the Missions Supporters League (MSL). You believed in us so early. We can never forget those bundles of zinc for our second church on

Oma Field

Kamberi field. The memory of the grinding machine you bought for Dir field and the huge difference it made and many other supports. God bless you richly.


For Gospel Bankers and Anude Family Legacy Endowment Fund, Grace  Fatii Omalli Fellowship, Engineer David Okpanachi, Late Apostle Livinus Ofem, and Mrs. Ebele Okojie the devil would have grounded our missions training effort if not for the scholarship you provided at different points which kept the school running. May the Lord bless you richly.


We are extremely grateful to Our Daily Need Ministries, Eternity Ministries, Soteria Church, Tabitha Arise Foundation, Assembly of Redeemed Church, Sao Paulo Assemblies of God church, The Mighty Cry Missions, White Camp Mission, Purpose Driven Life, Day Spring International, Redemption Missionary Church, Gospel Bankers, Final Command Ministry, Dream Center, Chapel of Goodnews, ATBU Chapel of Victory, Forgotten Ones Foundation,  Christ Impact World Mission, Mission Challenge Network,all the Network of African Missions Leaders(NAMIL)family and many more too numerous to mention. Thank you for not just partnering but taking ownership of the ministry. Most of the testimonies we publish are jointly owned. You sponsored them. We are very sure that the only way forward is collaboration.

 

The Director's former colleagues in the journalism profession, such as Professor Taiye Obateru, Professor Adeyi Major, Honorable Rima Shawulu, and many others, have solidly supported the work. 


We cannot list all our partners but our earliest friends/partners and fellow 1988 Corp membersDr.


Malobi Ogboli, Bisi Fanimo, Kemi Bamgbala, Lola Abrahams, Daniel Ayidu. Joke/Gboyega Eyitayo, Yinka Laoye, Kunle Adeyemo, Emmanuel Abuh, etc. You have been there since the inception.

Some of our dearest partners have gone to be with the Lord, Mama Esther Anaja, Engr. Livinus Ofem, Mama Gbenle, Barrister Tubosun Oyelade, Peter Okoh. Douglas Martins Junior, Agnes Okpe, Abraham Abah, Joy Sanni, Tope Madamori, Papa Aderinto, Clement Anegbe, Papa Merwe, etc. Enjoy your rest and your reward. Your impact remains indelible. 


For many others whom God has brought our way as destiny helpers, Yemisi Madamori, Ron Meyers (Prof. & Dr. Mrs.), Chinelo Ohanyere, Bernet Madgwulike(Mr. & Mrs), Adindu Ezeocha, Chichi Okonjo (Mr. & Mrs.). Mummy Bolanle Olabisi,  Ikechukwu Ugwuanyi (Elder & Mrs.), Mike Adegbile, Ndidi and Chuka Anude, Mrs. Sanyaola, Elizabeth Edime,  Mummy Abigail Aderinto, Peter Akinyemi,  Oridota Ezekiel, Engr., & Mrs. Yele


Akinsipe, Sister Moni Olopade, Patience Amajor, Elizabeth Edime, Idowu Osaghie-Bello, Adeyemi, Awosika,  Dr. & Prof. Isaac Amuta, Elder Samson Abah, Elsie Govender, Barrister Pius Akubo (SAN), Amina Ochai, Oladayo Samuel, Adebowale Kuforiji, Abada Mathias, Eunice Ojobo, Samson AbahShitu Bolaji, Godson Abraham, Danjuma Yahaya, Ugochukwu Obi, Barnabas Omali, Renee and Paul Frangoulis,  and family.

For every member of our Board of Trustees, Prof. Joel Onu, Rev. Dr. Samson Amedu, Mrs. Lucy Abah, and Rev. Yinka Laoye, thank you so much for your selfless sacrifices.   

Conclusion

We conclude on the note of Philippians 3:12-14 (New International Version):

 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

 We are just beginning. Pray and partner with us as we press on!


October 2024 Missions Update

Happy new month and independence for us in Nigeria, in Jesus' name. The past two months were full of progress on every front, and we give all the glory to God and we are very grateful to you for all the sacrifices you made to make this partnership work so well.

 More Conversions and Intense Discipleship Efforts

Firstly, several souls came to know Jesus for the first time. Others who left the faith were restored. We may not disclose their identity especially since most of the converts are from sub-Saharan Africa and are being hunted to make them return to their former faith. We covet your prayers earnestly that the persecution they and others are going through will not make them retreat.

 

Lausanne 4 Report

Some of my table mates and I  at C36 at Lausanne Congress

The International Director of Grace Foundation(myself) was among the 5200 carefully selected missions chosen from across the globe to participate in the just concluded Lausanne Congress (the fourth edition). The congress was a great success and what stood out were the need for revival, collaboration among agencies/denominations, etc. The messages were inspiring and new kingdom relationships were established. On my table was the Malawi SIM President, Peter Ong who is from Australia, Moa Ao from India, and Scott Harris the VP of Church and Global Engagement, USA. We had almost one week of bonding. Pray along with us that the impact of the Congress will remain indelible.

 Discipleship Making Movement (DMM)

In addition to our traditional way of discipling our converts, we have not only adopted the Discipleship but Making Movement(DMM) which we did over two years ago and has been crawling, took another dimension in the past two months with Pastor Ayuba Ajikovi coming to head the DMM team. He had traveled extensively and taken time to explain the concept and practicalities. Pastor Josephine Oumarou did a follow-up visit and their labor in collaboration has birthed no fewer than 15 additional Discovery Bible Study (DBS). They are to cover Kebbi and Niger State, Benin, and Niger Republic before the end of the year as the Lord provides resources.

 

Collaboration/Networking Strategy

We have collaborated at the grassroots level to carry out the Great Commission. Before now, the Soteria Ministry in Maryland, Final Command Ministry, Eternity Ministry, the Forgotten Ones Foundation, Tabitha Arise Foundation, Purpose Driven Fellowship, Our Daily Needs Ministry,White Camp, Dream Center, Missions Enablers, Gospel Bankers Inc., and many others have contributed immensely to our efforts to advance God’s kingdom to its current height.

v In one of the Sub-Saharan nations, our missionaries (names withheld) reported that:

v District Hospital of T*b*ri invited us regularly to represent Christians to their meetings where very sensitive decisions are taken.

v An organization, Joseph Ministry offered scholarships to seven of our missionary kids who are schooling in Niamey

v Also, another organization,  Grace Academy also offered scholarships to three of our missionary kids in secondary school in Niamey.

v Also, Samaritan Purse helped Grace Foundation in that region with materials like laptops and children's gifts and Campus pour Christ Niger provided water in Kwa*** Gob*raw*.

v In collaboration with Peace House, our missionaries train at least 40 candidates twice at Mail*. 

 

Home of Grace Updates

Some of our HOG growing kids

We are so glad at the report of the progress at the Home. We have four children in their final year of high school now. That connotes huge financial responsibility. The three terms of school fees and both WAEC and NECO exam fees must be paid now. Some of the fees have been paid while we are still praying for the remaining fees. We also have five students at the University of Jos now and one in Plateau State Polytechnic. As the children grow, financial demands increase. We have an individual already shouldering the responsibility of one of them while a foundation is committed to shouldering the responsibility of two others. We now have the financial needs of two University of Jos Students and one Polytechnic student outstanding.

Foodstuffs and the cost of transportation remain challenging but our dependence is on God. We are struggling with accepting other vulnerable kids because we want to be sure we are able to come up with the ones we have now.

 

Missionaries Welfare

One of our missionaries, Andrew Marafa had a challenge with his eyes. He was taken to Jos University Teaching Hospital(JUTH) where they claimed it was irredeemable stressing that it was an advanced stage of glaucoma. He visited Glory Dome at Abuja and God restored his sight. After over two years of enjoying good sight, the problem started all over again. We have withdrawn him from the field and sent him to another ophthalmology hospital at Bauchi.  He has been given some medication and was asked to return after some time for evaluation. Please, pray along with us for divine intervention.

 

Conclusion

Once again, thank you so much for your collaboration over the years. Though, we are not yet where we are heading to, we are no longer crawling. Your working with us have made a huge difference. We continue to count on you as we press on.

  • Please, pray for us for divine protection on the various fields where we labor especially places where banditry and kidnapping is still rampant.
  • Pray for sound mental health for our missionaries going through several challenges.
  • Pray for financial provisions for missionaries whose stipend cannot meet their family needs especially children school fees and foodstuffs.
  • Pray for uncompleted projects ( Both individual and missionaries building projects and needs for strong cars.

God bless you and maranatha!