October 2026 Missions' Update

Greetings in Jesus' name. Welcome to October 2026, the month of the 37th anniversary of GFIM labor in
the dark places of the earth.  God has been good to us, and we thank Him. We are also grateful to you for being willing to be used by God to partner with us in reaching this height in our efforts to bring the light of the gospel to the dark places of the earth. We are delighted to share with you some of the things God did in the past two months.

Soul Winning/Discipleship

Missionaries and some converts

God helped us greatly in soul winning. Many people embraced Jesus as Lord in the nations where we labor.  One-on-one evangelism was very productive, especially in mission fields where insecurity is very high. In places where it is still safe to hold mass gatherings, we held both indoor and outdoor evangelistic campaigns. Discipleship work started earnestly at the individual level, and we started more Discovery Bible Study (DBS) groups to cater for both new converts and older ones. Please, pray along with us that Christ be formed in them. Pray for divine protection, especially for those from very hostile religious backgrounds. We may not give many details, like names and geographical locations, for their safety.

Malawi Missions Project

Sunday Musa and some key mission leaders in Malawi

You recall Pastor Sunday Musa, who was kidnapped by the Lakurawas over a year ago. We deployed him to Malawi to work among the predominantly Muslim Yao people. He has since resumed work there. Bishop Barnet and Mrs. Salome Phiri hosted him for the first five months. We are very grateful to them and the entire Sovereign Grace team for the warm reception.  During those first five months, he applied for a resident permit, and to the glory of God, it was approved. He also spent time learning the language and culture.

He also carried out a feasibility study on what it will cost to fly his family there and rent a house where he and his family will start their work. He returned to Nigeria in September to raise funds, and we trust God that he, his wife, and their five children will return on December 3, 2026, as planned. He will need over N20 million to return. Please pray with us that God will miraculously provide the funds. As God blesses you, please contribute to the project.

Missions Mobilization/Training

God continued to open doors for us to mobilize the body of Christ to engage in world missions. One of the most outstanding opportunities was the Calebite World Conference, where close to 100 people responded to engage in missions. We have continued to receive calls from those who responded, as well as many others, including those who responded to our earlier messages. We are still processing responses from those who attended the Student/Youth Missions Summit. Please pray along with us that God Almighty will strengthen the conviction of as many as have indicated that God has called them to serve as missionaries.

Several people who responded to missions have reported for a one-year missions training at our School of Cross-Cultural Missions. Two of the students who were not age-appropriate (over fifty years old) have returned home. We will henceforth enforce the age requirement strictly. Some of the candidates are already on the mission field for internship while others are warming up for their own internship.

Displaced Converts, Displaced Missionaries and New Frontier

This is a very difficult season for our missionaries in Niger and Kebbi State of Nigeria, especially those working among the Kamberi and Dukawa people groups.  The jihadists are on a rampage. A few days ago, the Jihadists visited the headquarters of our work in this land and set the church, the furniture, and the musical equipment ablaze. They also burned the mission house that accommodates the missionaries, along with everything they have. They also visited the houses of the converts and burnt everything. Neither the missionaries nor the converts were hurt, killed, or abducted in this last attack because they had all moved out of the village to a safer place. This is because in previous attacks, many indigenous persons were killed. There were also reprisals. Several houses, including food barns, were also set ablaze.  

Over a hundred converts have escaped for their lives, including the missionaries. They were camping in Luma town, but the Jihadists decided to attack the place, so they relocated again.  They are scattered across several villages. In one of the villages where we have a large concentration of our converts, they are doing their best to reach out to the people. We just bought land there and are trusting God to build a church and a mission house. We will use the church as an Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp since we do not know when the matter will ease. The state of the people is currently horrifying. Please pray with us for the funds we need.

Missionaries Welfare and our Many Challenges

Andrew Marafa traveled to Kaduna for eye surgery after reports that an older man was successfully operated on at that hospital. Unfortunately, after assessing him, he was referred to Abuja, and in Abuja, he was told that the state of his glaucoma is advanced and surgery will not work. It was heartbreaking, and we have resorted to just praying and believing God for a miracle. Moustapha Attani was withdrawn from the mission field on health grounds. He was diagnosed with a liver issue. Please, pray for his healing. The Missionary Kids Challenge is still lingering. Some of them are already at our mission base in Jos. We provide free food and accommodation, but we need help paying their school fees.  Most of the fields where we work do not have schools, so our only option is to bring them to Jos, and we can only cater for a limited number of the MKs. Please pray for the MKs. They are paying heavy prices.

Juga Church Building Completed

Newly completed Juga church

God blessed the people of Juga with a newly completed church building during the period under review. As usual, God used an individual to provide the funds, as he does every year to mark his birthday.  Please pray for God’s blessing on him, his family, and ministry, that God will bless them in every area of their lives.  Our converts from several villages in Bauchi State converged at Juga to give God praise and glory in large numbers. Pray along with us that God Almighty will make the Juga church the Mount Zion of our time, a place of salvation, healing, and deliverance,

Conclusion/Prayer Points

Once again, thank you so much for all God has used you to do. We covet your prayers for all the converts that Jesus may be formed in them. Pray for the missionaries for renewed strength. Pray for the displaced missionaries and those who have lost their houses, everything in their houses, and the church razed down by the Jihadists.  Pray for the converts whose houses and food barns were also razed down.

We need financial support designated for the displaced missionaries and converts. They need foodstuffs, mattresses, clothes, etc.  We just bought land in the safest available town closest to the villages that were attacked. We need to build a church and mission house. We need money for this construction work. Pray that the Lord provides the funds we need.

God bless you.

 

July 2026 Missions' Update

Calvary greetings in the name of Jesus. Welcome to July and the second half of the year. We appreciate your partnership in our labor to rescue those in the dark places of the earth.  Your partnership has continued to yield positive results despite the increasing hostility and growing insecurity. 

 

Conversions and Discipleship

New believers in Christ

Evangelism and discipleship have remained on the front burner of our ministry across all our mission fields and the nations where we work.  In high-risk fields, we minimize open-air crusades. We limit ourselves to one-on-one evangelism. In other fields where hostility is higher, we focus on establishing social contact, sometimes referred to as friendship evangelism, like in John 4.

In all the cases, God is granting us substantial results as many are turning to Christ. In the Sahel, for example, our missionaries visit hospitals to distribute gifts to patients, preach to them, and pray with them. We also had regular opportunities to preach on the radio. Feedback has been quite encouraging. 

 

The new converts are being followed up. Some were baptized. Some of our missionaries are being threatened for their relationships with some converts. In some cases, we do all we can to conceal the conversion of some of the new believers. Secret discipleship is thriving, but we pray that they will mature to face the fierce persecution looming over them. One of our converts was attacked diabolically when he was in a hideout. They snatched his wife, and his children were carted away from him. He had a mental challenge and was released to go back. We covet prayers for him and others like him working in hostile environments.  

 

Insecurities Continue to Grow

Insecurity has continued to grow in almost all our mission fields. Staying on to continue the work in

Endangered missionaries

most fields is a deliberate choice by individual missionaries. The terrorists killed a man just behind our mission house at the Samunaka field. Naturally, the missionaries living in the mission house were scared, not knowing who would be the next target. They relocated immediately but eventually returned. The terrorists returned and kidnapped one of the teenage girls living with the missionaries, stole the money in the house, and carted away the motorcycles. The villagers overpowered them, freed the kidnapped girl, and recovered the motorcycle. One of the kidnappers was arrested.

 

Benin Republic missionaries

In another field, the terrorists rode through the village on their motorcycles with their ammunition in large numbers. Again, fear gripped the missionaries and the village dwellers. In some fields, people migrated, and the missionaries had no option but to follow. 

 

The Lord has continued to protect the missionaries and the converts. In Kebbi State, Nigeria, some converts successfully migrated to the Republic of Benin. We deployed a missionary to the border town of Benin Republic to care for the migrants. Still, the vigilantes insisted that he must have all the required documents, such as a resident permit, which were not available at the time, so he had to return to Nigeria.

 

Women of Grace Prayer Summit and Other Related Programs

Participants 

Friends, families, converts, and female missionaries converged in Jos to seek the face of the Lord concerning the nations, the families, and individual needs. The summit was very successful, and God granted journey mercies to and fro without abduction or any challenge.

 

On July 23-26, 2026, students and youth from several tertiary institutions will converge in Jos for the National Students/Youth Missions Summit to pray and reflect on the lives of ideal Christian youth in the Gen Z era and on the final command. We covet your prayers for open heaven, journey mercies, and that the budget for the summit be met. 

 

We have suspended the participation of Nigeria in this year's session of the Missions for Church Leaders(MCL) at Pretoria, following the ongoing xenophobic attacks. Reports filtering in from South Africa are not pleasant. Though. Nobody directly related to us has either been killed or looted, but some persons related to them were reportedly killed. 

 

Church Building Projects

Juga Church building work

Most of the places we worked had no indigenous church and, in most cases, no believers before our entry. As we labor to get them to embrace Christ, we also disciple them and bring them to the point of running a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) and subsequently starting a church. 

 

Work has begun on the Juga church building project. Thank God for providing all the funds needed to complete the project. 

 

In several of our mission fields, there is an urgent need to build a mission house for our missionaries. Either they are staying in huts temporarily, or the mud building they live in already has large cracks, with part of it collapsing. We covet prayers.

 

Missions Training.

A new set of students (Batch 29) has resumed, but the challenges of inadequate funds are already biting hard. Most of those who resumed are yet to pay anything substantial. And several others who are to resume are still trusting God for funds. Please, pray along with us for the miracle of funding.

 

More and more Motorcycles

God provided funds for five motorcycles this year, which have greatly helped the missionaries cover
more geographical areas. We bought one motorcycle for our missionaries at Oma field, one for the Benin Republic, another one for Bum, and two for the Kamberi mission field. We have five more missionaries we are trusting God to equip with a motorcycle each before the end of the year. Help us encourage the missionaries.

 

Prayer Needs

Sunday Musa. Malawi

The work in Malawi requires substantial funding. Sunday Musa has since resumed work, but he is still squatting with Bishop Barnet Phiri. After the first six months, he will be required to rent his own house. His family(wife and four kids) has just collected their passports. The next phase is prayer for the funds required for their flight tickets.

Besides Sunday Musa, many missionaries are struggling to pay their children's school fees. This is unacceptable. Please, pray along with us for funds to meet this need.

Pray for divine protection and courage as we continue to labor to enthrone the Lordship of Jesus.

 

Conclusion

As we conclude, we reaffirm that God has designed missions in ways that require collaboration with our partners. Thank you for the profound roles you have been playing and for your willingness to do more. We pray that the Lord bless you richly.