January/February 2021 Missions Update

Calvary greetings in Jesus' name. We trust that this update finds you growing in grace. Thank you for your consistent partnership in advancing the gospel to the dark places of the earth. God in answer to your collaboration with us in both financial sacrifices and prayers, has been gracious to us as never before. We will like to share some of the reports with you via this medium.

Massive Harvest of Souls 

The past month has been heartwarming. At one of our mission fields in the North East of Nigeria, one of the village heads whom we have been praying for his salvation and has been very resistant to the gospel turned from animism to Islam. He also wanted members of his family to become Muslim but they refused, instead, they insisted on surrendering their lives to Jesus. The children refused and instead surrendered their lives to Jesus. He was furious and persecuted them fiercely. The wife, also who was under pressure to become Muslim, choose to accept Christ into her life. It was such a mighty harvest, and we give God the glory. The village head has vowed to will all his properties to the Muslims, hinting that none of his family members would share his inheritance. The converts were not moved by that price. Please, we covet your prayers for them that the Lord will continue to strengthen them in the faith.

 At another village, also in the North East of Nigeria, a young lady who had resisted the gospel for a long time surrendered her life to Christ. In her case, instead of persecution, some of her friends and relations accompanied her to church service. They own up that they are still contemplating whether to follow the lady’s path of surrendering their lives to Christ also. 

Close to the village, a young boy encountered our missionary and begged him passionately to kindly plead with his parent to allow him to surrender his life to Christ. Do kindly join us in prayer as we take this step soon that the parent will not refuse.

In the North Central part of Nigeria, we are also gladdened by the rate people turn to Christ. At our various outreaches and camp meetings, several persons responded to altar calls to surrender their lives to Christ. The same applies to one on one evangelism. We have had converts from the most unlikely tribe and from the religion of our other cousin bow to the Lordship of Jesus. Detailed information about them and their locations cannot be published here for usual security reasons. 

Church Building at Last among the Desert Tribe

In one of the neighboring countries, we started a church building among the desert tribe. This is a massive breakthrough as the church building is the first of its kind in the village. We got N500,000 support for the project. The church, when completed, is expected to serve five surrounding villages and would cost not less than N3.5million if the Naira does not further devalue. 

Pray along with us that God will provide the remaining fund to complete the building project. In that country, God provided resources for the purchase of a sewing machine and a handset for two separate kids at their Home of Grace (HOG). This mission field sent a missionary couple (Names withheld) to the Hausa School of Cross-Cultural Missions for one-year training to beef up the workforce there. The couple has two children, and exceptional support would be required for their feeding and possible school fees and other related expenses. Considering that the country they are coming to is over 99% Muslim. We do not expect much financial help from there.

Missions Training

Batch 24 of the School of Cross-Cultural Missions Students have returned from their two-month

Advanced Missions Leadership Course graduates

practical session on the field. They came back excited at the numerous things God used them to accomplish on the field. Thank God with us for divine protection and journey mercies. Batch 25 has resumed. 

Most of them came from a background where they cannot raise their school fees. Therefore, either we admit them and raise the fees for them, or we deny them admission. God provided support for six of the students through AFLEND and individual families. We still need support for another five who are already enrolled and another ten waiting for sponsorship. The training is the gateway to working on the mission field as a missionary. It is critical for us as more mission opportunities are opening among tribes that were hitherto very resistant to the gospel. Please, join us to pray for sponsors that will help in this area.

Home of Grace (HOG) 

Condemned to be
buried alive but rescued
 by GFIM missionary

We accepted some new orphans from the Heipang and Furaka areas in the last two months and are thankful to Tabitha Arise Foundation that made it possible. The Foundation provided a scholarship for four orphans. The scholarship cover school fees, school uniforms, textbooks, and other incidentals. On our part, we continue to trust God to provide all other necessary care like food, accommodation, utilities, and other related needs. 

The kids all resumed for their first term in January. It was quite challenging, but God graciously helped us to pay the school fees of 20 of the kids, bought all the essential textbooks, replace school uniforms and all essentials for resumption. We are still trusting God for about N200,000 to complete the other children's fees and related school needs. 

Pray along with us for funds for foodstuffs and utilities like electricity. The hike in the price of foodstuffs has made things very difficult for us as funds available could hardly buy half of what it does before now. 

26th African Missions Summit (AMS 2021) 

After much prayers, we are led to go ahead with the 26th African Missions Summit (AMS 2021)

despite the difficult times. The date is March 10-14, 2021, and the theme is Doing Missions at Odd Times. To enable us to adhere strictly to COVID 19 protocol, we will be using the Lamingo Mission Center as our venue. We trust God to fix the windows, complete the toilet facilities and carry out the flooring this month. Pray along with us as we seek to preach the word and be instant in season and out of season. 

Pioneering Target for 2021

 Gommana in Adamawa (Cameroon) is on our topmost priority list for pioneer work in 2021. We did a survey last year and trust God to resume work fully in March 2021. They are mainly Fulanis but very hungry for God. We want to take advantage of their hunger for God now. We are sending a Fulani couple there, because of the crash in naira, the pioneering work there, like any of the Francophone countries is capital intensive. We had rented a house for three months during the survey but will prefer to pay for 6 months to a year.

We are also trusting God to advance our work at Gbai, Shangya, and Gbarkpaji, all in the Benin Republic and Samadobi Daji, Angwa Tsarki Samadbi Gari, all in Kebbi State. The people group in those locations are Bussawa, Kamberis, and Dukawas. These are deep jungles where we cannot get a house to rent for our missionaries. 

We have stopped building houses with mud that collapses in under two years. If the Naira does not crash further, we will require almost N2million to build a small but very solid place in each of the villages this year. The missionaries will lay their heads and use the sitting room for discipleship until we are buoyant enough to build churches. We have conducted surveys in all these places awe is set for them as soon as God provides.

Need for Motorcycles

One of our greatest need in the ministry is laborer that will attend to all the people responding to the

gospel. One way we tackle this need is to pray to the God of the harvest to release the needed workforce. While waiting for God to answer that prayer, we have to maximize the use of the existing laborers. To do this effectively, we need very sound and robust motorcycles for the missionaries where we cannot afford a car. Most of our missionaries cover several hundreds of kilometers, trying to reach as many places as possible. Some of our motorcycles are no longer serviceable because of the terrain, and many of our missionaries don’t have any to use. For this year, we need at least five motorcycles for our foreign fields and another five for the local fields. The price varies. For fields in the Benin Republic, it cost N387,000 (CFA 430,000) to get a new one plus the registration. This price may increase if the value of Naira crashes further.

Conclusion

We have so many things to report, but we are constrained by the prevailing security situation. We are grateful for all your sacrificial support. Your partnership has been very fruitful.  We pray that the Lord to bless you richly in return. We also covet your prayers for:

• Divine protection for us all. For several locations where we work, the risk of kidnapping is very high. In several other places, the persecution is intense. 
• Pray also for the release of funds for our numerous projects and upkeep of our missionaries and their families. 
• The Home of Grace and the School of Cross-Cultural Missions are critical arms of our work. Pray for the lives of the people to be well processed to fit into the plans and purpose of God. Pray for funds to meet up with the challenges of hyperinflation and pray wisdom and fresh unction for our leadership team. 
• Pray for all our partners for God’s blessings. Thank you so much.

His bondservant,

Andrew Abah