2021 End of Year Report

 

Compliment of the season and Calvary greetings from our Zarazong mission base in Jesus' name. 

We trust that you are fine, and this end-of-year memoir will find you growing in grace. We are incredibly grateful to God for choosing us and helping us both walk with Him and work for Him from January to December 2021. Our experiences have been incredible despite the many challenges, perils, and uncertainties we encountered during the journey. You played a very significant part in this walk with Him and work for Him, especially regarding pushing the light to various final frontiers across scores of unreached people groups.

Rescued from Kidnappers this year

We are particularly grateful for your unceasing prayers all through the year. It was pretty encouraging to note that we have brethren from across the world that do not only pray for us often but that we can swiftly contact to pray on specific issues when we encounter crossroads during the year. God graciously answered all your prayers and spared us of sorrows, untimely death, and fueled our determination to continue to serve Him in tough places and circumstances during the year. Besides sustaining many of our mission fields where we have been laboring, we engaged more unreached people groups this year. From January till now, we continue to see many souls embraced the Lordship of Jesus courtesy of your prayer. Some new believers also almost immediately engaged others like the woman by the sides of the well in Samaria recorded in John 4.

Besides sustaining old mission fields and engaging new ones, some other answered prayers include:

·        The release of our Missionary trainee kidnapped somewhere in the North-East by groups who are either Boko Haram or bandit. To be released alive after many days is a huge miracle.

• ·        A missionary and wife to one of our mission leaders who had mental health challenges also in Northern Cameroon has largely recovered. She and her husband are both laboring in North East of Nigeria.
• ·        We lost count of the number of miracles of healing and deliverances recorded across many of our mission fields. They all demonstrated that God still does wonders and backs up His words in the mouth of His servants and that He cares and loves the people in the dark places of the earth.

God, in answer to your prayers and sacrifices, met a lot of our needs this year like never before, and we are incredibly grateful for all these. We cannot exhaust the list here but just to mention a few:

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  ·        Fifteen motorcycles for both our missionaries and those we are networking with. Thanks to God Almighty and to the University of Benin Alumni Fellowship in the United States, Dr. Chuka Anude, my family members, and a few others who want to remain anonymous.
• ·        Borehole in three different locations: Bum, among the Zullawas, Zarazon, and the latest
  in Sanga. We are grateful to God for the provision and to Soteria Church in Baltimore, Maryland, my family members, as well as Final Command Ministries/Living Water/Rev. Mike Adegbile, respectively.
• ·        We completed church buildings at different locations, new church buildings that were started and completed, and one in the Niger Republic, which is at roofing level.
• ·        We completed some of the structures we began this year at our Zarazon mission base, as the 14 rooms’ ground floor hostel facilities for our Home of Grace. The Learning Center for our School of Cross-Cultural Missions (SOCM) is at an advanced level of completion.

Our School of Cross-Cultural Missions (SOCM) has continued to grow. We currently have 19 missionary trainees. One of them had mental health challenges, but the others have shown a significant level of God impacting their lives. We trust the Lord that at the end of the training session, many unreached people groups yearning for salvation would have missionaries. Again, thank you for your prayers and for sacrificing to ensure the continuity of the training program. These are some of what your partnership yielded:

• ·        Earlier in the year, we graduated 15 students from our SOCM. Thanks to all our partners

  

  SOCM students Returning from evangelism

  
  and Trustees that made it possible.
• ·        We engaged 19 other students despite the hyperinflation, and God used your support to provide accommodation, lecture notes/handouts, and utilities for them.
• ·        Provision of funds for the first internship. Our students spent two months at Benin Republic, Niger Republic, and several other unreached people groups in North and North-central parts of Nigeria.
• ·        Cooking and eating together is part of our training experience. They are helpful with regards to bonding and learning teamwork.  This is the most capital-intensive aspect of the mission training department. To feed 19 persons with their families became very difficult with the hyperinflation across Nigeria. We are grateful that you were there to help.
• ·        Our training program is made deliberately rugged to align with the problematic nature of African missions. Some of the students could not cope and withdrew.

The Home of Grace (HOG) kids are doing well. God consistently met our needs: 

With some of the HOG kids at
 previous Christmas celebration

·        At Ahole in Niger Republic Home of Grace, our missionaries sent in a prayer request for more mattresses for the kids as sleeping on the bare mats is causing them to catch cold. Not up to a week after we began praying, God sent African Services to meet the need.

• ·        At Jos Home of Grace, God used Tabitha Arise Foundation and other partners to bless the kids with beds and mattresses.
• ·        One of our kids was offered admission to Nasarawa State University to study Sociology and another at Kogi State University, where she studies Theater Art.
• ·        School fees of all the kids were paid, and textbooks for the new class were bought.
• ·        We had challenges with three of the kids coping with their studies. We are praying for divine help and searching for an extramural teacher who will help put them through after-school hours.
• ·        At the same time, many of them have improved significantly in their studies, with many more of them coming first in the classes.
• ·        We had some challenges with the characters of some of the teenagers who became victims of peer pressure earlier this year, and they were such that frustrated us, but God has helped us resolve the matter.

The widows’ care has been growing steadily with the help of some of our partners. We have catalogs of what God has been doing through them since the year began.

• ·        Three of the widows whose husband’s lives were cut short by Boko Haram and four others that died of other causes have been on monthly stipends.
• ·        Three other widows’ house rents were paid during the year under review.
• ·        29 widows were provided with foodstuffs
• ·        Thirty-five others were provided with wrappers and other types of clothes.

Appreciation/Prayer needs

To sum up, God has been truly gracious to us since the year began. It is difficult to exhaust the testimonies here. Besides the fact that they are many, many of the testimonies related to some of the fields are sensitive and could not augur well for the security of the new believers and our team. God made all these possible, and He used your partnership to catapult us to this height. We are highly grateful and pray that the Lord would replenish your source. As we round up the year, we still covet your prayers for three critical needs that God would raise persons that will make it their Christmas/end of year present to us:

• ·        Our Zarazon mission base that housed both the Home of Grace kids and missionary trainees is very porous. We need to fence it as soon as possible. Pray that God would raise persons that will fund the project.
• ·        We still have some outstanding church building projects like the Ahole, the Niger Republic that are yet to be completed. Pray that the Lord would provide the resources needed.
• ·        We feel burdened in our hearts to build a small apartment for one of our windows. She is the wife of a late missionary, and the house they live in the village has deteriorated so badly. The cheapest house we can build in the village will cost close to N1millon Naira.

Once again, thank you very much, and God bless you.

Amazing Grace - Another Added Year

Good morning. Join me to thank the Lord for adding one more year to me today.

I am 57 today and cannot thank God enough, considering all the bridges I have crossed to get here.  

I am incredibly grateful to you for your partnership in getting the light of the gospel to the darkest places of our generation where Jesus was not known.

• Today, over 500 candidates have been trained at our School of Cross-Cultural Missions.
• Out of these numbers, over 200 are actively engaged in pioneer missions in several mission agencies/denominations across almost all the continents of the world.
• Close to 60 others are planted in various mission fields in Nigeria and abroad directly under the platform of Grace Foundation Inland Missions.
• Over 50 others under the Network of African Mission Leaders (NAMIL), a network of mission leaders whom I mentor, and some just Great Commission friends whom we work very closely.

This morning, the kids at the Home of Grace (HOG) majority of who were orphans and vulnerable kids, and some missionary kids woke me up with a thunderous happy birthday song followed by prayers. Others scattered across in school hostels called not only to wish me a happy birthday but to thank me. Some of the widows whom God has helped us wiped away their tears left messages. Yet, it is just 7.47 am Nigerian time. I can imagine what it will be like by evening today.

I am taking my time to share this because you made this possible. God used your partnership to make these vast differences. Thank you so much. God is aware that you made these possible, and He will reward you mightily.

I don’t celebrate birthdays and am not interested in the so-called birthday surprise parties and cakes that friends organize. I instead desire that those energy and resources be used to pray for me and meet the following felt needs:

Outstanding school fees of our Home of Grace kids (resident and non-resident) amounting to N250,000.

Six additional mattresses for the new wing of the Gladys Aylward Hostel of the Home of Grace costing N198,000(N33,000 per vitafoam) and three double bunk beds costing N60,000 each.

Completion of electrification of the new wing of Gladys Aylward Hostel of the Home of Grace costing N280,000

Completion of three church building projects which are at different stages at various mission fields. The delays are due to hyperinflation and the devaluation of Naira.

God bless you.

Memoir of Zarazong - May 2021 Missions Update

 

Thank you so much for your love and your partnership. Calvary greetings from Zarazong in Jesus' name. We have spent another month at Zarazong, and we feel the warmth of your prayer and the love you have extended to us. Despite pressures around us, God has continued to protect us and provided through sources we least expect to meet our needs. As usual, we will share reports of some answers to your prayers for us and what God used your financial support to do,

Salvation and Discipleship across the Various Mission Fields

Reports from our missionaries from across the mission fields in Nigeria and the other countries where we work are heartwarming. From Sanga in Bauchi State, we have no fewer than 30 of our converts, both young and old, who do not only accept Christ but come together to worship God now. Joel Dukiya, Yunusa, and his wife, peace, are engaged in discipling them, and they reported that their growth rate is quite encouraging. They still meet under the tree, but with the rainy season, we are trusting God to build a church for them. To the glory of God, we already have one of our partners who promised to fund the church project.

Unlike most of our other fields, wisdom demands that we pay for the land we are going to build on because of the hostile nature of the Muslims there. We also need a borehole for the supply of the water that will be used to build the church and to meet the century-old need of the community. Both the land and the borehole would cost us an estimate of an N1Million. Please, pray along with us for that miracle. They have an old grinding machine which cost so much money to service and put to use. Also, pray that God should provide for them a simpler grinding machine with less maintenance cost. For now, they are using grinding stone.

Also, from the Niger Republic, many more persons are embracing the Lordship of Jesus. At Salkam, one of the converts died. We are saddened by his death but at the same time, we are glad that he died a firm believer. The Missionaries at Gobirawa and Afole are the ones reaching out to them. Pray along with us for more laborers so we can deploy a missionary couple to them. At Adamawa, we are amazed at the divine visitation among the Fulanis. Scores of them surrendered their lives to Jesus and are very committed to God. It is a rugged terrain to build a church, so the missionary is requesting for prayers for the fund to buy land and build a bungalow with a big sitting room to be used for a regular discipleship meeting. For some of the converts, the persecution is severe, so they have been moved to a location where they can be helped.

Insecurity, Abduction and Miraculous Escape

The news of insecurity we hear in distant places has come to our doorstep. At Furaka, a medical doctor was abducted from his house. At Angwa Rukuba, a breastfeeding mother was abducted, leaving behind the baby, and at Mamukan, Jada Local Government Area, Adamawa State, one of our Fulani converts, Adamu Sale was kidnapped. We appealed to all our partners who joined in praying for his release. They demanded N1Million ransom which the family gathered together to pay. To the glory of God, he was released unhurt.

Kidnapped Adamu Sale freed -
 A picture with his discipler, Pastor Ahmadu

It is no longer news that 63 communities in Niger State have not only been captured by Boko Haram but that they have mounted their flags and ceased their wives. This is a higher degree of banditry. We have almost 20 missionaries laboring in Niger State as well and the border villages of Benin Republic. They are all safe, but we covet your prayers for divine protection. Last week, a politician's mother and siblings were abducted at Agwara, a village close to where we work.

Home of Grace (HOG) and Widows Care (WC)

The kids are fine except for the few challenges of ill health. The Lord continues to provide especially for the orphanage in the Home. School fees of all the orphans and vulnerable kids have been paid. The only outstanding school fees now are that of the Missionary Kids(MKs) in the home. Also, last week, God provided resources for us to buy ten bags of rice and some additional foodstuff. Victor has enrolled for WAEC, NECO, and JAMB examination. Blessing has re-enrolled for NECO and JAMB examination. Favor has secured admission at the Kogi State University, and the Lord provided resources for her registration and upkeep for the semester.  Kindly pray along with us for them to be committed to their studies and that the Lord should help them to excel. We are grateful to God for adding new partners to us and for the consistency of some of the existing partners.

We accepted two young girls, Hannatu and Sarah, to join the Home last month. Please, pray along with us that God would grant us the grace to help their lives fulfill destiny.

Also, pray along with us that God would provide us more laborers that are passionate about children.

Completed brickwork for 14room ground floor

The construction work on their new accommodation has advanced. We have completed the brickwork for the ground floor (14 rooms and a lounge). We need a miracle to deck it. This will cost approximately N4million. Please pray along with us for this miracle to happen as soon as possible.

Early this month, God provided resources to include two widows in our widows’ care list. One of them is the wife of a pastor killed by Fulani Jihadists. As the Lord continues to provide, she will be on our monthly upkeep list. The second widow has three daughters and has struggled with the fees of the kids, her rent as well as upkeep. By the grace of God, she will be on our quarterly upkeep list. We are grateful to our partners (names withheld} that makes it possible to put smiles on the faces of these widows. Pray along with us that God may bless us with more of such partners.

Missions Training

We currently have 17 students enrolled for our one-year resident cross-cultural missions training. The past month was an exciting moment here at Zarazong, the training base. One of our Trainers, Pastor Andrew Emeje, taught Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit. Blessing Iduh also taught them Appropriate Skills where they learned how to make soap, pomade, and other skills. They also joined in mixing cement, carpentry, and bricklaying work.

 In the next one month, they will be due for their first two months field trip. Their posting will be out any moment from now. The field trip is usually capital intensive because we provide transport fare, feeding cost for them and all the children with them. Five of them will be going to the Niger Republic, five to Benin Republic, and the rest across different fields in Nigeria. Pray with us for wisdom as we make a last-minute decision considering the security situations and for finances. Pray for the students that the Lord would prepare them adequately for the task. In the past, students had planted churches where none existed. Pray specifically for Yilinte Maisamari, who is sick, that the Lord would heal him.

Missionaries Welfare/More Specific Prayer Needs

• Pastor Ahmadu Adamu left his family behind to enable his wife to give birth in Nigeria to resume work at Northern Cameron. She gave birth safely though through surgery. He returned to Nigeria to pick his family to return to Cameroon, but the wife is currently not feeling okay. They are in Federal Medical Center, Yola. Please, pray for a quick recovery.
• Pastor Joel Dukiya’s wife died two years ago. Because of the demand for the work, he is considering remarriage. Please, pray along with us for him as he makes very sensitive and lasting decisions in this regard.
• Two of our missionary couples are trusting God for the fruit of the womb. Please, join us to pray for divine interventions.
• Monica Hassan and Maryam Joshua have resumed work at Oma in Benue State to take over from Abel Onuh, who resigned. His resignation has been approved. Mathew Richard has also resumed at the Kamberi field to take over from Ayuba Dawa, who was relieved of his appointment for moral reasons. Mr. Enejo Jackson has resumed work as the new Accountant taking over from Mrs. Kemi Bayode, whose husband was transferred to pastor at Bassa.
• Andrew Marafa is still in Jos seeking medical help with regards to his eye problems.  The doctor has hinted that he would go through surgery. We do not know the cost and time yet. Please, pray along with us that his sight would be fully restored.
• Issa Maliki's father passed on and his mother is critically ill. Please, pray for God's comfort for the family as well as healing and salvation for the mother. 

Conclusion

Thank you so much for all you do in partnering with us to advance God’s kingdom, to give future to orphans and vulnerable kids, to put smiles on the faces of widows, and to help the missionary kids who have to stay away from their parents because of the volatile nature of their mission fields. As we reflect on the progress, we give God the glory, and we are grateful that together with you, we have done this much for the Lord. We will continue to covet your partnership. We pray the Lord to bless you, replenish your source and increase you more and more in Jesus' name.

His bond Servant,

Andrew Abah

 

A New Chapter, A New Phase in my Missionary Journey

 

Greetings to you from my new duty post at Zarazong, at the outskirt of Haske village in Jos East Local Government Area of Plateau State. After over ten years of laboring at Furaka, a village of Bauchi Ring Road which has grown and merges to Jos, it became apparent that to enlarge our coast, we have to move to another village. Like Jesus said: “… Let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for to this end came I forth” (Mark 1:38); we moved to Zarazong on March 9, 2021, where we had the African Missions Summit (AMS 2021).

Missions Training

After the summit, our mission training commenced in earnest at Zarazong. Among our students are five Fulanis, three Hausas, two Mumuyes, among others. These Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) have all demonstrated quality Christian character, an indication that we have the prospect of getting a substantial number of missionaries who would be deployed to the mission field next year. Besides the ongoing lectures, they have been deeply soaked in evangelism, and we have received diverse testimonies from their outreaches.

Attritions

Coordinating the entire work of the various nations and fields has been a mixture of excitement and challenges. It was exciting seeing over 50 laborers gather at our board room sharing reports of exploits and welcoming an additional three new staff; it was also a painful experience releasing one of our seasoned pioneer missionaries, Ladi Ekpa bidding farewell to the work because of ill health. While we were still trying to swallow the bitter pill, our very dear vocational staff, Mrs. Kemi Bayode, also dropped the news of her intention to relocate along with her husband to a new place of assignment at Rukuba, Bassa Local Government.

New Opportunities

Some vacancies and special needs created by this new development have to be filled up immediately by vocational or missionary candidates. Pray along with us for an accounting staff (ND or graduate), a driver, a secretary, and two teachers (NCE or university graduates) willing to teach disadvantaged candidates from displaced communities and unreached people background in Jos. If you are aware of any person interested in these positions, please, direct such person to us.

Building

We are still working on the new accommodation for the Home of Grace. We are almost at the lintel level and will require the fund to complete the first 14 room apartment we are building. God has been so good to us, and we trust the Lord to continue to provide for the work so that the children can all be in one place.

Outside Zarazong

Despite the COVID 19 pandemic, we have continued to feature in programs that are very critical to the advancement of missions across the country. On July 28-31, 2021, we will be at the Oro Missions Summit, and on September 1-14, 2021, our Summer Intensive Missions Training will be hosted at the Kingdom Bride Ministry at Ugep in Cross-River State. Would you kindly pray along with us for the success of these programs?

Our Prayers Points

• Thank you for your consistent partnership. Thank the Lord for bringing us to this new territory.
• Pray for divine protection for all our students, staff, and families working in the new field.
• Pray for more laborers, especially the ones listed here.
• Pray for the fund to complete the ongoing projects at Zarazong.
• One of our missionaries, Andrew Marafa has a challenge with his sight 9advanced glaucoma). Kindly pray for divine intervention/healing as he go through medical check up at JUTH.

Just in case you don't get to download the Volume 51 of God's heartbeat, you may read the cover choice from our blog:

https://heartbeatonline.blogspot.com/2019/10/christian-missions-under-pressures.html

South Africa has Great Future

Thank you so much for
your prayers while I was away in South Africa. I particularly appreciate the Grace Foundation Governing Council/Trustees as well as our partners, Network of African Mission Leaders(NAMIL) and Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association (NEMA) members.  I felt so loved by your concern and will appreciate if the same prayers can be extended to our MET family, friends/colleagues like the Adedinis, Vumisas, Tshepangs, and so many others quietly doing great work there.

Quitting the work is not an option. South Africa has great future and that is simply what the devil is fighting. Foreign missionaries are instrumental in realizing this great future but requires the courage to continue. Like God has kept us in the den of herdsmen and Boko Haram over the years unhurt, God will keep them. I, however, observed that few of our colleagues are still living in denial. Embrace the xenophobic reality and let us together confront the monster on our kneels.

Some of our indigenous brethren at Hebron

We need to pray for the South African believers, especially the missionaries. It takes a lot of courage to relate to foreigners. I guess that explains why some failed to take my calls and will not even call back. May the pleasure of God for South Africa be fulfilled. For my South African brethren who still demonstrated your love despite the dangers, may God bless you. I deeply appreciate you all.

Crawling in the Valleys of Death

Thank you so much for praying for me. I arrived RSA well but at the heart of xenophobic attack.  So painful to see human beings killing fellow human beings. Cars and buildings set ablaze, massive looting, etc. The situation is not better than Boko Haram and Fulani militias attack.  I crawled through the valleys of death to get to Pretoria using train. At Pretoria railway station, I waited for another two hours. I did not trust the taxi drivers enough to hire them.

At last, Lambert braved it and came over to pick me. The 10 to 15 minutes’ drive was very scary - seeing the SA Blacks gathered in groups like men waiting to pound on an enemy nation. Thank God, we arrived MET safely. Three hours after taking a much needed rest, I visited the shopping mall to get some fruit. Noticing the danger involved, Lambert chose to go with me. We missed each other there. After buying the fruit I went there for, I looked around for him for close to an hour. It was not a fun. His phone was ringing unpicked.  At this points shop owners were already closing up for fear of looting. More groups were already gathered. I courageously walked through them but not without speaking in tongue as if I was doing a prayer walk. In less than 10 minutes, I was at MET. What a speed!

Thinking of returning back to my country, but which one? Nigeria, battered by bandits with fever of kidnapping across every section? Fulani militias and Boko Haram? Fraudsters that hacked and hijacked my Facebook account just last week? I called my travel agent, he asked me to pay N45000 to change my ticket. I am still undecided. I want the Lord to make the choice. After all, no place is safe.  To live is Christ and if we run from the valleys of death, who will reach the nations, the inhabitants for whom Jesus also died for. We depend on God for His protection. May God give us access to the heart of men amidst all these so that no time or opportunity will be lost. Again, thank you for checking on me and above all for praying. Remember our heroes here, Peter, Ojubaro, Lambert, Tshepang, and their families. I have called some of them. They are safe and very courageous.