2019 In Review

God be praised for All He has done in 2019

We are filled with gratefulness to God and to each one of you for your extremely generous gifts and abundant prayers for our ministry and for us personally. We know “The effectual, fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much.” (James 5:16) We pray God will bless you abundantly as you have blessed God and us.  We know our Father is pleased whenever we give from our hearts to help someone else, since He said in Mt. 25:40 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

As with 2018, 2019 continued to bring a multitude of amazing blessings mixed with difficult trials for Freedom’s Hope Ministry and our family. As most of you already know, if not for the grace of God honoring many prayers of His children, Mike would have been dead on Sept. 10^, 2018, from acute kidney failure. Since that time, God has graciously been healing him, and through the trials of working to get strength back, and function on his own again, we have drawn closer to our Savior.  We can’t thank God enough for that.  On April 21, 2019, our granddaughter, Angelia, was life- flighted to St. Louis Children’s Hospital for kidney failure.  While in children’s hospital for almost 6 weeks, she almost died 3 times; once she flat-lined for 6 minutes.  Many of you joined with us in prayer and God miraculously saved her life and protected her brain from damage.  God definitely heard our joint prayers. The day after she got home from children’s hospital and started home dialysis, her healthy baby sister was born. 3 months later, our son and his wife had their 1^st child, another precious girl. What blessings these little girls are. Things in life seemed to be settling down when I, Londa, was in a head-on collision Nov. 12.  My life was amazingly spared, but I needed full care.  We praise God for healing Mike in time for him to care for me, which he is still doing as much as needed.  God is good all the time and I am able to do more and more each day as you can see. God has used both trials and blessings to draw us ever closer to Himself, so we praise Him for both.

Each day, the many indigenous ministers we work with are facing trial after trial mixed with blessings from God.  They, like we, choose whether we will allow God to mature us and make us more like Him during troubled times or whether we will blame God, as we see so many people doing.  God is a master at taking what Satan means for evil and turning it for good.  We and they have chosen to draw closer to our Savior and trust Him even more.

God is continually doing great and wonderful things in our lives and ministry–teaching us that we have overcome the world through Him. Life’s many challenges will not defeat us or the ministers we work with around the world.  Our God is in control and nothing takes Him by surprise! We trust in Him fully!! We can look back and see how the Lord came through for us time and time again–doing the miraculous. This has increased our trust and faith in Him exponentially. Because of this, we can have even more faith for more difficult challenges in the future. God is so good!!! He never promised us that life on this earth will be easy, but He did say, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you”. (Hebrews 13:5) We serve a mighty and loving God!!!

Regarding God’s ministry that He has entrusted to us, we once again received many reports from all over the world expressing how God did the miraculous: hundreds came to know the saving grace of our Lord Jesus, many more churches were planted, people received deliverance, several healed, and multitudes had their physical and spiritual needs met.

The following is just a tiny portion of what God has done this past year through His faithful servants around the world that we at FHM are blessed to encourage and work with:

 

Uganda

Africa Life Youth Foundation

Dear Dad and Mama,

Thanks very much for your prayers to our ministry work in Uganda,

God has been faithful to us even though there have been some challenges.

We Began in January with our Annual Youth Camp and we had 94 youths from 15 high schools and young people were trained on Hands on skills like how to make books and book covers, how to make candles, bar soap and liquid soap and also on how they can share their faith to other students and help their fellow students to grow in the Lord.

 

School Outreaches:

God enabled us to take the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ to 86,400 students in high schools and colleges. 4,307 students gave their life to Christ in 2019 .We were challenged when most of the new believers after receiving Christ, asking us for a Bible in their mother language and we couldn’t help them. We are trusting God for 2000 English Bibles and 3000 Luganda Bibles for 2020 mission outreaches in schools.

Africa Life Youth Foundation was able to help single young girls with design and fashion training and they were given a sewing machine after the training to be able support themselves.

We hosted a Youth Festival for Jesus, an Evangelist crusade event and we had 4,600 students from 30 high schools for one day and more than 1,260 students made a commitment to walk with Jesus for the rest of their life.

In November, we hosted a leadership conference in two remote villages. 560 Pastors and other church leaders received training; mostly on how to prepare a sermon basing on scripture and running the church on the five gifts mentioned in Acts .Those Pastors never went to any school for training, but they are leading the Youths we are focusing to transform, and doing a great job .We thought the training to be so important to the growth of the youth in these remote villages.

Activity Plan for 2020

1. Youth Leader’s training (20 training classes across the country and each training for 3 days having 50 youth leaders from 6 Districts)
2. Two Youth Festivals for Jesus events (Evangelist crusades)
3. Student Discipleship program.
4. Planting 2 churches in Eastern Uganda.

Please pray for me as I have to fundraise our ministry budget this year 2020.

Thanks very much for your prayers.

 

Asia

Remote Village Teachers Project

Hi dear Mike and Londa,

My co-workers and I visited every month in the different villages for sharing the gospel among the unreached indigenous tribes in the remote areas. Those places we visited and shared the Gospel are mainly Buddhists and some are Animists. Some places are very difficult to share the gospel due to their stubbornness, and the Gospel is new to them. Sometimes, some of the villagers reject us, but some places we are welcomed to share the Gospel. Even though we faced many difficulties for sharing the Gospel, God is always with us, and lead and guide us by the power of the Holy Spirit in every area of our activities.

Souls saved: There were 84 people who have given their hearts to the Lord, and all were baptized. We have trained 512 leaders, and planted 8 churches.

People healed or delivered: We prayed for 167 people for many health issues, and 84 people were healed.

God miraculously provided: God has miraculously given His blessings through His faithful servants for our ongoing ministry. We are very glad and thankful for those who have been generously and continually supporting our ongoing ministry. We really praise God for His love, and abundantly blessing and providing for our ministry.

Needs for our ministry: We need two more workers in new areas. We need 6 sound systems and 6 key boards for 6 areas. Need one projector with generator. These will be used for evangelism, training, seminars, and conferences in each area.

Hoping to accomplish in 2020:

1. We are hoping to accomplish to reach the gospel in 24 villages and targeting at least 100 souls .
2. We are hoping to give church leadership training to at least 500 for the church leaders and lay leaders
3. We are hoping to plant at least 5 new churches in different villages

Once again thank you so much for you and supporters’ great love, donations, and prayers.

Blessings,

Pastor S.

 

Nepal

Gentle Heart Children’s Home

Dear Brother & Sister,

Warm Greetings to you in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much for the mail. It is always good to hear from you. Trust things are going well with you, family and missions.

Gentle Heart Foundation is devoted to help the orphaned, underprivileged and vulnerable children as well as to support girls and women who are victim of or are at risk of human-trafficking and sexual exploitation. We strive to help them in their journey to achieve the fullness of life. It is with your support and encouragement that GHF’s program activities are proving to be effective and are creating impact in the lives of children and women we serve. We express our gratitude to all those who have contributed their time and resources to support our ministries in Nepal. Your continued assistance and prayers are of great value to us which drives us further to reach out to more and more vulnerable women and children of Nepal.

VISION OF THE ORGANIZATION

“A Heart for the People of Nepal – Repairer of Broken Hearts”

MISSION OF THE ORGANIZATION

“To help the orphaned, underprivileged and destitute children of Nepal as well as highly at-risk girls & sexually exploited women in their need to feel the fullness of life.” We aim to care for the rejected, be a family for the orphaned, help the helpless, provide home for the homeless, give hope to the hopeless, and meet the basic needs of needy children & exploited women so that their lives will be better.

OBJECTIVE OF PROGRAM

The Gentle Heart Foundation’s long-term objective is that no child be abandoned and no young woman enslaved or trapped in the sex trade or trafficked. Our loving Children’s Home provides a family for abandoned and orphaned children & our highly effective recovery program offers a viable solution to those who are able to escape the sex trade or to help prevent them from being lured by traffickers. We plant these programs in partnership with individuals who are committed to providing loving Homes for abandoned children & Recovery programs to trafficked and sexually exploited women. Similarly our other programs offers education and livelihood support to vulnerable children and women from impoverished communities in rural as well as urban settings.

Currently 21 children are benefiting through Children Home, 25 sexually exploited/victim of trafficking young women are benefitted through Recovery Base Program, 330 children are regularly attending school through the help of scholarship & After School Program. Many people were came to the faith and more than 10 people were baptized this year. This year, we were able to visit many places throughout the country to encourage or provide materials to the most vulnerable children & communities. This year more than 20,000 people were reach out though our different programs & activities: Children Home, Recovery Base Program, After School Program, Scholarship Program, Prevention Program and Awareness Campaign.

We would like to request you to pray for the following:

• Pray for the safety of children & women under our care
• Needed funds for the expanding of the ministerial boundaries
• Funds to run prevention program
• Funds for ‘Building’ project for Children Home

For your info, we are in need of additional US $ 750 to cover our ongoing programs for the growing children & scholarship program. This became as urgent need for us for the smooth run of designed program.

Once again, thank you so much for your ongoing prayers and great concern.

With Prayers,

Arjun Dhakal

 

Philippines

Mambatagan Feeding Program (Brother Rupert)

Spiritual growth is my desire in the people God gave me to care and nurture. God, who gave us spiritual life in Christ, intends for that life to grow, intends for that life to grow into maturity. The brethren are growing but it is far from being mature in the faith. Traditions and economic consideration are weapons used of the enemy which delay spiritual growth. Some of them gave up attending the bible study but several lingered and persevered in the faith. The failure to grow spiritually is equally tragic – in fact, it’s more tragic because one cannot enter into all of the spiritual blessings and benedictions that the Lord has for those who mature in Christ. I am at times tempted to discontinue what I am doing, but the Spirit of the Lord reminded me that it is He who called me to do His work in this part of the world. I must follow His leading and I must not measure my success by the numbers but by obedience. I was reminded of the parable found in Matthew 13. Verse 8 was so comforting and encouraging, reminding me that not ALL but there will be OTHERS who will bear the spiritual fruit of the Spirit. I identified with Jesus when He said “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” This Ministry gave me no salary. My needs and my family needs have been provided for in a manner God only made available. This condition places me always in a humble and contented frame of mind and spirit; accepting everything with a thankful heart.  I preached whenever God open the opportunity to peach, not forcing myself to people. I desire to reach out to other poor communities but I will just wait upon the Lord. Considering that He did not provide the resources to continually reach out to other communities, I made use of what He had given me to every opportunity presented. I rest my case and surrender my desire to Him. I am just a servant and my role is simply to obey.

NOTE from Michael and Londa Furman, Directors of Freedom’s Hope Ministry.

As you can see from Rupert’s year end letter above, there have been times he has become discouraged because some people who had previously wanted to learn more from the Bible and were coming to the Bible studies Rupert conducts in the Mambatagan area where he also brings food monthly  and some school supplies for the children yearly, stopped coming.  But, the exciting part of this story is that there are some who come regularly to learn more about Jesus and what it means to be a child of God in a very challenging world.  We are not in control of how quickly people grow and mature in Christ, but we can be supportive in ways to Rupert as he ministers.  We can do this by praying for him and providing the finances needed, as God leads, for him to continue bringing food to the poor people of that area and others.  Even small amounts given regularly make the difference between being able to help the people in Mambatagan area of Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, or not.

 

Mustard Seed Christian School Inc.

Dear Partners and Friends!

God is great and is greatly to be praised! He alone is worthy of our worship and praise! Hallelujah!

Yes, many are very negative for 2020 but for us, despite of many struggles we believed that this is the year of harvest! Harvest of souls and they are the lasting fruits the Lord wanted us to bear. 2019 has been a year of many struggles in many aspects of our lives and ministry but we are optimistic that the Lord will do wonderful things. We are so busy in church and school as we are about to renew our license for the school and permit. We work overtime for the many requirements for the ESC of the secondary level as required by the government, and they will visit the school before the opening of schools on June 2020 and check if we were able to comply with the requirements they gave us. Your prayers are needed as we are working for the volumes of folders. ESC is very strict everything must be followed.

We are in need of 5 computers for the coming school year because the 17 units donated by a non-government organization 5 years ago, and only 5 now are working being used by the students in their computer subject. One unit is being used in the admin office, one supposed to be used by the teachers in encoding and printing the test papers but it cannot be repaired anymore. So, that is the need of the school now. We were able to build one more classroom and praise the Lord for that. The Lord is saving more students with their parents as they are required to attend prayers before classes starts, a prayer before classes starts for the teachers and the word of God must be shared before the teachers teach the students. Every Wednesday afternoon after classes, the teachers too with the student have prayer meetings. Please help us pray for more loving people who have the heart of the poor children. Actually the teachers do not received salary but only honorarium and they are already happy because they have the passion for their work and compassion for the poor kids! Oh yes, I just received the Christmas card you sent to the Dahiroc sibling and they were happy about it. They are so blessed for being recipients of your love and kindness!

I am sending you pictures taken by the schools assigned camera man. We continue to covet your earnest prayers as we are behind you and your wonderful ministry with our daily prayers!

Much, much love,

Anita and family with church and school

 

Kenya

Fundamental Baptist Church – Kisii – Kenya

2019: Transformation & Generosity

A Year in Review

Greetings to my amazing friends, brothers and sisters at Freedom’s Hope Ministry (family).

The Pastor, the family and the people of Fundamental Baptist Church, do bring you our love and greetings in Jesus Name. We are very grateful for you having a great concern towards our ministry. We are so much touched by God for you having the same faith, call and passion with us in God’s ministry.

I really wish I could put into words the level of joy that I have for what we have experienced together as a church family the last years. As I look at the blessings received and the opened doors we have witnessed during the past year, “grateful” and “humbled” are the best words I can use to describe my feelings. To God be the glory, for the things He has done!

2019 was our “Year of Transformation.” At the beginning of the year, the Lord placed it on my heart to declare to his people that we must aim to transform in every area of our lives. We want to be the best that we can be in all that we do. I have been blown away by the many testimonies that a lot of the people here have shared with me about how God has totally transformed their lives in certain areas. In 2019, God tremendously blessed the Fundamental Baptist Church. First and foremost, we were able to begin operating as a small group of 3 leaders of reaching people in the community house to house evangelization. The baby is all grown up! Secondly, we were able to meet the house to house outreaches’ needs of our groups.

The last year, we made our effort to give back more to the widows and orphans so to meet their basic needs. We gave away financial donations in the purchasing the sewing machines towards the sewing project for the widows.  We were also blessed to give hours and hours and food, clothes towards the orphans and widows during the Christmas ceremony. As the end of the year ended, we were to bless the orphans back to school giveaways for their schooling support.

Without question, this annual report will display the tremendous favor that God has allowed to rest upon our church family. As you review this report, I pray that your spirit will be encouraged and inspired to continue your support of this ministry. As we connect our hearts to the vision and goals of Fundamental Baptist Church, only God knows the endless possibilities that await us.  Together we can meet the ministry needs to the widows and orphans that God had given a special place in our heart and life.

As a pastor for Fundamental Baptist Church, I have seen this ministry transform into one of the most viable ministries in this country. All of this is due to your faithfulness to God and your faithful support. It is so refreshing to be a part of such an anointed family. As we now entered into the tenth New Year 2020, as a church family, I am more determined to give my time and talent and call and passion to the Lord the very best of what I have been anointed to offer. We hope, you will be part of what the Lord has placed in our heart and life to serve Him more.

Now that the chapter of 2019 has been closed and we are writing the book of 2020, I am looking forward to the many connections the Freedom’s Hope family Organization, will make to God’s Kingdom. It is my prayer that as a result of getting more connected to Christ, our community, ministry and each other, you have already begun to reap the rewards in the spiritual and in the physical.

In closing, I cannot stress enough how honored I am to be called friend- pastor and I cannot wait to see the mighty hand of God move in both your lives in 2020. Always remember, I love you all so much, but God loves you best. Welcome to the New Year 2020 of God’s Kingdom!

MAJOR SUCCESSES

• BIBLE OUTREACHES
• QUARTER OF PURCHSING SEWING MACHINES FOR THE WIDOWS
• OVER 150 SOULS WON TO CHRIST AND CONNECTED TO HIS CHURCH
• NEARLY 35 PEOPLE BAPTIZED
• HELPING THE ORPHANS FOOD, CLOTHING & SCHOOLING
• BACK TO SCHOOL GIVEAWAY
• ANNUAL GOSPEL MEETINGS PERFORMED
• COMMUNITY OUTREACH TO HOUSE TO HOUSE EVANGELIZATION
• LAUNCH OF SMALL GROUPS

MUCH NEEDS

• SEWING MACHINES TO FINISH THE PROJECT
• BIBLES IN EKEGUSII & SWHILI LANGUAGE TO THE NEW CONVERTS
• SPONSORSHIP TO THE ORPHANS
• SOUND SYTSTEMS FOR PUBLIC OUTREACH
• CHURCH CONSTRUCTION
• LEADERS CONFERENCES

– Joe Arori – Pastor at Fundamental Baptist Church – Kisii – Kenya.