Christian Faith Ministries (CFM), led by Kent and Ruth Hodge, is headquartered at Wurin Alheri in Jos, Nigeria; it focusses on peacemaking and mission to Islamic and Pagan areas of Northern Nigeria and beyond. NVL began partnering with their mission station in Gombe in 2016. Recently, in keeping with our focus on discipleship, our support has encompassed their teaching and missionary work across Central and Northern Africa.
CFM has seen a large influx of missionaries and converts. The number of Bible College Students has risen to 1,500 and boarders to ~1,200. Over 90% go on to full-time ministry, on average planting two churches each, often in dangerous locations. To support this work, every day 1,700 people are fed for free (including children of students) and 2,000 children attend CFM schools. To support the students and wider community, CFM offers a broad range of services and opportunities for vocational training. There are now 10 computer centres, most in hostile areas. Also, in 2024, “Mara’s House” opened, a large two-storey hostel for vulnerable women.
CFM has 110 mission stations in 4 countries and 14 churches in Chad, Cameroon and the Republic of Niger. Graduates oversee hundreds of other churches in French-speaking Africa and missionaries are active in 20 African nations.
Amazingly well, with unexpected challenges and many blessings, seeing God work for good all the way. In the UK, en-route to a family celebration in 2024, Kent had an unexpected "cardiac event" and spent a month in hospital, culminating in quadruple bypass surgery! In the timing, God's miraculous provision, the people He provided, family support and Kent's rapid recovery, we have experienced God's gracious hand. We didn't make the celebration, but we saw more of our UK-based kids and grand-kids than we have for years, and were there to welcome the newest addition! A beautiful time. We know God preserved Kent's life, providing a major "refit and service" for the work ahead. If Kent's heart attack had happened in Nigeria, he would probably have died. We returned to Nigeria deeply grateful and encouraged by God's grace and favour.
2024 began with attacks by nearby Muslim herders (Fulani terrorists); at least 250 people were killed and over 25,000 displaced. God helped us mobilise aid from God's people to camps: Bibles, food, soap, clothing - especially our hospital team, who provided multiple free medical clinics in camps sheltering 19,000 destitute villagers in Bokkos Town. This followed Mangu area attacks in 2023, when we provided similar support. We have about 20 orphans from the Bokkos and Mangu areas, bereft of family or hope, all now doing well in our Children's Crisis-Care Homes. These homes have 426 children resident for schooling, almost all with similar stories. We initiated a peace-building, community-collaborative computer / vocational skills training centre in Mangu Town, helping forestall retaliatory, youth-driven conflict. This is our tenth such centre and all are working very well.
On a positive note, since the exit of French and US troops from Chad, the Niger Republic and Burkina Faso, (our northern neighbours), Fulani terrorist attacks have dried up and Boko Haram has virtually disappeared! Political events bring great hope that God is turning things around for Africa - that terrorist funding will stop! Peace allows the gospel to be preached! Muslim Africa, after decades of brutal terrorism, is responding to the love of Jesus! God is doing mighty things! It's time to act!
We are encouraged by God's miraculous enablement and the faithfulness and competence of the team God has built here; we are inspired by the Holy Spirit to do more. Our hearts are on fire to help amazing indigenous missionaries access the Islam-dominant communities languishing without gospel witness. In December, a conference at our main site gathered over 600 missionaries in a great time of learning and sharing, with powerful Holy Spirit enablement to reach front-line communities.
A strategy to send more labourers for this incredibly ripe harvest emerged: we paid transport costs for CFM missionaries to send potential new missionaries to bible school. 800% fuel price increases over the past 2 years has put transport costs out of reach for grassroots communities. The result is a massive influx of new Muslim-background believers, including 26 from Darfur in Sudan! They are currently flooding in! God is doing miraculous things we have not seen in our 39 years serving God in Nigeria. We praise Him with all our hearts.
With ~1500 bible students, Wurin Alheri is a major undertaking. Students arrive with almost nothing, except powerful testimonies of salvation and rescue, with hearts to learn from God. We were like them - hungry for God! What incredible impact will these young men and women have on some of the world's toughest places in the next 40 years? It will take all the commitment and diligence of the fantastic team God has built in the last 40 years and across generations before. We anticipate amazing times of disciple-making in the many nations, tribes, languages and families of our region.
Dormitories for our Children's Home, a hall for children's activities and apartments for staff. We received US$39,000 in funding from the Australian High Commission and have applied again, but we need more, even if our application succeeds. We trust God to provide.
CFM visits and trains remote missionaries, helping them make more disciples in unreached places. The response is huge: hundreds being saved in hundreds of communities - an unprecedented harvest. Next, our team will need to disciple and train these new Jesus-followers from Muslim and pagan backgrounds. We are so excited to see what God will do and how He will provide.
"Saving" in our context means spirit, soul and body. Firstly, it requires sharing the gospel in word and deed in dangerous places, seeing individuals come to understand that Jesus reveals the one true God: that He rescues us from the bondage of sin, death and destructive lifestyles. Families and communities turning to Christ from Islam and "folk Islam" (mixed with paganism) face persecution. Some are beaten and killed; others imprisoned and/or starved; property and inheritance are confiscated. Missionaries may also be threatened and killed; homes, places of worship and businesses are destroyed.
Saving includes getting converts to safety and into our Discipleship program. New disciples usually have nothing; they need to be fed, housed, clothed, protected (24-hour guards on-site) and given medical care. They need bible teachers, mentors, pastors, trauma counsellors, literacy / numeracy trainers and/or English teachers (for most Christian literature), vocational and computer skills trainers - all to equip them for a new life and identity in Jesus. Young men may be addicted to drugs and some of the girls have been raped (and some pregnant as a result).
Your Support of $12,000 will assist in providing for the needs of CFM staff and students