As we approach the end of 2014, it is exciting and humbling to look back and see how God has led AFM this year. Your prayers and ongoing financial support provide the heartbeat of our ministry. Our missionaries around the world covet your prayers every day, and I praise God for the love and concern you have for each of them.
I am sure each missionary could provide lists of blessings that would fill this column, but let me share just a few with you now. In our home office we are blessed with the finest staff you could hope to assemble. Each person is dedicated to the care and support of our far-flung missionaries in 19 countries. They keep track of the multitude of details necessary to keep our 65 career missionaries and 31 student, short-term and contract missionaries going in the field. In particular, I want to mention our communications and development teams who have done a wonderful job of launching our new web site, afmonline.org. Please continue to take advantage of this wonderful tool to keep in touch with missionaries and stay updated on how God is leading our ministry.
We are launching a new tentmaking ministry this year under the direction of Barnabas Hope. By God’s grace we hope to enable thousands of professional tentmakers to enter the 10/40 mission window in coming years. If you are a professional interested in working overseas (even for just a year), please give us a call.
As many of you know, tens of thousands of Northern Iraqi Christians have been driven from their homes because they would not give up their faith. AFM President Conrad Vine recently visited this area, and I am happy to report God has opened doors for us to minister to these displaced brothers and sisters. As I write, AFM is building toilets and shower blocks for the displaced. With the onset of winter, we will be distributing warm clothing, stoves, heaters and waterproofing materials to vulnerable families. Thank you for your generous support and prayers for the people of Iraq! We are praying and planning for a new missionary team to launch to northern Iraq in 2015 to minister to those caught up in the violence and despair.
We are very grateful for God’s protection of our West Africa missionaries as the Ebola crisis unfolds there. We are continually monitoring the situation, and by God’s grace our work continues uninterrupted. The Susu Project school doubled in size this September to more than 750 students, and we are seeing the converting work of the Holy Spirit leading to baptisms in our projects worldwide. In the final analysis, our ministry is one of spiritual warfare, and what a wonderful thing it is to see people delivered from the physical and spiritual attacks of the enemy!
AFM South Africa is now sending missionaries to Guinea and Cambodia. We are expecting this sister organization to grow dramatically as they develop their teams and recruiting systems. Next year we also anticipate sending new missionaries from Brazil. What a wonderful opportunity for the youth of Brazil to serve their Lord!
It has been an exciting year as we watched God leading and opening doors that were previously closed to the Gospel, such as the project launched this year to reach the Bhutanese people. My friends, God is active and involved, and He desires to take us home with Him.
Thank you for being part of our AFM support team.

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