When I reflect on 2024, the word that comes to mind is “Faithful!”  Our God has been so faithful to us as a family and so faithful to us in ministry.  This past year has been filled with experiences that have encouraged my heart and strengthened my faith in an almighty God that works through the obedience of his people.  Truly we have seen new churches planted, lives transformed, and the faithfulness of God to protect his servants as they have traveled into the most remote places of Africa spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

God has provided the support we have needed for ministry; He has provided unexpected blessings to us personally, and even in the most challenging days of travel and training, He has given us strength to carry on.  We have had plenty of challenges.  There have been church leaders who have disappointed the church.  We have had divisions and church politics retard the growth in some areas, but despite those setbacks, we have also seen maturity of leaders and sacrificial obedience to serve the Lord.   This mission is still a mission of love to the hurting and broken world around us.  It is a spiritual battle and keeps us on our knees asking for God’s power and guidance to overcome the enemy!

I can say that 2025 offers a new opportunity to reach the lost, disciple the won, and equip the saints for the work God has set before us.  We have been working on developing the Journey of Grace in audio form in 19 languages to strengthen the church and its understanding of our holiness doctrine.  We are beginning this year with 21 days of prayer for the unreached people groups in Africa.  Over the next few months, we will continue to certify trainers through DCPI to become church planters, and to mentor church planters so that the Kingdom of God will continue to grow.

We encourage you to read the recent stories of our trips to locations like the DRC Congo, Senegal, Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.  These were times when God moved among the leaders, and we have seen and felt His presence in those meetings as young leaders committed themselves to continue to take the gospel into their communities to share the power of Christ over darkness and despair.  We hope these stories will give you insight and hope in the work that is being developed across the Africa region.

Michelle continues to work as a field finance trainer and auditor and has helped several fields this past year get their books back in order.  She has helped the regional finance team greatly this year getting books caught up and entered into the new systems that have been developed for the Nazarene church worldwide.  We continue to be engaged in ministry at the local level at Davidsonville Church of the Nazarene here in South Africa and looking forward to hosting our Moscow Nazarene Church from Idaho in March 2025 to expand the youth center at this church.  There is a great need for outreach to the youth of our community and this will be a great step in helping to reach them with programs that will bring skills and faith building opportunities to this community.

This year we have walked through some personal challenges with our own family.  My mom, Carol Ann Eby had a fall and broke her femur bone.  As she celebrated her 90^th birthday in September we were all praying that she would recover.  We praise God that after 4 months of therapy and care that she will return home this January to her own home again.  We will attend the M25 conference in February 2025 and be able to spend time with her which will be a treasure for us.

After 27 years of missionary service, we will take our first sabbatical from June through August 2025 this year.  We hope to spend quality time with our kids as well as travel to the Mediterranean for a special cruise that some friends helped us pay for.  It will be good to step away from our responsibilities for these three months to renew, spend some quality time with our kids, grandkids, and parents before returning to service again in Africa.  As we finish our sabbatical, we will then do our deputation tour across the USA.  If you or your church would like to host us from September through November 2025, please let us know and we would love to come share what God is doing through the ministry in Africa.

Prayer Requests

•  New Jesus Film Teams for 2025.  There are 370 teams in 34 countries in Africa.  Pray for them as they are reaching new areas and planting new churches.
• Church planting training and the new certified trainers that will be raising up new church planting leaders across Africa.
• Countries that are currently unstable and in turmoil.  
  • Mozambique
  • DRC - Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Niger
  • Burkina Faso
• Our adult children and the challenges they are facing.
• Our 5 grandchildren, as they grow up in a unique world, and that each will choose to follow Jesus!
• Preparation for our upcoming Sabbatical (June - August 2025) and following Home Assignment (Sept - Nov 2025) .  We are putting things in place for being gone for 7 months, as we will spend Christmas with our family prior to returning in 2026.

Praises

• The church growth that is happening all across the Region, both numerically and spiritually.
• Our emerging Jesus Film, Evangelism and Church planting leaders.  What a joy it is to work with them and see their development!
• Many of the new church plants have built their own buildings across the Region, though many still need permanent roofs.
• Strategic church expansion is happening on several districts where new districts have emerged because of the church planting efforts of the Jesus Film
• The ongoing development of Field Finance Coordinators on the 7 fields in Africa.

This is our great hope that God would continue to use us as his servants to serve the church in Africa.  We know that you have been part of our ministry for these many years and your support and prayers is what keeps us going.  Thank you for supporting the World Evangelism Fund that sustains our ministry.  May God help us together to be obedient to His Word and go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey his commands, and his promise is that He will go with us every step of the way!  God bless you and we wish the best for you and your family in 2025! 

In His service,

Tim and Michelle Eby