Phinehas and Deborah

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Phinehas and Deborah are in a creative access location working with local believers to equip leaders, facilitate church planting and build gospel relationships. They are working primarily with three local tribes, reaching out to them with the message of Jesus.

They were called to serve in global mission in 2003 after serving in their home church for many years. They and their two teenage daughters love Jesus and are walking in His grace in response to His faithfulness to them over the years.

The challenges of their ministry include not only reaching out to the unreached with the gospel but also leading teaching and discipleship classes to help equip local church leaders to effectively lead, serve and plant churches in their home country.

Could you support Phinehas and Deborah in this work?

Latest Prayer News

9 octobre 2025

Simon and Miriam Desborough are serving in Antananarivo, Madagascar, encouraging and equipping the Malagasy church for mission, and reaching out to vulnerable women. Miriam is rethinking the programme and business model for the ministry to vulnerable women. She hopes to start a central business which means the women can be much more intensely supported and discipled and can focus on one thing rather than all trying to run individual businesses. One of the recent graduates of the programme became a Christian and seems to be really genuine in her faith, although not all plain sailing. Six new staff volunteers have been trained which means more availability for visits, and can even have multiple meetings/visits simultaneously. During the volunteer training it came to light that one lady’s faith was nominal and she did not clearly understand the gospel despite being in church most of her life. Along with her pastor they had several conversations with her and, to their delight, she became a Christian! Pray for ongoing wisdom as this ministry develops.

However, the most pressing prayer need currently for the Desboroughs and the Hofmanns is the civil unrest, caused by people’s frustration with the frequent power and water cuts which make life very difficult. Madagascar has been experiencing civil unrest since 25th Sept, with protests, riots, looting and shooting. Antananarivo has been the centre of the unrest but all cities, and even some towns, have experienced violence. Many shops and schools have been shut since then. They don’t know how long it will continue for or what the outcome will be. Pray for peaceful dialogue and change to happen and for safety in the meantime.

8 octobre 2025

Hannah is the Headteacher at Wellspring School in Chad. Since June, American visa applications and renewals to Chad have been refused. This is in response to President Trump’s limitations on visas being granted from certain countries (including Chad) to the USA. This has had a significant impact on mission organisations (and others) working there. Two AIM teams currently do not have workers on the ground, and two more teams will be affected in the coming months. At Wellspring, three of their families are living outside Chad becauseof this situation, and their children are either homeschooling or in other schools for now. There are ‘heart’ elements to this situation – unexpected goodbyes and people unable to be present in the place and with the people they feel called to. There’s also a ‘head’ element – Hannah spent several weeks in June and July helping families who had to leave to get educational assessments and curriculum set up for schooling away from Wellspring. Then there are the ‘what-ifs’ of the coming year – cover for staff members who will be on Home Assignment in 2026, and dropping student numbers if the visa situation doesn’t change. Pray that Hannah will know how to wait well – actively thinking through options, but holding it all humbly and with open hands. The ‘spiritual’ element covers all the above, but in particular, the impact on ministry. Some ministries are ‘paused’ (in the human sense) for now as workers have had to leave, and some look different with remote working and increased reliance on media and technology. Pray for the Holy Spirit to maintain and grow unity, to fight lies and doubt, and to battle any plans of the enemy that are at play there.

7 octobre 2025

In partnership with the local church, Sandrine shares the love of Jesus with North African immigrants in Montréal, Canada. She asked supporters to pray for 40 campers at the children’s camp … and the Lord gave them 42! She asked prayer for many children from Muslim families … and the Lord gave them 19! All of them heard the gospel through the story of the greatest promise made to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus. Sandrine saw the Lord at work during the week, but also how real the battle is, with children who were clearly briefed at home to be resistant to Christian teaching (yet still came anyway … ). Please continue to pray for these children and their families, as the kids’ clubs are held on the first Saturday of every month this year. Pray that God would draw families to himself! And praise the Lord for Anna, who has turned to the Lord and wants to read and understand the Bible and go to church! She continues to read the Bible with Sandrine once a week. Pray that her faith may grow and take root and that she will join a church. Pray too for her two children.

Creative Access

We use ‘Creative Access’ to refer to nations, areas or ministries where there is great hostility towards Christianity and where traditional ‘missionary work’ is not possible. Workers, therefore, need to be ‘creative’ in how they proclaim the liberating news of Jesus Christ. In North Africa alone, 200 million people from 472 unreached people groups are unreached with the gospel. That’s 200 million people unknowingly heading for a Christ-less eternity.

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Church Development

We hope that our church development work with local African churches will lead them to be centres of hope and love that draw more people to Jesus.

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