Current Update & Prayer Needs:
Prayer Needs for Benin - August 25, 2025
Hello friends, I wanted to introduce myself and let you know of a change happening at Truth Unleashed Ministries. My name is Mandy Weeks. I was a part of the mission teams that went to Benin last summer, 2024, and also in 2019 when I first met and connected with Pam. During these trips, I felt God place Benin upon my heart, and created the desire in me to continue to be a part of the ministry. I am a member of the TUM board, and God willing, I will be returning to Benin within the next 1-2 years. I have begun participating in the prayer meetings with Josue and Pam, and I am taking over writing up the praises and prayer needs that you are receiving. I am grateful for this opportunity to be a part of the ministry and continue to share how God is moving in Benin.
Praises:
Josue reported a wonderful week!
Sunday was the last day of a 4 day conference with 100 young people.
The Cotonou church youth week is currently taking place with approximately 50 youth. Josue will be speaking to them about how to succeed financially. Praise God for these opportunities to speak into the lives of young people!
Prisca, Isaac, Glory and Gedeon are doing well. Prisca has been busy with preparing for the upcoming school year. This coming week, Josue will speak to the staff at God’s Grace about the vision for the school, and continuing to bring the Gospel into the lives of the children and their families.
Staff training at God’s Grace Hevie is complete. The staff are very excited about opening the new school. Currently there are 20 students registered, although Josue expects more to register this coming week, and for numbers to be closer to 50 students!
Prisca’s health has been good this past week, more stable!
Martha suffered from food poisoning last week, which was quite difficult considering her age. Thank God she is better now, and Benoit is still able to take care of Martha’s needs.
Josue had his first meeting with those in charge of YFC Africa to advise of his exit at the end of August. The conversation went well, and Josue will have another meeting with them on Thursday to finalize his exit. This will allow Josue more time to focus on his ministry in Benin.
The church pastors are all doing very well. Julienne returned yesterday from her trip to Parakou, where she visited the churches and met with the women’s groups. She spent time with the women and helped them understand the purpose of their involvement in the ministry. Josue will be meeting with Julienne about her findings in Parakou and how they can better help the women’s ministry. Pray for God to bless their upcoming meeting and provide the wisdom to serve the women in Parakou!
Pray for:
*God’s Grace for Kids Cotonou and Hevie staff, students, and parents! May God unite the staff! May the parents and children be open to the Gospel, especially those new to the schools!
*Pray for the vision for Hope for Youth that Josue and his team are creating, especially the plans for the schools. Josue’s vision is to create 10 new schools in outlying villages within the next 10 years. Praise God the first of those schools is set to open in Hevie next month! Pray the school funds will also help pay for the opening of more churches!
*Josue will be speaking on Friday to the women's group on a zoom call Friday. This is a follow-up to his previous online speaking engagement with them.
*Pray for Josue’s speaking engagement at the Cotonou church youth week. May each student be reached and fully embrace the Lord!
*Pray for peace in Benin, with the ongoing jihadist activity in the North, as well as the upcoming Spring presidential election. Pray for each of the pastors throughout Benin to remain strong and continue spreading the name of Jesus to the people!
*This past Saturday, Josue was invited to a conference with Christian scholars. He met the man in charge of the doctorate school at the University of Benin. This man challenged Josue to get his doctorate - as Josue already has all this is needed to enroll! Pray for guidance for Josue! As in many countries, a doctorate is required in Benin to teach at university. Could this be an opportunity for a God’s Grace University?
Please also keep Pam in your prayers. She is returning to Mexico on Wednesday for 7 days at Oasis. The focus for this trip will be on the vaccine. We pray for God’s Hands to be upon Pam during her travels, and may wisdom be provided to the doctors and healthcare workers to provide Pam with the exact care her body needs.
***At this time, we are in need of 3 people to fill the roles of Treasurer, Bookkeeper, and someone to handle receipts. If you feel God calling you to one of these roles, please contact Pam. She can share the specifics of each position.***
Prayer Needs for Benin August 13, 2025
Praises:
Josue was pumped on the call, saying life was good!
Prisca is working hard as summer school has ended and she is prepping for the new school year. Josue plans to meet with the Hevie staff 2 more times for trainings for the new school. They heard of new staff members through word of mouth: many applied, two already live there, the third is in process of moving, they are all Christians! Hevie has been known as a witchcraft hotspot, so there is not a strong Christian presence at this point! There are some churches there, but he plans to plant more, so there are more churches than mosques!
He is talking with Steven at Grace Chapel in Denver, to help the team in their preparations. Thirteen team members all from the church are ticketed! They are seeking funds, especially from Grace, to forward so that construction materials can be purchased before they arrive. May evangelism on Thursday through Saturday nights bring in many new believers! Josue is praying there will be a church building, as complete as possible, for the first Sunday service as the trip draws to a close! Josue hopes to discuss with the team what the relationship going forward may be with Grace Chapel: they have been such strong supporters in the past, creating the whole community development project out in the Asroli area in 2018.
On Josue’s 15 year plan, his vision is to create 10 more schools in outlying villages within the first 10 years, and some of the school funds will also help pay for more churches! They are in process of branding the schools, so newcomers will know what they are entering, with the same high standards across the board!
Pastor Esdras’s oldest son has passed all of his exams to end 12 th grade, and will proceed to university classes! His daughter Gloria, who was so seriously injured in that moto accident several years ago, is now walking well completely unsupported! Praise the Lord for this healing!
Pastor Emmanuel’s wife, son and daughter are doing well, after his death this spring.
Pray for:
*election for spring, ’26 is beginning to heat up. The current president has said that he will leave office, but Josuedoesn’t know if he can be believed. The ruling party and the opposition are struggling with each other at best, but the opposition party might not be as strong as it has been in the past. Many who have been “forced out” of Benin are in nearby countries and are using social media to try to make an impact. May God give this country the rulers He wants them to have! Pray for peace across the land!
*Part of this president’s story: The current president’s wife started a school last year: tuition for a year is $4000 USD! Obviously this is for the rich only! But the Minister of Education announced last week that the school will be supported with state funds, which means tax dollars, so the poor are paying for the rich to receive this education! They will be teaching the French curriculum path, so not even held as accountable as Benin students are. But will also be tested with the French tests, which are less rigorous: they don’t even believe in the system they have enforced across the country! Josue’s students at God’s Grace are held accountable for stronger standards than the normal public schools, and yes they are succeeding at 100%! (When Isaac first started his classes in the US, he thought it was so much easier here, he had so much more access to his teachers to receive help outside of class so he has built great relationships with his teachers!) The parents of God’s Grace’s 250 students in Cotonou are able to pay the fees needed to support the school!
* Jihadist activity continues up north, as villages are attacked. There is still no government response or even talking to the people of Benin about this. But stories are now coming out on social media! Josue’s pastors are not backing down at all: they know the only way to get these Muslim people to stop is to bring them to Jesus! They have more skills and desire now than every before and are not backing down one inch! Josue hopes to hold a pastor conference by next June in Parakou to keep these hearts on fire in their work! They want to develop more friendship evangelism and get social response stirred for the needs of the people. Please pray for the opening of God’s Grace for Kids in Parakou for next fall! Sponsorships per child will need to be implements in these outer villages to help the parents with fees. Josue and Rebecca talked about this a great deal on the trip to Spain, but no plan in place yet!
*The pastors across the Bethel network of Josue’s churches are doing well, but always remember to lift them up!
*Pray for Josue’s speaking engagements: may the Holy Spirit lead him to lead his flock! This week he will share with women across a zoom call on 8/15 as well as to his business people connection group on 8/16. Please pray that a new connection with a global leadership group called C12 (Christ plus 12 disciples) can develop quickly to help Josue receive funding, especially to start these schools! Look up C12 on the web: promoting very interesting partnership between strong, successful business leaders and their Christian principles being incorporated more fully into their business models!
*All of Josue’s schools will be restarting mid-September, including Hope Dressing and Hope Technology, and God’s Grace for Kids Hevie! The next class at the Farm school will start early October. David, a graduate of Hope Agri, is now the onsite manager and really liking it! This relieves Josue from much of the responsibility there so he will have time for “more ministry opportunities!”
*Cotonou Youth week will be from 8/24-30. Pray for each student who attends to deepen his walk with the Lord, or turn and fully embrace Him!
* Prisca has been teaching in the Glo church for several evenings through Sunday with Julienne. Julienne will continue traveling, visiting the ladies of Save and Parakou.
*Pastor Armelle is doing very well in Porto Novo. Her son is growing up, being born when his sisters were finishing high school and she was completing her training to become a pastor. Josue definitely sees God’s calling on her life to be a full pastor! Her husband Enoch is also a pastor.
*Josue is making progress on his book about financial peace: he can see now he will need a publisher and editor. He is praying for more strength and wisdom to convey his thoughts. He is writing it in French but feels he can also translate it into English!
*Glory has begun her internship at a food production company in the marketing department for one month. Then she will have some time off from school: the father/daughter trip plan will still come about!