Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. For those who did not find out through our ministry Facebook page, at the beginning of March, Emily was in the hospital for about a week due to a very serious infection. This was compounded by the fact that when Emily first went to the hospital, I was on a trip, hours away scouting an area for a church plant. However, God was so good in helping me get back home quickly–not an easy thing in Nigeria. Emily is recovering and still has some ways to go before she is “completely recovered,” but she is showing improvement every day. Many of you reached out telling us that you were praying for us, and we cannot thank you enough for that. God really used your prayers.
Despite my scouting trip ending very suddenly with Emily’s sickness, God really blessed the whole trip. I traveled to the city of Calabar in Southern Nigeria, where we will be partnering with a church to start a church plant north of the city. This church plant will be called Salem Independent Baptist Church. In the time I was there, I was able to preach in a school in the same area as the church plant, go soul winning where the church plant will be, and help to encourage the church as they work to start the church plant. Through our efforts in my time there, we saw nearly 40 people saved. We also praise God that since my time there, we have been able to secure a place for the church plant to meet. Lord willing, the church plant will officially launch in the next two months. Please pray for God to bless and use this new church.
We announced in our last prayer letter that we would return to the U.S. for furlough in May. However, due to Emily’s most recent health challenge, we have decided it is necessary to come back in April for health reasons. Emily has had quite a few health challenges over the past couple of years with the many tropical diseases, and this most recent infection took root because her immune system was already seriously diminished. So, we will be coming back to the U.S. earlier than we had planned to help Emily’s health get stronger. Please pray that God will help our entire family to have much stronger health in future years.
Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for our first furlough, especially since it is sooner than what we had planned. There is much to arrange, including a couple of conferences that we will be taking part in. We will soon be involved with running our second Who Will Go? Youth Conference this year. Please pray that God would strengthen us and that God would use this Youth Conference to change lives and call young people to the ministry.
That all the world may know,
Caleb Christiansen
Our Calabar Soul-Winning Team