I want to begin by saying thank you to everyone who sent us extra support for Christmas. I know that times are not easy financially right now Stateside. The fact that you would sacrifice to send something extra means the world to us.
I’ve been leading Simon, a newer member of our church, through Level 1 of our discipleship curriculum. He has been very faithful and ready to learn from the Bible. When Simon and I met for our last lesson of Level 1, he told me that a woman at work had seen him going over his discipleship materials on break. She asked him what it was, and now he is planning on going through them with her, which will include a Gospel presentation. I am very excited, as Simon is one of the first to go through our discipleship program here, and he is already excited to begin teaching others. This is the whole point of the discipleship program—that those discipled would continue on by teaching others. Please continue to pray for Simon and our discipleship program as a whole as it grows and helps our people to grow.
At the end of January, I had an exciting opportunity to travel with my family to a city named Jos about four hours north of us and teach in a new Bible college started there. This college was founded primarily for Hausa speakers, which is the language spoken in the majority of the northern, heavily Muslim, areas of Nigeria. There is such a need for the Gospel to be spread and churches to be planted in the north of Nigeria, and I believe this Bible college will be a huge step in that direction. While I am learning Hausa (thank you for praying—we finally found a Hausa teacher), I am not conversant yet, so I did use an interpreter throughout my teaching. I had the opportunity to teach for nearly two weeks on the church, Charismatics, and Christian leadership. Please pray for the continued success of this college, as well as for the eight students currently there. Many of them come from a Muslim background, and all of them have sacrificed family ties to train for the ministry.
Please pray for Nigeria, as the presidential and national elections will be held on February 25. While we hope for a peaceful transition, there is always the possibility of violence during elections, so please pray that we will have peaceful elections this year. Please pray also for my family and me as we travel. We have several ministry opportunities to help churches across the country. Traveling in Nigeria is always tricky, so please pray for safety and that these opportunities would bear much fruit.
That all the world may know,
Caleb Christiansen
Eight young men who are training in a Hausa-speaking Bible college in Northern Nigeria