We often call August in our ministry “SMITE Month.” August is when we have three weeklong SMITE Camps in three different regions of Nigeria. These camps have been greatly used by God to train young people to reach children for Christ and touch people’s hearts to serve Him more. This year, I had the privilege to go to two of the camps myself, and Emily was able to travel to all three. Emily especially put a lot of work into streamlining and improving the registration process this year. SMITE is scheduled to be expanding into four African countries within the next year. We praise God that across all three Nigerian SMITE Camps, 448 young people came to receive the training to run the Bible Clubs, and nearly 2,000 children were saved! I was able to preach in a couple of different services to the SMITE campers, and there was one service where I preached, along with a Nigerian pastor, where 9 young men surrendered to preach! Between the teenagers coming to receive the Bible Club training, children being saved, and young men surrendering to preach, God is doing a work among the youth in Nigeria, and we are so honored that God is using us to have a part in it.
You may remember earlier this year when we asked for you to pray for our “Who Will Go?” conferences. God has been answering your prayers. We began the Bible college semester this year with three people enrolling as a direct result of these conferences. It is truly encouraging to see how these conferences are impacting the future pastors and leaders of churches in Nigeria. I can’t wait to see how God will continue to work through these conferences in years to come.
September 28-30, we will be hosting our first national Ladies’ Conference with the theme of “Hold Fast.” Please pray that the conference will be well attended by ladies and pastors’ wives coming from across Nigeria. Many pastors’ wives here have no Bible or ministry training and have little fellowship and encouragement with other independent Baptist pastors’ wives. There are some states in Nigeria that only have one or two independent Baptist churches in the entire state. They often feel alone and isolated, so we are praying that this will be a great help to these pastors’ wives especially. This is a large undertaking, and we ask that you please pray with us for wisdom and strength in hosting this conference and for the materials and items needed.
Please pray for Nigeria and its people. Due to the current economic situation, the prices of almost everything have doubled or tripled, while the wages have certainly not. This has put many of the people we serve in our churches in desperate situations, and it has also put a strain on many ministry opportunities as the costs increase. We praise God that He has provided for us and our ministries here, but please pray that God would continue to use us and help us despite any challenges, as we pray the same for you.
That all the world may know,
Caleb Christiansen
SMITE Camp at Our Church